WELCOME

Mission

To conserve, restore, and promote the sustainable use and enjoyment of our natural resources; including soil, air, woods, waters, and wildlife.

What is Going on at the Old Welzenbach Farm?

The Harford County Chapter is moving! The property, know as the Welzenbach farm (or simply "The Farm"), is located at 2800 Willougby Beach Road in Edgewood.

The Harford County Chapter (HCC-IWLA) was incorporated on the 30th of August 1958 as a 501c3 nonprofit corporation of the state of Maryland. The HCC-IWLA was established exclusively for SCIENTIFIC and EDUCATIONAL purposes. Our original chapter house was located in Abingdon (near Wegmans) and was condemned as part of the I-95 express toll lane expansion. Funds generated from this loss were utilized to purchase the property at 2800 Willoughby Beach Road from Harford Land Trust in early 2021. It is on this property that we intend to build a new chapter house and plan to embark on numerous projects consistent with our mission of conservation.

The Farm connects directly to the Bosely Conservancy (350+ acres of tidal marsh and forest along the headwaters of the Bush River). The conservancy is privately owned property that is open to the public with excellent hiking, fishing and wildlife observation opportunities. In addition the Conservancy is part of the Otter Point Creek Component of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (CBNERR). The Farm will keep us closer to Bosely and make it easier for the Chapter to manage events in the marsh. We partner with the Anita C. Leight Estuary Center, Otter Point Creek Alliance and Harford County Parks and Recreation on many ventures and are working to develop assets and programs that enhance our collaborative efforts. This is an exciting time for the HCC-IWLA and we hope to become the best resource possible for our community.

As you drive by the property you will notice some obvious changes, currently we are in the process of constructing a pole barn which will be used to support chapter functions. Once this is complete we will begin to work on the chapter house and finally a tenant house. All buildings are limited to positioning on the front 5 acres of the farm in the area where the old farm house once sat. The remaining ~40 acres are under multiple conservation easements and perpetually conserved with further major development prohibited. What will not be so obvious (yet) are the ~1,300 trees that were just planted on the property to offset the impact on Otter Point Creek from upstream tree removal due to the I-95 ETL expansion.

Additional plans are in the works to improve community access to passive recreation activities in the area. This all takes time and funding so please be patient with us as we work diligently in the background to maintain and provide access to green spaces for our community. Please see below for some concept images of the pole barn and Chapter house.