Will This Maryland Wetland Soon Become Concrete? - Part 1

For the next few weeks, I'm going to share with you weekly photos of the wetlands on the west side of Route 3 in Crofton, Maryland. Enjoy them while you can because the property owner has somehow managed to obtain a permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment to develop this natural wetlands area into a site for a big-box store.

Community residents and activists successfully drove Walmart away and assumed the issue was dead. Little did we know that the permit process continued. Even if we had known it, who could have imagined that our state Department of the Environment would allow development of this 20-acre parcel along the Little Patuxent River.

It is, after all, within the bounds of a designated State Scenic River, in the critical area, and it is a part of the Patuxent Greenway System established to protect “important” lands.

Many thanks to Dick Lahn for this description of the area and to Kathryn Para for her photo. More information and more photos will follow over the next 4-6 weeks.

By the way, if you click through to this Letter to the Editor by Dick Lahn, you will see his two photos of this area 30-40 years ago, when it was known as Walch's Grove. The difference between then and now really is mind-boggling - but not as much as it will be if this area is paved over in concrete for future generations.

Will This Maryland Wetland Soon Become Concrete - Part II