[APWG] Forest Stewardship Plans removing non-native invasive plants.

[ialm at erols.com]

Most states have a program similar to Maryland's for landowners 
to preserve their land or restore it to its natural state for 
future generations? For doing this, they get a property tax 
reduction on the land, assessed on its value set at about 
$150 per acre. Some plans consist entirely of removing 
non-native invasive plants.


Forest Stewardship Plans Offer Landowners Tax 
Breaks—and More 

Landowners, do you want to preserve your land or restore 
it to its natural state for future generations? For doing this, 
you can get financial assistance, including a property tax 
reduction on your land, assessed on its value set at about $150 
per acre. The current value depends on the current market 
based assessment. 

Here’s the catch: Working with a state forester, 
you must develop a Forest Stewardship Plan, and the 
Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) must 
approve it. After DNR approves the plan, you become part of the 
Maryland forest stewardship program. All aspects of 
forest resource management are considered by DNR, 
and—the good news is that you do not have to harvest 
trees. Some plans, for example, consist entirely of 
removing non-native invasive plants. 

Another option is submitting a forest management plan to the 
Sate Tax office which will give the landowner a tax reduced 
assessment called the forest management agreement. The 
assessment is about $50 per acre higher The landowner 
doesn't have to pay any fees for entering either. 

For either program there are inspections required too, 
every 5 years for the FCMA and every 3 years or the 
Forest Management Agreement 

The options offered by DNR for forest resource 
management include fish and wildlife, natural heritage 
and recreation, soil and water, and forest products. 
The natural heritage and recreation aspect, for example, 
focuses upon restoration of mature old growth with 
natural biodiversity and resulting ecosystem services 
(such as water retention) to prevent downstream flooding, 
crown-fire control, and climate-change mitigation. 

Expert Help Required 

The stewardship program has a few eligibility requirements, 
but the most critical consideration is to select a forester 
trained in ecosystem management and conservation 
biology to include alien invasive species control, 
fragmentation theory, herbaceous plants, endangered 
species, and non-game biology. Most foresters who 
write plans are trained primarily in forest products. 
Your forester should be primarily trained in ecology 
and be supportive of your values. 

Here’s what DNR has to say about the topic 
(www.dnr.state.md.us/forests/fcmp.pdf). "Any owner 
of 5 or more contiguous acres of forest land may enter 
the Forest Conservation and Management Program. 
 
the forester, with assistance from other natural resource 
professionals, must match the objectives of the owner 
to the biological requirements of the forest. Your 
acceptance in the Forest Conservation and Management 
Program will depend upon the specific prescription of 
stewardship practices
 You must have your forest 
stewardship plan prepared by a registered professional 
forester [state, private, consulting, or industrial] and 
approved by the Director of the Forest Service. The 
plan must contain a detailed schedule of practices to 
be accomplished and their completion date." 

The Tax Break 

Landowners also can obtain a Forest Conservation 
Management Agreement (FCMA) through the Maryland 
Department of Assessments and Taxation. DNR 
describes it as “a legal agreement recorded in land 
records, binding for fifteen years, and renewable for 
a minimum of five years.” 

With an FCMA, the landowner can add or delete acreage, 
add or delete owners, and sell all or part of the parcel. 
In return, says DNR, “the property is assessed at 
[~] $150/acre regardless of its location in Maryland. The 
assessment is frozen at that level for the fifteen years 
of the agreement. The FCMA involves fees for developing 
the management plan, entering the program, and 
periodic inspections.” 

For more information on this topic, go to 
www.naturalresources.umd.edu. 




Sierra Club Activist Tool Kit 

Citizens across Maryland frequently observe a new or ongoing threat 
to their forests and other natural areas. Their neighboring woods or 
stream is often being destroyed. The Sierra Club receives enquiries 
at to what the citizens can do to stop or reduce the destruction of 
their favorite woods, meadows, wetlands or creeks. The Sierra Club 
Activist Tool Kit has been prepared to provide citizens with a wide 
variety of tools that have assisted us successfully across the state. 
The regional examples and case histories are models of comparable 
programs across the State of Maryland. For instance, examples are 
provided for Transfer Development Rights in Montgomery, Charles 
and Calvert Counties which varies in effectiveness across the State. 

One of the most successful approaches has been to save an area before 
it is owned by developers. One of the most common and unnecessary 
causes of transfer of natural areas to development has been lack 
of awareness that there are many ways to reduce property taxes to 
affordable levels. This is particularly important when descendents 
receive land their parents wanted to preserve but have difficulty 
in paying the inheritance and property taxes. 

After developers own the land, natural areas recognized for their 
high quality have been purchased by organizations such as The 
Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Lands and by the 
State of Maryland as Program Open Space. We have more successfully 
reduced, rather than stopped, the impact of development elsewhere. 
When citizens investigate actual adherence to regulations they 
greatly increase compliance with the law. A dramatic example has 
been citizens reporting inadequate placement of silt fences to 
prevent sedimentation from entering our water ways. Maryland 
Department of the Environment (MDE) officials typically investigate 
in a few hours and the developer corrects the problem in the same 
day. 

Threats to natural areas not being developed include deforestation,
invasion by non-native invasive species such as Kudzu, water and air 
pollution, erosion, storm water and sedimentation. 

Tool Kit 

Programs to avoid development: 

Conservation Easements 
Program Open Space 
Forest Conservation Plans 
Transfer Development Rights 
Conservation Reserve Program 
Survey and Assessment tools: 
Endangered species and rare habitat surveys 
Wetland Surveys 
Compliance with sections 404 and 401 of the Clean Water Act 
Compliance with NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination 
System) permits 
Establish and Maintain Greenways to Avoid Fragmentation 
Smart growth regulations: 
Zoning regulations 
Smart growth alternatives to new highways 

Programs to reduce impact of development: 

LID Low Impact Development 
Stormwater retention regulations 

Threats to natural areas not being developed: 

Certification by the Forest Stewardship Council program (FSC) 
Non-native invasive species control 
Erosion and sediment control 
Respond effectively to damage caused by off-road vehicles 
Respond effectively to damage caused by deer browse. 



Part 2 Enclosures: 

Part 2a Programs to avoid development: 

Conservation Easements 
Conservancy for Charles County (See web site) An excellent article on 
conservation easements and donations of natural areas appears in the
spring, 2007, issue of NATURE CONSERVANCY vol. 57 No. 1. on page 16. 
LAWS FOR THE LAND, New Federal Tax Law helps Families Preserve 
Their Properties. 

Program Open Space 
Consult www.dnr.state.md.us/greenways/greenprint/ to see if the natural
area proposed to be purchased is already recognized as a priority area. 
If it is not, conduct a survey with biologists for high quality natural 
features including wetlands. Offer to compensate the biologists if 
possible since many of these individuals, while often volunteering, 
are swamped with such requests. Compensation will enable the field of
available experts to expand for all the citizens of Maryland. 

See www.dnr.state.md.us/pos.html to persue the application process with 
local government agencies. 


Part 2b Programs to reduce impact of development: 
________________________________________ 

What do most citizens do when their neighborhood or environment is 
threatened by a development project? 

Many react by hiring a lawyer. 

Yet studies just completed by CEDS show that this is seldom the best 
first step. The reason is that most citizens resolve their concerns 
through a negotiated agreement with the developer or regulatory 
officials; not by stopping a project. The key to a successful 
negotiation lies in identifying reliable ways of resolving citizen 
concerns that allow the applicant to get most of what they want. Few 
attorneys have the technical expertise to identify these equitable 
solutions. 

A new CEDS factsheet, Strategies for Winning Land Development Battles, 
describes how citizens can dramatically increase their rate of success 
while greatly reducing lawyer and expert witness fees. The factsheet 
is posted at the top of the left-hand column of the CEDS website at: 

www.ceds.org. 

CEDS research shows that only 1% of all contested development projects 
are stopped. In those cases where excessive impacts cannot be 
designed away, a lawyer is frequently critical. Yet not all attorneys 
are equally equipped to represent citizens in these disputes. 
However, CEDS can help here too through our nationwide network of 135 
attorneys who specialize in representing citizens in land use, zoning, 
and environmental cases. 

I would deeply appreciate it if you would consider mentioning the 
factsheet to citizens who contact your group about a development 
issue. 

To see an example of one of the CEDS studies referenced above visit: 

www.ceds.org/BaltimoreCounty/A Citizens Perspective on the 
Baltimore County Development Review Process.pdf 


Richard D. Klein 
Community & Environmental Defense Services 
811 Crystal Palace Court 
Owings Mills, Maryland 21117 
410-654-3021 
410-654-3028 Fax 
443-421-5964 Mobile 
Web Page: www.ceds.org/ 


Establish and Maintain Greenways to Avoid Fragmentation: 

Example for the Mattawoman Watershed in Prince Georges and Charles 
Counties. Testimony on the Cross County Connector Extension proposal. 


The critical importance of preventing habitat fragmentation by 
maintaining greenways is now widely documented and understood. Living 
forms native to the area, both animals and plants, depend on the 
availability of sufficient space and food sources and shifting 
locations of habitat and food sources in order to be able to thrive 
and even to survive. Natural areas on opposite sides of Billingsley 
Road and on the proposed route north of Billingsley Road as shown on 
the attached map represent a cumulatively significant contribution in 
this regard, not only because the road is presently relatively narrow 
in width between these natural areas of significant size, but also 
because of their proximity to other publicly held areas in western 
Charles County that have been restricted from development, including 
the Mattawoman Wildlands and the Mattawoman Natural Area. 

General management principles include providing wildlife migration 
corridors for re-colonization between natural areas following local 
extirpation due to seasonal, man-made, or climatic stresses. Stresses 
include natural disturbances such as the mosaic pattern of storm 
events, drought, diseases, fire, competitors, predators, prey, 
succession, floods and seepages. Some populations of plants and 
animals are "sources" of individuals which migrate out and replenish 
other populations known as "sinks". In addition, sufficient space is 
needed for large animals with large home ranges. 

For example, in the general region proposed for the Cross County 
Connector Extension spotted salamanders utilize vernal pools and ponds 
that are temporary over time. Many semi-aquatic insects, salamanders, 
frogs, snakes and turtles utilize aquatic and terrestrial habitats in 
their life cycle. The buffer zone for 95% of a population of 
salamanders would extend 534 feet from the wetland edge into the 
closed canopy terrestrial habitat. 

The maximum corridor width which most birds and many mammals, plants 
and invertebrates cross roads sufficiently to reproduce and maintain 
populations is two lanes. The proposal to widen the road as a cross 
county connector and build a 4 lane northern road has a cumulative 
impact which requires being addressed in an Environmental Impact 
Statement. Section A and B harbor high quality natural areas. I saw a 
dead raccoon road kill at Section C today, April 26, 2005. Sections E 
and F have some legal protections as Waters of the State and Wetlands 
of Special Concern. However, all environmental impacts including 
terrestrial, as well as aquatic, are legally required to be studied 
in the environmental impact studies, not just those requiring actual 
environmental protection or mitigation. Fully informed decision making 
is required by law. About half of Section G has high quality natural 
area on both sides of Billingsley Road and two thirds of Section H. 

A forest reserve primarily requires protection of the forest interior 
for birds including the area sensitive species and wide ranging 
species such as raptors. 6,000 acres may be the minimum that supports 
all forest breeding species in the Mid-Atlantic. This roughly 
includes Chapman Forest and the contiguous Mattawoman Natural Area, 
Wildlands, etc. 

"The Mattawoman is forty times more productive of anadromous fish than 
the seven other Chesapeake tributaries repeatedly monitored by DNR" 
including blueback and alewife herring in Chapman Forest. Lack of, or 
inadequate culvert placements at stream crossings block fish passage 
and isolate them from runs. 

The proposed solution to fragmentation is to maintain and establish 
greenways between natural areas and to maintain corridors such as 
roads and trails as narrow as feasible. Native plant vegetative 
covers along roads would follow the guidance found in "Roadside Use of 
Native Plants", Bonnie Harper-Lore, et al, Federal Highway 
Administration. 


Marc Imlay, PhD 

Board member of the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council, 
Vice president of the Maryland Native Plant Society 
Chair of the Biodiversity and Habitat Stewardship Committee 
for the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club. 

Part 2c Threats to natural areas not being developed: 

Certification by the Forest Stewardship Council program (FSC): 

http://www.audubon.org/chapter/ny/ny/PDFs/forestry_manual.pdf 
is a good regional example of carrying out a Forest Stewardship 
Council certification program. 


Maryland Native Plant Society 
P.O. Box 4877 
Silver Spring, Maryland 20914 
www.mdflora.org 

February 14, 2007 

The Honorable Martin O'Malley 
Office of the Governor 
State of Maryland 
100 State Circle 
Annapolis, Maryland 21401-1925 

Dear Governor O'Malley, 

The mission of the Maryland Native Plant Society is to increase 
awareness and appreciation of native plants and their habitats, 
leading to their conservation and restoration. We are contacting you 
about measures that the State of Maryland can undertake to conserve 
public lands and natural resources. 

We want to encourage the State to manage public lands in a way that 
benefits both the public and the natural resources contained on those 
lands. Projects that alter public lands, such as road-building or 
logging, may remove native plants, allow the encroachment of invasive 
species, degrade the streams and remove wildlife habitat. Before 
alterations to public lands are made, analysis of loss of forest 
"services" should be conducted, and the public should have an 
opportunity to participate in decisions that affect public lands. 

If after analysis and public input, it is determined that logging 
public lands is in the best interests of the public and forest 
management, logging should take place only after certification by the 
Forest Stewardship Council program (FSC). This certification program 
is supported and approved by major environmental organizations. The 
Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI) is another certification program 
controlled primarily by the forest industry and, in our judgment, 
should not be used as a valid alternative for certification. 

We would encourage the passage of legislation to change the practice 
of the Department of Natural Resources' retention of revenues from 
logging contracts. The current situation constitutes a conflict of 
interest for an agency that is supposed to protect natural resources. 

The Maryland Native Plant Society has a particular interest in old 
growth forests in Maryland. DNR has already inventoried these rare 
areas, and they should be designated Wildlands to permanently protect 
them. 

Finally, we have been encouraged by the adoption of Green 
Infrastructure Master Plans in Prince George's and Anne Arundel 
Counties, and would like all of the counties to follow suit. A Green 
Infrastructure Master Plan gives guidance to county planning and 
zoning departments so that important ecological areas will be 
protected from development. Anything the State can do to support 
local Green Infrastructure plans would be welcome. 

We look forward to a partnership with the State of Maryland in better 
protecting the natural resources found on public lands in our State. 

Sincerely, 



Cris Fleming, President 
Maryland Native Plant Society 
 






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