A national asylum for wildlife aims to protect the forest habitat in the southern part of Maryland – Maryland Matter

“This is one of the most parting landscapes on the west coast of Chesapik Bay,” Dunn said, “and he faces many threats. Our forests continue to become about 54 acres per day, and over 6 million acres of forests and wetland resources in our waters remain vulnerable to development. “

The new refuge, added Dunn, “offers the opportunity to stop and even turn the loss of biodiversity in this important place and in a way that fully integrates and respects the leadership and rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.”

In 2010, the planning of the new refuge began in a high gear in 2023, when the US Fish and Wildlife Service officially offered it and sought public feedback. Initially, federal officials said they wanted to keep up to 30,000 acres over the next 30 years. But shortly thereafter, they increased this goal by another 10,000 acres.

Over the years, wildlife biologists have identified more than 169,000 acres of ecologically valuable land in the area of ​​five districts, which are currently unprotected by development. The best of these parcels is just over 40,000 acres, explained Dan Murphy, the head of the restoration and conservation of habitats at the Chesapeake Bay field of the Wildlife Service.

The conviction will focus on the acquisition of land from wishing donors or sellers from the Bowie region to the south to Solomoni along the Lower River Patuxenth, as well as in the catchments of four tributaries of the Potomak River: Nanjemo and Matavoman Rivers, Run and Makintosh Runn S

Instead of a neighboring asylum, employees of the Wildlife Service plan a landscape refuge, similar to the national asylum of the wildlife of the Rapahanok River in Virginia. Established in 1996, this refuge covers about 10,000 acres in a series of mostly unbound tracts in five counties.

The management of the new refuge will so far fall on the staff of 13,000 acres of Patuxent Research asylum in the middle between Baltimore and the Colombia County.

The areas aimed at protecting in the port of the southern part of the port of Maryland, shrinking habitat for waterfowl, coastal birds, forest and lawn -dependent bird S

The first acquisition of the asylum is a tract of 31 acres of the Nanzhemoi Peninsula, which was donated by conservation conservation.

“The conservation of nature first began to protect the Earth along the Nanjemoy Creek almost 50 years ago in 1978, when we acknowledged how important and special this landscape was for local wildlife and regional biodiversity,” says Kahlil Catering, CEO of Maryland and DC Head of Conservation.

One of the most deceived and undeveloped areas in the upper coastal plane of Maryland, the peninsula also has local US sites and other places of cultural and historical importance. The conservation began to acquire land there in the 1970s to protect what was then the largest big blue heron of a rookie on the east coast north of Florida. The birds abandoned the rookie about 15 years ago, but the conservation continued to work there to save the habitat for the federally endangered Wedgemussels dwarf, said spokesman Matt Kane.

The conservation plans to donate additional plots for a total value of over 300 acres, but Kane said he will maintain much of his Nanjemoy reserve for now, partly to continue to build joint relations with Piscataway root communities.