Commissioners approve 12,000-acre Rural Legacy Area
A conservation easement program proposed for the north end of the county could help preserve agricultural land near Bishopville and Showell.
The Worcester County Commissioners, on Feb. 6, approved plans for a new 12,000-acre Rural Legacy Area for Bishopville-Showell. The state’s Rural Legacy program pays landowners for permanent conservation easements on their properties.
“Establishing this area is simply going to give landowners a new option, or choices not available to them before,” Katherine Munson, a planner representing Worcester County Environmental Programs, said.
Currently, Worcester County has two legacy areas through the Rural Legacy Area program — the Dividing Creek RLA and the Coastal Bays RLA. Funding comes from Program Open Space as well as general obligation bonds from the state’s capital budget, said Bob Mitchell, the county’s director of environmental programs. He told the commissioners his department met with area landowners last August to share plans for a potential new Rural Legacy Area.
“We received overwhelming support from area landowners that they’re really interested in this additional conservation easement program for this area of Worcester County, to hold back the Sussex County hordes I guess,” he said.
Say you don’t want to crowd the money people up north without saying it. Which commissioners own some of this property. Maybe none. There’s an under lying reason for this. And it ain’t conservation, I assure you. But now that the commissioner meetings have no public comments anymore, it’s a free for at the North end.
On Rt 50, going west out of OC, I noticed someone sold or leased their farm land for a large solar array.
It was sad to see.