SILVER SPRING – To promote a “green” Montgomery County, environmental planners have developed a web-based educational program to emphasize forest stewardship and provide information about the importance, location and restrictions of forest conservation easements.
By mapping the location of thousands of easements across the county and creating a web-based tool that displays easement locations and details, planners hope that easement owners will learn how to care for and monitor the health of forested areas. View the tool.
Perpetual legal agreements that run with the land, conservation easements keep forests intact, prohibiting activities — from mowing to grading to building a tennis court — that would damage their function. Most easements allow passive pursuits like hiking and bird watching.
To find easements using the online map, enter addresses into the search bar or mouse click and zoom in. Detailed information, including plat numbers, recordation dates and links to legal documents, accompany each easement. Browsers can report alleged conservation easement violations, such as construction activities, using the tool.
The web site also contains information about how to care for an easement area, a narrated slide show suitable for presentations and a five-minute video of a forest conservation inspector doing fieldwork.
Forest conservation easements ensure the integrity of forests, which contribute to water quality, habitat, clean air and community well-being. The Planning Board enforces an ambitious forest conservation program by regulating forest disturbance when development is proposed, setting goals within master plans, and a planting program. The county has protected about 9,700 acres – about 3.5 percent of the county – through forest conservation easements.
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