A flurry of conservation activity on Delmarva will insure the peninsula remains a paradise for biking, hiking, and canoeing.

Brokered by former governor Parris Glendening, four deals will preserve more than 92,000 acres of forests, farms, and tidal marsh in the Maryland portion of the shore. In 2001, the governor sealed a deal to purchase 58,000 acres of Chesapeake forestland. This was followed in 2002 by the purchase of easements on some 28,000 acres of Glatfelter forestland. In addition 2,000 acres belonging to DLITE founder Charles "Buddy" Jenkins was placed in a perpetual easement along the shores of Newport Bay in January.

Within the past four years, the state's Rural Legacy Program with help from Worcester County and the Lower Shore Land Trust has also purchased easements to secure 4,200 acres around the EA Vaughn Wildlife Management Area in Chincoteague Bay. In a separate deal, the Nature Conservancy purchased 3,500 acres in the Nassawango Creek watershed in 2002, doubling the size of its land holdings along the creek to 7,000 acres. The Maryland Coastal Bays Program is working with the Trust for Public Land to preserve a number of properties in the Holly Grove area east of Berlin.