Support Program Open Space

What's New

Each year, legislators propose diverting funds away from Program Open Space. Environment Maryland, together with the Partners for Open Space coalition, fights to make sure money collected for land preservation is really used to preserve land. This year, Program Open Space received all of its proper funding, with $109 million dedicated to land conservation. Gov. O'Malley has pledged not to raid this pot of money for unrelated purposes.

How You Can Help

Please send an e-mail to Gov. O'Malley thanking him for giving Program Open Space all of its proper funding.

Brief Summary

Rolling hills in Western Maryland...the jagged coastline of the Eastern Shore...Montgomery County’s agricultural reserve...historic sites in Central Maryland—this beautiful state is home to many incredible places that are important to our environment, our heritage and our quality of life.

Unfortunately, development threatens many of our most important natural areas. From Terrapin Run in Allegany County to Snow Hill in Worcester County, our farms, forests and fields are becoming housing developments and strip malls, paving over our natural heritage and polluting the Chesapeake Bay.

Maryland is nationally known for preserving half a million acres and creating 4,000 parks through Program Open Space. The state collects money through the real estate transfer tax to fund the program, which permanently protects valuable natural areas.

In recent years, however, much of the money collected in the name of land conservation has been used for other purposes. From 2003-2005, $400 million was diverted from the program. Those funds could have saved more than 100,000 acres.

Collecting money for one purpose and using it for another is dishonest. And, when conservation funding is gutted, we lose places like the 668-acre Sycamore Hill Farm in Cecil County, which a developer has proposed to buy for a sprawling subdivision. Farmland across the state is being lost at an alarming rate. Last year, 32 farmers in Kent and Talbot Counties tried to save their farms with conservation funding. Only 10 farms were actually protected due to a lack of funding.