What is the legacy we choose to leave our children, and their children, and their children...

by Dave Wilson. (Wilson is the public outreach coordinator for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program.)

For those who have not experienced the pleasure of a leisurely drive along Sinepuxent Road east of Berlin, a trip down the rural, winding thoroughfare not only serves as a reminder of how much beauty is left in Worcester County but also reveals how much there is to lose.

To the north of the road lies the Riddle Farm where Centex is building its golf courses and 650 homes along Herring and Turville creek. To the south is Newport Farms, where local businessman Buddy Jenkins has joined the state in protecting over 2,000 acres of farmland and forest.

Sandwiched between a debacle and a delight, the rural landscape around Sinepuxent Road could go either way within the next decade. Sitting at the headwaters of Trappe, Ayers and Herring creeks, this block of land in the middle of US 50, MD 611, MD 376 and US 113 provides more than just a pretty view.

The largest contiguous forest block left in the coastal bays watershed, these headwater woods provide spectacular water quality benefits to both Isle of Wight and Newport bays. They also provide shelter to the only forest interior dwelling species of warblers, flycatchers, and vireos left in the northern part of the county. With some of the highest box turtle counts and highest frog diversity, the 5,000-acre natural gem is something worth saving.

But already there are foreboding signs. Although the Coastal Bays Program along with the Trust for Public Land have been working with landowners in the area to purchase development rights from those interested in conservation, large national building companies are also hedging their bets on up-zoning by buying land in the area. Their hope is that the protective agricultural zoning will be changed to residential with some backdoor schmoozing of the Worcester County Commissioners.

Even though it is unlikely the current set of commissioners would be so obtuse, the money, the political pressure, and the future could spell trouble if county residents become complacent. The county planning staff and commissioners are right to direct growth to the northern part of Worcester where infrastructure and already-compromised natural resources dictate placement of future development.

Route 611 should never have been upzoned to allow so much growth and the estate zoning along MD 376 is incomprehensible. County residents should not allow these past errors to squeeze out the only decent north-county woods left.

Instead, the state, the county, and private conservation organizations should be giving landowners in this area the tools they need to keep from having to sell for development. They should also be devising incentive to keep older hardwoods stands in tact. A drive down the stump-laden Holly Grove Road from Route 50 will give testimony to that.

Residents should keep their eyes to the south too where the recent allowance of a 170-acre trailer park on the once beautiful Cropper Island Road could be a harbinger of things to come.

Again, the message is a simple one. Direct growth to existing infrastructure and you save taxpayer dollars, wildlife habitat, and water quality. An unstudied, laissez-faire approach to development is bad for the local economy, bad for water quality, and a disaster for wildlife.

This moral and intellectual test is the one our grandchildren should demand we pass.