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The greatest threat to birds and their habitats in Maryland is habitat loss and degradation due largely to the sprawling pattern of development that is all too familiar in our state. Audubon is doing its part to rein in rampant development on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore, using its Important Bird Areas, or IBAs, as a planning tool.

Important Bird Areas are sites essential for supporting species of bird that are vulnerable and in need of conservation action, and Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore is particularly rich in such sites. The most extensive forested wetlands in the state are found in Pocomoke-Nassawango IBA, home to at least 12 at-risk bird species such as the dazzling Prothonotary Warbler and Whip-poor-will. Virtually all of Maryland’s coastal marshes occur in this region, supporting a unique community of birds adapted to life between the tides. And Assateague Island’s barrier beaches are of global importance to bird conservation, hosting a significant proportion of the world’s Piping Plovers.

Funded by generous support from the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, Town Creek Foundation, a State Wildlife Grant from Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Maryland Coastal Bays Program, and private donations, Audubon has been working to incorporate Important Bird Areas into the land use planning process in the 4 Counties of Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset and Worcester. We have focused on these actions:

Science-based technical assistance
Following the delivery scientific data on IBAs, including digital boundary maps, to County planning staff, we are helping some of these Counties to include IBAs in their 2009 Comprehensive Plan updates, and to draft the Sensitive Areas element of these plans. We have also provided IBA data to County Planning Commissions and to environmental nonprofit organizations. In March, Audubon Maryland-DC’s Director of Bird Conservation, David Curson, teamed up with Somerset County Planning Department to present a workshop for the public on the issue of adaptation to sea-level rise, laying out the case for protecting migration corridors for the county’s coastal marshes.

Keeping sprawl out of Important Bird Areas
Audubon Maryland-DC met with success in February 2009 when Wicomico County's Planning and Zoning Appeals Board denied an appeal by developers proposing a 147-dwelling residential cluster in forestland 10 miles from the nearest town. The site of the proposed "Woodlands at Whiton" development lies in the heart of the 180,000-acre Pocomoke-Nassawango IBA, the largest forest block, and premier site for forest-interior birds, on the Delmarva peninsula. This IBA supports probably the largest populations of Prothonotary Warbler and Worm-eating Warbler in Maryland (both in the thousands), as well as 10 other at-risk species.

The Appeals Board's deliberations included discussion of the area's IBA status and Audubon's assertion that fragmentation resulting from the proposed development would erode one of the area's prime ecological qualities - habitat contiguity. Partnerships with Wicomico Environmental Trust, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other local groups were key to this success, and Audubon extends a heartfelt thank you to attorney Mike Pretl, a committed environmental campaigner, who represented Audubon pro bono in this case.

Improving land use planning for wildlife, farming and people
With 5 local partner organizations we have been trying to persuade Wicomico County to overturn a particularly damaging zoning provision, which allows gives developers a density bonus and leads to sprawl development in rural areas, including Pocomoke-Nassawango and Nanticoke IBAs. These efforts led to two public hearings, at which Audubon, and its partners and supporters presented testimony on the need to protect critical bird habitat, save farmland, and keep down the costs to taxpayers of services and infrastructure in rural areas. After the first hearing in December 2009, Wicomico County Planning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend a repeal of the density bonus, and legislation was drafted on the issue. However, following the second hearing in April 2009, Wicomico County Council voted against the legislation to repeal the density bonus.

Audubon’s partners in the Wicomico density bonus campaign include Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Wicomico Environmental Trust, Friends of the Nanticoke River, Lower Shore Land Trust, and The Nature Conservancy. We will continue this campaign until Wicomico County’s rural areas receive the protective zoning they need to preserve wildlife habitat and agriculture.