Before Maryland lawmakers opened the 2026 legislative session in January, the state’s land conservation programs were already facing a $75 million shortfall over the next three years.
It’s a familiar story, conservation advocates say. In 1969, Maryland became the first state to set aside a consistent, dedicated funding source for land conservation. That money has enabled the state to save hundreds of thousands of acres from encroaching development.
But since 2002, legislators looking to patch budget holes have diverted more than $750 million of the funds meant to go to land preservation efforts, according to an analysis by Ann Jones, one of the state’s most vocal conservation activists. That has deprived Marylanders of an estimated 150,000 acres of public land purchases and conservation easements — an area more than three times of the size of the District of Columbia…