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Monday 8:30am - 5pm Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm

Harford Land Trust

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Harford Land Trust

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Harford County's first and only county-wide land trust. Protecting the places you love since 1991.

Land trusts are non-profit groups that protect land directly by acquiring it through gift or purchase (sometimes for later conveyance to a government agency), by establishing conservation easements that place permanent legal restrictions on future development, by negotiating limited developments, and by other methods. They may also be involved in land conservation education and advocacy.

10/30/2026

For 35 years, we’ve been preserving natural lands for the ecological benefits they provide to Harford County families. The Bottiglieri family’s preservation of Mill Green Mill in Street also helped protect a significant part of Harford County history.

The Mill Green Mill property is the birthplace of Margaret Morgan, whose kidnapping from Pennsylvania led to the United States Supreme Court Case Prigg v Pennsylvania and ultimately the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The property is one of only three Harford County Network to Freedom sites and the only privately-owned site, the others being Hays-Heighe House (Sam Archer) at Harford Community College and Belle Vue Farm (Eliza Parker).

Its half-mile frontage on Broad Creek also helps protect water quality downstream and into the Chesapeake Bay.

The Bottiglieri’s purchased this property with preservation in mind, and because of their generous conservation efforts, they will leave behind a legacy of historical and ecological preservation alike.

Read more about Mill Green Mill. https://tinyurl.com/bottiglieri

10/28/2026

Become a Certified Maryland Tree Steward and learn how to organize tree plantings and care for existing canopy in your community. Register today!

🌳🪏🌎

Join us for two virtual classes and an in-person tree planting at Rockfield Park to earn your certification as a Maryland Tree Steward.

Thank you to Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay for leading this program, to the Town of Bel Air Government for hosting our tree planting, and to Harford Streams - Green Choices. Healthy Streams. for sponsoring Grow Wild.

Spots are limited! Register today to become a tree steward.

https://tinyurl.com/tree-steward-2026

Harford Nature Collaborative

10/26/2026

On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Harford County Council voted unanimously to approve 13 farms for preservation. Thank you to the farmers and landowners who enrolled in the county’s farm preservation program and committed themselves to the work required to preserve their land. These community members will benefit generations of Harford County families with the open space and productive farm land.

While this vote doesn’t mean the preservation of these farms is final, it is a crucial step that allows the Harford County Agricultural Land Preservation Program to continue moving forward with these properties. All 1,022 total acres of land approved at the meeting are expected to finish the preservation process around June 2027.

Thank you to Harford County Council for their continued, dedicated commitment to land conservation. For decades, across many council iterations, council members have shown strong bipartisan support for preservation, recognizing the public benefit it provides to their constituents.

There are many state and local preservation programs protecting land in Harford County alongside HLT. The Harford County Agricultural Land Preservation Program is responsible for preserving 58% of the nearly 68,000 acres of land we’ve protected in the county thus far. It’s a remarkable achievement, making the program an indispensable champion of preservation.

Learn more about the benefits of preservation. HarfordLandTrust.org/impact/

Harford County Government

10/23/2026

HLT has been preserving farms, among other open spaces, for 35 years. But we’re not the only ones protecting the working lands that make Harford County special.

One of our closest partners is the Harford County Agricultural Land Preservation Program, and while we also work on forests, habitats, and parks, the county’s program is strictly focused on the productive farms and agricultural lands that feed us, support our local economy, and carry on Harford’s iconic agricultural heritage.

The County’s Agricultural Land Preservation Program has been at it since 1992, just one year after HLT was founded, and in that time, they’ve preserved over 39,000 acres, which is 58% of the nearly 68,000 acres of preserved land in the county.

As of Tuesday, Oct. 20, an additional 1,000 acres will now move forward in the preservation process, because the Harford County Council unanimously approved preservation for 13 local farms.

A 2024 amendment greatly expanded the properties that are eligible for preservation under this county program, reducing the minimum property size from 50 acres to 20, and making it so that properties of any zoning category could be preserved, not just lands zoned for agriculture. This opened the door for a plethora of property owners to protect the rural legacy of their land forever, when before their options were much more limited.

For decades, Harford County Council has shown strong bipartisan support for land preservation. We thank the council members for their commitment to protecting our treasured farm lands, and we thank the families who chose preservation to benefit their communities forever.

Learn more about state and local preservation programs from our 2024 State of Land Preservation Report.

https://tinyurl.com/HLT-archive

Harford County Government

10/22/2026

Celebrating 35 years of protecting the land we love! 🌳 County Executive Bob Cassilly and Agricultural Coordinator Kimmi Doran Lyons presented a proclamation recognizing Harford Land Trust for its longstanding commitment to land preservation and conservation in Harford County. Since its founding in 1991, Harford Land Trust has worked to protect farmland, forests, waterways, and open spaces, helping preserve the natural beauty and agricultural heritage that make Harford County such a special place to call home. From protecting productive farmland to preserving natural spaces for future generations, its work has made a lasting impact on our community. The Harford County Department of Economic Development is proud to recognize this important milestone and the vital role land conservation plays in supporting our agricultural economy and quality of life. Congratulations to Harford Land Trust on 35 years of conservation and community stewardship!

10/21/2026

🪶Another feather for our cap: Bird Knowledge. 🐦🤔🌼

Thank you to all who attended our Saturday program, Landscaping is for the Birds!

Greg Murray of the Harford County Master Gardeners - University of Maryland Extension and Mary Murray of the Harford Bird Club led us through all the essentials for turning our backyard into a veritable avian paradise. Together, we learned how to welcome birds into our yards by providing them with cover to hide, space to fly, and food to eat.

Fun Fact: Birds care a lot about hygiene. As you might have assumed, bird baths help birds wash away parasites and bacteria. But ? Bathing also helps birds properly distribute the oil coating on their feathers, which keeps them dry and warm and even improves their flight.

We also learned how many native plants supply fruit and caterpillars to birds, who require lots of calories to make it through their seasonal migrations and feed their young. So, one of the best ways to support birds is to plant natives!

Check out our Grow Wild events calendar to catch our next program. Our Tree Steward Certification program is coming up soon, so sign up today! Remember, the early bird gets the worm. 🪱🐥

GrowWildHarford.org/events/

Thank you to Harford Streams - Green Choices. Healthy Streams. for sponsoring Grow Wild!

Harford Nature Collaborative

10/19/2026

You have likely already heard, but we are so excited about the expansion of Anita C. Leight Estuary Center - OPCA that we had to share more about it. 🎉🦦🌳

We’re so grateful to have helped add land to the Estuary Center - for a second time! Thank you to Harford County Government and everyone who helped make it possible.

Check out this new video, and visit Anita C. Leight to learn more about the amazing ecological wonders that we have in Harford County.

Read more on our website. https://tinyurl.com/ACL-new-property

Harford Streams - Green Choices. Healthy Streams.

10/16/2026

We’ve been protecting land and expanding public open spaces for 35 years. Our biggest single success by sheer size is easily the addition of the Grays Run Tract to Stoney Demonstration Forest.

A contiguous, undeveloped, 905-acre block of woods is virtually unheard of in Harford County, especially near the I-95 corridor. But that sums up the Grays Run Tract to a tee. The original section of Stoney Demonstration Forest - the James Run Tract - is only 318 acres.

Named for the stream that winds through the property, the Grays Run Tract contains several tributaries and wetlands that drain into the Bush River. The property remains important habitat for forest interior dwelling birds, freshwater aquatic species, and a host of amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals.

Being HLT’s biggest project ever, it also ranked among the most challenging to protect.

A prominent real estate developer purchased the property in the 1970’s, and in the following years, the property’s zoning was reviewed several times to increase the classification from agricultural to high-density residential.

When the later owners went bankrupt in 2018, numerous large-scale developers attempted to purchase the property from the bankruptcy trustee. It appeared that the team’s attempts to preserve the property would fail. Two developers were awarded contracts for the property, but both failed to settle. Thankfully, The Conservation Fund emerged as the successful bidder at $4.6 million in May 2020.

We spent the second half of 2020 restoring much of the neglected sections of the property, and by that December, the state of Maryland took ownership, formally incorporating it into Stoney Demonstration Forest. Now these pristine forests are available to residents and wildlife forever.

Learn more about Stoney Demonstration Forest, and what it took to protect one of Harford County’s greatest ecological gems.

https://tinyurl.com/Stoney-Forest

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

10/15/2026

Thank you so much to all the sponsors who made the 2026 Party to Preserve possible! Your generosity directly benefits the work we do every day to protect the farms, forests, habitats, and open spaces that make Harford County special.

We encourage everyone to support the businesses and organizations that support land preservation in our community! 💚

Address

22 W. Pennsylvania Avenue
Bel Air, MD
21014

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday	8:30am - 4:30pm

Website

http://harfordlandtrust.org/, http://growwildharford.org/

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