HARVEY -- The Nature Conservancy of Maryland has bought 161 acres in the shadow of Sideling Hill -- where a highway cut is an unusual geological attraction for tourists -- to help protect one of the state's most pristine and least disturbed ecosystems.
The tract, in the Sideling Hill Creek watershed in western Washington County, was bought from Thomas and Mary Creek, who will continue to live on another parcel not purchased by the nonprofit group, said Courtney Shepardson, a conservancy spokeswoman.
Protection of the Sideling Hill Creek watershed is one component of the conservancy's "Campaign for the Chesapeake Rivers," a $10 million effort to protect Maryland's four most biologically significant and least disturbed waterways. The others are Nanticoke River and Nassawango Creek, both on the Eastern Shore, and Nanjemoy Creek in Southern Maryland.
Steve Bunker, the conservancy's director of protection, said the Sideling Hill Creek watershed is home to rare plants and creatures, including the endangered Allegheny sloe, a type of wild plum, and the wildflower harperella, an aquatic flower. Two endangered species of freshwater mussels also can be found in the watershed.
Mr. Bunker said the healthy populations of these species indicate the pristine water quality of Sideling Hill Creek, which starts in the mountain slopes of southwestern Pennsylvania and meanders about 20 miles through Maryland before emptying into the Potomac River.
The Creek tract, he said, is near another conservancy-owned parcel, a 195-acre preserve. The Creek parcel includes frontage on the Bear Branch, Sideling Hill Creek's largest tributary, and the land supports the largest-known shale barren -- a dry desert-like natural community that supports many plants -- in the Bear Branch watershed.
Purchase of the property will help maintain water quality downstream in Sideling Hill Creek. Former farmland along the creek, taken out of production by the Creek family, will be allowed to convert to forest, providing a buffer this section of the branch now lacks, said Rodney Bartgis, the conservancy's Mid-Appalachian Bioreserve Manager.
Mr. Bunker said the conservancy is looking to preserve other land in the watershed through purchase, voluntary conservation programs with landowners and by buying conservation easements -- in which property owners sell development rights to the nonprofit group.
"We're not trying to buy everything in the watershed but we'd like to protect as much of the corridor as we can," he said. "Our real focus is the creek, the flood plain and some of the uplands."