Deer Creek

Andrew "Chap" Cummings has lived his 90 years in the same historic Harford County home overlooking Deer Creek, and he has worked the land for most of his life. "From every window he looks out, he has a fabulous view of the creek and the valley," said his daughter, Susan Cummings of Bowie. To preserve that view and safeguard the land along Sandy Hook Road in Street from encroaching residential development, Andrew Cummings has placed all 91.5 acres in the state's Rural Legacy program. "Dad was born there, worked hard all his life there, and he wants to keep this land in farming," his daughter said.

A new study showing the Deer Creek watershed to be a vital natural resource, but one that is vulnerable to development pressures, will boost Harford County's efforts to secure state land preservation money, county officials say. About 40,000 acres, slightly less than half of the 86,000 acres in the watershed, are eligible for preservation funding through the state's Rural Legacy program. Most of that acreage is in the eastern area, near Churchville and Darlington. Because the competition for developable land closer to Bel Air is intense, the county wants additional funds if it is to acquire land for preservation, county officials say. Officials in Harford, which received $2 million last year in Rural Legacy funds, want the state to expand the amount of watershed land eligible for state preservation money, extending the boundary north to the Pennsylvania line and placing the entire Harford area of the watershed in the program.

At age 71, Jack Streb isn't one to get swept off his feet, go off the deep end or get in over his head. But he checked all the boxes late last month when a short but intense cloud burst turned his Deer Creek shad fishing trip into a full-contact sport. Luckily, except for a sore tailbone, the Pasadena angler survived and - miraculously - so did his fancy fly rod and reel, thanks to the keen eyes of other anglers. Streb and a buddy got to their favorite Harford County shad site about 8 a.m. April 28 and staked out the landmark big rock by the pumping station.

After two years of sampling streams, cataloging aquatic life, and monitoring runoff from farms and homes throughout the Deer Creek watershed in Harford County, researchers who conducted a federally funded study have deemed the area healthy and proposed a plan to keep it that way as the county develops. Harford officials unveiled the plan this week, a nearly 100-page document that calls for effective farm management practices, buffer plantings along streams, land preservation and public education as key tools in the effort to protect the 171-square-mile watershed.

Four generations of the Hopkins family have lived on a Darlington farm within earshot of an Army test site on Aberdeen Proving Ground. Unfazed by the noise nearby, the family raised dairy and beef cattle and grew crops on Priestford Farm. But when retirement loomed, the generation that currently owns the farm considered selling the land for development. Instead, a rare partnership between the Army and the county government has resulted in the preservation of the family's 163 acres along Deer Creek.

A $2 million state grant will help Harford County preserve more farmland along Deer Creek and the Susquehanna River and ultimately protect the Chesapeake Bay. "It is the most we have ever received in any one year and brings to $7 million the amount we have received from Rural Legacy," said William D. Amoss, manager of the county's agricultural preservation program. "We could hypothetically add 200 more acres and fill in a lot of blanks on our preservation map." The state awarded more than $26 million last week to preservation projects across Maryland, including Harford's Lower Deer Creek valley.

1840: CANAL COMMERCE An article in the Baltimore American on May 16, 1840, shows the importance of the then recently opened Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal to Harford County. "Yesterday four canal boats arrived here in Baltimore from Havre de Grace," the article states. "Their arrival constituted the coming of a new era in the commerce of our city." The opening of the canal also constituted a new era for the growing industrial area in Harford called Stafford, located along Deer Creek.

On May 6, 2006, VERRELL ANDERSON of Harford County, formerly of Dundalk, beloved mother of Nancy Fleming of Bel Air and son-in-law Charles Fleming, loving grandmother of Charles, Jr., Brian and Ann Fleming; devoted great-grandmother of Jessica, Grant and Aubrey Fleming and family and friends. Verrell was a lifetime member of the Dundalk American Legion Auxiliary Post #38, Dundalk Historical Society, Sparrows Point high School Alumni Association and Ateaze Senior Center of Dundalk. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, May 20, 2006 at 1:00 P.M. at the Deer Creek United Methodist Church, 2729 Chestnut Hill Rd., Forest Hill, MD 21050.