More News

Potomac River, C&O Canal corridor labeled at risk

State scenic conservation group lists seven sites threatened by development

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo David S. Spence⁄The Gazette Kayakers float behind Potomac Conservancy President Matt Logan as he describes the threat to the scenic beauty of the Potomac River and C&O Canal National Historic Park.

The risk of development is so great that the river has earned a new and unwanted title: designation as a ‘‘Last Chance Scenic Place” by Scenic Maryland, a nonprofit scenic conservation group based in Baltimore.

Some 15 scenic sites across the state were considered but only seven ‘‘won” a place on the list, the first to be issued by the group.

The 185-mile river corridor that stretches from Cumberland to Washington, D.C., is now ‘‘pockmarked” by oversized, luxury homes going up on its banks and the number of trees coming down on a lot-by-lot basis, the group noted.

‘‘The landscape is slowly but surely dying a death of 1,000 cuts,” said Matt Logan, president of the Potomac Conservancy, a water and wildlife conservancy group working in tandem with Scenic Maryland in the effort to highlight the threat to the river’s scenic beauty.

‘‘This list doesn’t carry any political weight or throw any money at the designated sites, but it’s just another indicator of how people value our scenic treasures,” Logan said.

While the list spotlights the threat of residential sprawl transforming Maryland landscapes, it is also intended to energize people into taking action, he said.

Scenic Maryland is now kicking off a fund-raising effort aimed at finding alternatives to what it refers to as ‘‘insensitive development” at seven uniquely scenic spots that range from tobacco farms in St. Mary’s County to historic Charles Street in Baltimore.

Scenic sites Scenic Maryland, a nonprofit scenic conservation group based in Baltimore, designated seven scenic Maryland sites at risk due to insensitive development: a three-mile long Underground Railroad route in Frederick County; Chincoteague Bay on the Eastern Shore; historic Charles Street in Baltimore; tobacco farms in St. Mary’s County; historic Bucktown Village in Dorchester County; a seven-mile stretch of Route 40 in Allegany County; and the Potomac River and C&O Canal corridor.

The conservancy, meanwhile, is hoping to protect the river corridor by calling for stricter enforcement of existing forestation laws and the enactment of stronger legal protections against tree cutting. It also wants to promote the use of ‘‘scenic overlays,” a zoning category that strongly prohibits development in locations that are deemed highly scenic.

Lastly, the groups joined U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington in calling for appropriate funding for the U.S. National Park Service. The C&O Canal park has about half the number of staff it did nine years ago and federal budget cuts are expected to further hamper services.

‘‘As a nation, it’s essential we provide [the park rangers] with the resources you need,” Van Hollen said. ‘‘We have to get our priorities straight.”