In what would be the second-largest land preservation deal in state history, Gov. Parris N. Glendening's administration is scrambling to protect almost 25,000 acres of forest land on the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland before it is sold to developers - and before the governor leaves office next month.
The purchase of land and development rights, which administration officials say would greatly benefit Maryland's ecological and economic interests, would cost the state about $22 million. Officials say the money exists in the budget under conservation programs.
But the purchase deal - which would prove an impressive finale to the governor's 294,000-acre preservation legacy - faces an uncertain future. The Board of Public Works must approve the proposal, and some key state lawmakers registered their opposition to the plan in a letter yesterday to board members.
The legislators say they are worried about spending money on land conservation at a time when the state budget is $1.8 billion in the red. Mindful of Maryland's fiscal morass, the governor and administration officials are selling the deal as a way to preserve jobs, not just trees and endangered creatures.
"This type of model proposal that protects our water, protects our land, and perhaps more importantly during recessionary times, preserves an integral part of the Eastern Shore's second largest industry, makes this a proposal that will make generations of Marylanders proud," said Glendening spokesman Charles F. Porcari.
Some privately say the deal is evidence of Glendening trying to cement his environmental reputation before his term ends. Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has made it clear that land conservation will not be his priority.
But administration officials say the deal's urgency has nothing to do with Glendening or politics. Rather, they say, it took nearly two years for the deal to come together, and the company that owns the property is now ready to sell.
Michael J. Nelson, assistant secretary for capital programs at the state Department of Natural Resources, said his agency hopes to present the plan to the Board of Public Works at its next meeting Dec. 18.
The board consists of three members: Glendening, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp.
Schaefer yesterday had not been briefed on the proposal. But Schaefer spokesman Michael Golden said the comptroller, an avowed Glendening enemy, is loath to approve such deals. "He would prefer, I believe, to defer these kinds of spending until the state finds itself in a more economically viable period," Golden said.
That likely leaves Kopp as the key vote. "It looks like a marvelous project," she said yesterday, "but it also looks like an awful lot of money." Kopp, who must be reappointed by the General Assembly next year, added that she would carefully consider legislators' concerns.
The 25,000 acres is the largest private landholding in the state, said Nelson. Owned by the Glatfelter Pulp Wood Co., based in Spring Grove, Pa., the land is sprinkled over seven counties, but is concentrated mostly in Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester. Some of the land abuts forest land the state manages, making it particularly attractive to DNR. The plan is to buy nearly 4,000 of those acres outright. The state would purchase development rights to the rest - a much less expensive prospect than buying the land.
DNR Secretary J. Charles Fox said the 25,000 acres, "by all of the measures that we use, ranks at the very top" in terms of ecological importance. It is home to rare, threatened and endangered species, wetlands, and 31 miles of streams that feed into the Chesapeake Bay.
The deal is being negotiated by the Conservation Fund, an Arlington, Va.-based group that helped broker Maryland's largest land purchase in 1999 - 58,000 acres of forest and wetlands on the Eastern Shore formerly owned by Chesapeake Forest Products Co.
The fund would buy all the land from Glatfelter, then resell the nearly 4,000 acres and development rights to the state. The roughly 21,000 acres the state isn't buying would be sold to the Forestland Group, a company based in Chapel Hill, N.C., that manages timberland.
David Sutherland, senior vice president of the fund, said the deal depends on approvals from state officials and Glatfelter's board of directors.
The 25,000 acres is just one piece of a national trend, Sutherland said. More and more logging companies are consolidating and selling off their land; an estimated 10 million acres of forest is expected to come on the market in the next decade.
In Maryland, forestry is a $2 billion business, Sutherland said. It is also the Eastern Shore's second-largest industry, after poultry.
The deal would cost the state about $22 million, said Nelson. The legislature has appropriated $20 million to DNR for land purchase through Project Open Space and the governor's Greenprint program, he said. The state is negotiating with the Fund to figure out how to pay for the remaining $2 million.
But while they might like to save forests and logging jobs, some state lawmakers say this is not the time. Although they do not have authority to strike down the deal, House and Senate budget committees have the right to review Greenprint proposals in excess of $2 million. Typically, the Board of Public Works does not approve deals strongly opposed by the General Assembly.
Yesterday the Assembly's two fiscal leaders - House Appropriations Committee Chairman Howard P. Rawlings and Senate Budget and Tax Committee Chairwoman Barbara A. Hoffman - jointly sent a letter to the comptroller and treasurer explaining their resistance.
"It's not going to happen," Rawlings said yesterday. "We still might need monies like Open Space to help us address budget deficits and help us make sure essential programs are funded."
Hoffman agreed. "I don't think we can afford to spend all that money in one spot," she said. "I don't think it's fair."
Even an Eastern Shore lawmaker was skeptical the deal could be pushed through. "It's millions of dollars at a time we might not be able to afford it," said Del. Bennett Bozman, a Worcester Democrat.
But some lawmakers are less worried about funding than they are about overdevelopment. "It's the quintessential Greenprint proposal," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat. "Some of it will be virgin forest and some of it will be forested, instead of being sold for townhouses and whatnot."
Sun staff writers David Nitkin and Chris Guy contributed to this article.