The Maryland Forests Association therefore urges the Rural Legacy Board to require easements on forest land to include a Stewardship or forest resource management plan approved by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Forest Service. Because forests are living and changing ecosystems and will be faced with challenges that we cannot foresee, no state or federal monies should be used by the Rural Legacy Board, the Maryland Environmental Trust, or any other public agency to acquire conservation easements on forest land containing management restrictions in perpetuity. The General Assembly has stated clearly in the Rural Legacy Act its intent to support natural resource based rural economies, including agriculture and forestry, as an essential means to curtail sprawl development and to preserve farmland and forest for public benefit. The Rural Legacy Program provides State funds to local governments and land trusts to purchase easements. Using public funds to take forestland out of productive use is detrimental to local economies and contrary to the stated purpose of the law.
Some landowners seek to protect their forest forever by prohibiting logging.
Unfortunately, easements that would prevent forest management or the cutting of trees in perpetuity may also prevent needed forest restoration. In the long run they may be detrimental to the health of the forest, and to the biodiversity, water quality, aesthetics, or other noncommodity values that the conveyor of the easement wishes to protect. Flexibility is essential for meeting long-term goals. Forests are dynamic biological systems and cannot be preserved in a steady state or protected from effects of human activity. Letting a forest grow may be best for the ecosystem now, but we cannot know now what may be best for the forest 100 years from now.