Conservancy group protects 70-acre Swann Farm in Talbot County

Thanks to a new 70-acre conservation easement co-held by Maryland Environmental Trust and donated by the MacGill family, the fields, forests and shorelines of Swann Farm in Easton will continue to provide these benefits.

As the conservancy's 342nd conservation easement, Swann Farm lifts the organization's total conservation in Talbot County to more than 13,951 acres.

“We are so grateful for this donated easement from the MacGill family,” said Steve Kline, president and CEO of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, or ESLC. “In areas of the Eastern Shore that are lacking in purchased easement opportunities, ESLC relies on donated easements to achieve our land conservation goals.

Thanks to MET and the MacGills, Swann Farm will remain a quintessential Eastern Shore farm, offering bountiful farm fields, quiet woodlands and clear creek water for generations to come.”

Swann Farm’s easement protects 49 acres of active agriculture and 17 acres of conserved woodlands which provide 100-foot-wide buffers between working fields and more than 2,280 feet of waterfront. Situated entirely within Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, these buffers will preserve scenic shorelines, maintain water quality, and protect plant, fish and wildlife habitat for Shipshead Creek and Peachblossom Creek, tributaries of the Tred Avon River.

Swann Farm’s forests also abut a larger forest habitat supporting forest interior dwelling bird species (FIDS), a declining species group in Maryland.

When asked what made him interested in conserving the farm, Willis MacGill focused on legacy. Three-hundred years of family farmers brought MacGill to this moment of preserving the land his grandfather, James McKenny Willis, first bought and farmed in 1952.

MacGill said: “The legacy, the beauty, of living in the big city and then crossing the bridge and coming down to the farm... to be able to give that privilege, family way of life, and appreciation to future generations — that’s how the legacy of Granddad continues on.”

MacGill highlighted how important it is to save space for future generations of conservationists to experience their own tangible “firsts” in the Eastern Shore’s great outdoors.

“It’s always the first, right? Seeing your first eagle, your first turkey, shooting your first wood duck. What gives me as much pleasure as anything is friends’ kids catching their first fish, watching the birds come in at night. It’s a memory for life.”