Days before the state decides whether to approve a plan to preserve nearly 25,000 acres of woodlands -- the second-largest land deal in the state's history -- Maryland's forestry industry is grudgingly backing the $22 million proposal, even though they say it couldn't have come at a worse time.
Some remain skeptical of promises by conservationists and state officials, who have been negotiating for two years, that the arrangement will sustain forestry while it limits development and improves Chesapeake Bay water quality.
Leaders of the Association of Forest Industries, which represents more than 100 businesses from Garrett County to the Eastern Shore, nevertheless say they can't look a gift horse in the mouth, mindful of the state's looming $1.8 billion budget shortfall and reluctant to ruffle feathers in Gov.-elect Robert Ehrlich Jr.'s incoming administration.
"The bottom line is how can we really be opposed to an effort that helps secure and promotes sustainable forestry for the long term," said William R. Miles, the association's executive director. "Our industry has always been scared to death of government, but we all know trees are vital for our industry and the environment. Granted, the timing is terrible, but it's not us driving this train."
The complex purchase of land and development rights on parcels in seven counties, but concentrated on the Eastern Shore, has been hailed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening's administration and environmental groups.
Supporters say the deal with Glatfelter Pulp Wood Co., a 137-year-old firm based in York, Pa., offers a one-time opportunity to set aside forest land that will continue producing timber, while preserving huge tracts as natural buffers for excess nutrients that imperil the bay.
The deal was worked out by the state's Department of Natural Resources and the Conservation Fund, the Virginia-based group that brokered a 58,000-acre purchase from Chesapeake Forest Products Co. in 1999.
This time, the fund would buy the property, reselling about 4,000 particularly sensitive acres to the state. The state would buy permanent development easements on the remaining land, which would be resold to a North Carolina firm. Logging would continue but future development would be prohibited.
Some in the industry, such as Jack Driscoll, a partner in Millville Lumber Co. in Snow Hill, see little reason for the state to pay millions for development easements on large tracts of Glatfelter land, property they say could be bought outright for less than the $700 an acre the state is proposing to pay to acquire development easements.
"Most of their land probably couldn't be developed anyway; it's too wet or too isolated, full of ticks and chiggers, unsuitable for anything but growing trees to begin with," Driscoll said. "On the other hand, it is a one-shot chance. There's no other single landholder with this much land anywhere on the Shore."
Department of Natural Resources Secretary J. Charles Fox said that in recent years, the state has not actively sought to buy land outright because of the prohibitive management costs for the 450,000 acres it owns across Maryland. Easements for agricultural land in the Lower Eastern Shore, he said, average about $1,300 an acre.
"The Glatfelter property is a bargain, compared to what we're paying elsewhere," Fox said. "To say this land will never be developed is just short-sighted. Anybody driving on Route 50 can see the dramatic change in the landscape of the Eastern Shore."
The deal must clear the three-member state Board of Public Works, which includes the governor, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, when it meets Wednesday.
The proposal is opposed by some lawmakers who say the state shouldn't be spending money for land in the face of a budget crisis. Supporters say $20 million has been budgeted for land acquisition and through Program Open Space and wouldn't compete for scarce funding.