Maryland DNR Gives Away Trees

To property owners in Harford County

Property owners in Harford County with streams or creeks on their land are eligible to receive a free package of seedling trees through a new program designed to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.

Known as the Backyard Buffers Program, it seeks to increase the number of soil-penetrating trees along bay tributaries on small properties.

For years, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Forest Service has organized the planting of trees on large properties as a way to establish forested areas with root systems capable of holding soil in place and preventing erosion, but many properties where erosion is a problem are relatively small and don't lend themselves to large-scale tree plantings.

The Backyard Buffers Program seeks to fill this gap by giving free to landowners what is being called a "buffer in a bag," a package containing each of five species of trees: river birch, swamp white oak, American plum, silky dogwood and red osier dogwood.

Not being in Harford County I'm not qualified to receive this, and yet as a Maryland taxpayer, I am paying for it.  It's not that I don't think the program is useful in protecting streams and the Bay, but we have a small stream down the side of our back lots, and if the government is going to buy someone trees to protect the Chesapeake Bay, that I have a fair chance at that benefit as well (it really isn't necessary as our back lot is already heavily wooded).  I have a sneaking suspicion that somewhere special interest politics were involved in getting this program for just a single county.