Maryland Resident Donates 171 Acres For Wildlife

Mary Zoeter of Alexandria, Va. has donated a conservation easement on 171 acres in Brandywine, Md. to The Humane Society of the United States Wildlife Land Trust for permanent protection as a wildlife sanctuary.

Ms. Zoeter, along with her sons, Garrick and Mark Zoeter, donated the conservation easement last month to prevent the property from being developed.

Zoeter, a long time animal protection activist and founder of Action for Animals Network, tutors English and regularly drives throughout Fairfax County, Va. to travel to the homes of her students. She has been alarmed to see the land disappearing to development.

"At least our 171 acres will be saved in its natural state, so that wildlife and their habitat can survive," said Zoeter. The property has been in Ms. Zoeter’s family for over 150 years. Her father grew tobacco on the land. After his death, her mother entered into an agreement with a neighboring farmer to grow corn, wheat and soybeans.

When Ms. Zoeter’s mother died, Mary continued the same agreement but then began to explore more environmentally friendly ways of dealing with the land.

She plans to name her property "Anchovie Hills Wildlife Sanctuary," and the deer, bluebirds, opossums and raccoons who call it home have a secure future.

A conservation easement is a set of permanent and legally enforceable restrictions on the use of property, agreed to between a landowner and a land trust and binding on all future owners of the property.

For Wildlife Land Trust-protected land, the landowner agrees to establish the property as a permanent wildlife sanctuary and restrictions are put in place directed toward that goal.

Once finalized and recorded, the Trust then enforces the terms of those restrictions. For the HSUS Wildlife Land Trust, these terms always include no recreational or commercial hunting or trapping or commercial logging.

The Zoeter conservation easement to the Wildlife Land Trust is unique in that it supplements the protection of another conservation easement on the same property purchased by the Maryland Environmental Trust, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Zoeter and her sons did not feel that this first easement went far enough to protect wildlife on their property.

"The conservation easement to MET, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage and DNR ensures that the Zoeter property will be safe from shopping malls and housing developments and many destructive influences," said Steve Swartz, acting executive director of the Wildlife Land Trust.

"Our additional conservation easement on the Zoeter property builds on that protection and takes it to a higher level," he said. "It ensures that the property will now remain a permanent wildlife sanctuary."

The Anchovie Hills Wildlife Sanctuary is the Trust’s second in Maryland. The first is on Back River Neck in Baltimore County.

Based in the Washington area, The HSUS Wildlife Land Trust now protects some 63,000 acres on 71 properties in 21 states and four foreign countries. It was founded in 1993 by The Humane Society of the United States in order to save the lives of wild animals by saving as much of the land that shelters and feeds them as possible, wherever possible.

More information, including how existing wildlife habitats can become permanent wildlife sanctuaries, can be obtained by contacting The Wildlife Land Trust toll free at 1-800-729-SAVE or through their Web site: www.wlt.org.

© 2004 Animal News Center, Inc.