State officials agreed Wednesday to buy more than 1,000 acres of pine forest and tidal marsh in Dorchester County, bringing to more than 25,000 acres the total amount of land acquired for preservation under the O'Malley administration.
The Board of Public Works - made up of Gov. Martin O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp - approved paying $3.1 million for five privately owned tracts west of the Fishing Bay Wildlife Management Area. The parcels, owned by the Dorchester timber firm Besley and Rodgers Inc., are to become part of the state's Chesapeake Forest Lands, allowing continued timbering while also providing public access and preserving wildlife habitat for ducks, eagles and federally endangered Delmarva fox squirrels. The Conservation Fund, a national land preservation nonprofit, helped the Department of Natural Resources to close the deal and was paid a $94,000 broker's fee.
After negotiating with the owner, the state paid nearly $200,000 less than the appraised value of the tracts, according to Meredith Lathbury, the DNR's chief of land acquisition. An administration spokesman noted that the state has acquired 25,388 acres of land in O'Malley's first three years, five times the amount of land bought under his predecessor, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the state's continued spending on land preservation during the budget crisis, arguing that those funds ought to be diverted to ease layoffs and furloughs. O'Malley has refused to cut back, pointing out that land is being preserved for posterity and that prices are relatively low in the current real estate slump.
