Topic

Conservation Easement Program of Maryland Environmental Trust

Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) is the statewide land conservation trust in Maryland. It was created by state statute in 1967 and is a quasi-governmental entity that is housed in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. MET has a self-appointing Board of Trustees consisting of a majority of private citizens. MET protects land by accepting donations of conservation easements from landowners on specific parcels of land and holds close to 1,100 easements that protect over 133,000 acres of land across the state. The event focuses on discussion of MET’s conservation easement program.

Presentation Goals
Attendees will learn:

• About the conservation easement process and its benefits and opportunities through the Maryland Environmental Trust program
• About partnership opportunities and how environmental planning and planning for agricultural communities intersect
• How the Maryland Environmental Trust works with landowners and citizen land trusts to protect Maryland's most treasured landscapes and natural resources as a legacy for future generations

Date & Time

Wednesday, September 23, 2015
10:30 a.m. - Noon

Location

4th Floor Board Room
County Administration Building (CAB)
14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772

CM

1.5 (Approved)

Speaker / Instructor Biography

John Turgeon joined Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) as the Conservation Easement Program Manager in July of 2014 and has been serving as Acting Director of MET since March 2015. Mr. Turgeon has close to 16 years of land conservation work experience in both the non-profit and local government sectors. Previous to MET, he was with the Willistown Conservation Trust, a non-profit land conservation trust near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he worked for 10 years, first as Associate Director and then as Director of Land Protection.

From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Turgeon worked for Montgomery County, Maryland, where he served as senior planner for the County’s “Legacy Open Space” initiative to protect its critical natural and cultural open space resources. In previous positions as a planner for the cities of Gaithersburg and Frederick, Maryland, he worked primarily on urban forest conservation planning. Mr. Turgeon holds a B.A. degree in Geography from the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh and a Master of Regional Planning degree from the State University of New York at Albany. He resides in Annapolis, Maryland.