Dashboard Nat Res Land Conservation in Maryland - General Assembly of Maryland Department of Legislative Services

Summary

Maryland has a longstanding tradition of land conservation. This includes not only the protection of agricultural land and woodland, but the protection of open space and open space resources. State land conservation spending is allocated among several programs such as Program Open Space, the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, the Rural Legacy Program, and the Maryland Environmental Trust. As of June 2022, Maryland had over 1 million acres of land under easement.

The primary source of funding for these programs is the State property transfer tax; therefore, the amount of funding available for the programs depends largely on the real estate market. However, in recent years, the amount of funding available for these programs has not only been impacted by a fluctuating housing market, but by the extent to which transfer tax revenues have been transferred to the State’s general fund in order to help address budget deficits.