Private Land Preservation Programs & Organizations

Do We Need to Form a Coalition for Open Space?

This is a question for the public to answer.

Sussex County Land Trust 

https://www.sclandtrust.org/

Sussex Land Trust’s goal is more public access  - 4/22/2022 - (Board Members)

https://www.capegazette.com/article/sussex-land-trust%E2%80%99s-goal-more-public-access/238299?amgee-source=dh

Ron MacArthur - April 22, 2022

The Sussex County Land Trust is taking steps to provide recreational access to some of its preserved properties.

Over its 20-year history, the land trust has partnered with Sussex County Council, the State of Delaware and several nonprofit conservation agencies on 18 projects to preserve nearly 6,000 acres, including 2,000 acres of farmland, 2,000 acres of forest and 500 acres of wetlands.

Over the past few years, the land trust has taken on three projects: Stephen P. Hudson Park at the Route 9-Cool Spring Road intersection, west of Lewes; the Ickford property and historic Cannon-Maston House along Atlanta Road near Seaford; and Nanticoke Crossing Park along the Nanticoke River, west of Seaford near Woodland.

The land trust has a new chairperson, attorney Heidi Gilmore, and new members have been added to the executive committee.

“Being a park-like service takes a lot of energy and people to do it,” Gilmore said. “We are changing our mindset from a passive organization to a more active group as a resource to the county.”

The land trust board

Board members include the following:

Jason King of Lewes is national accounts manager for Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and is active in the company's Beer and Benevolence program. King, who grew up in Milford, is an avid outdoorsman.

Mike Dickinson of Milton joined SoDel Concepts in 2005 and is now vice president of operations, overseeing 10 restaurants with four others in the planning stages.

Tracy Adams of Georgetown is a partner in her family businesses, Melvin L. Joseph Construction, M.L. Joseph Sand & Gravel, Stockley Materials and Citation Rentals.

Ring Lardner of Milford has 18 years of experience in project engineering and construction administration for residential and commercial development. The Delaware Army National Guard veteran is head of the Milford municipal engineering department at Davis, Bowen & Friedel.

Blake Carey is a Sussex County attorney and a member of a longtime county farming family.

Russ McCabe of Milton is a retired State of Delaware archivist and a local historian with deep Sussex County roots.

Heidi Gilmore of Millsboro has been a real estate attorney since 2000 and works for the Baird Mandalas Brockstedt LLC firm in the Georgetown office. She volunteers for several nonprofit agencies in Sussex County.

Mike Nally of Ocean View, a former U.S. Army Ranger, is president and CEO of Nally Ventures, a real estate and construction consulting firm in Ocean View. He served as Sussex County Habitat for Humanity board president from 2015 to 2020 and has also served on several other nonprofit boards.

Casey Kenton of Rehoboth Beach has spent his career in commercial real estate and works for Investors Realty Inc. in Dover.

Ron Vickers of Millsboro has retired from the Delaware Division of Parks, where he worked in natural lands acquisition and open-space conservation.

Sussex County Councilmen Mark Schaeffer and John Rieley are also board members.

Mark Chura of Lewes is executive director of the land trust. He retired from leadership roles in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and Division of Parks, and is the former director of Delaware Greenways.

The Nature Conservancy in Delaware

https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/delaware/

The Nature Conservancy is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization (tax identification number 53-0242652) under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Global sites represent either regional branches of The Nature Conservancy or local affiliates of The Nature Conservancy that are separate entities. 

The Nature Conservancy in Delaware works with government agencies, private corporations, conservation organizations and our members to conserve the places on which people and wildlife depend. This has resulted in the conservation of more than 30,000 acres across Delaware since 1990. 

Delaware Wild Lands - Private

https://dewildlands.org/

At Delaware Wild Lands we take seriously our mission of protecting and restoring Delaware’s important natural areas through the purchase and management of strategic parcels of land.

Since 1961, we played a pivotal role in the acquisition and regulatory protection of 31,600 acres of land, including Delaware’s coastal areas and Great Cypress Swamp.

But we do much more than purchase land.

• We own and actively manage 21,600 acres of land to enhance biodiversity and support traditional uses of the land.

• We conveyed 10,000 acres of land to the State of Delaware for public recreation and education.

• We recognize hunting, farming, and forestry are an important part of Delaware’s local culture and economy.

• We use Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified forestry practices to restore the ecological functions of our forests while generating a long-term source of revenue for the organization and contributing to the local economy.

Angola Neck

https://dewildlands.org/our-work/other-conservation-lands/

Even in the 1960s, development of land resources along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay was prolific and spreading rapidly westward.  In an effort to save the upland forests and wetlands of Angola Neck, and one of the last remaining open lands in Sussex County’s coastal area, Delaware Wild Lands purchased 347 acres on the western shore of Rehoboth Bay  in 1967.  Later that year, we acquired 66 acres of woodland as an addition to our Angola Neck properties.  In the following six years, Delaware Wild Lands acquired the Bookhammer and Perry properties ensuring that approximately 700 acres of shoreline and marsh would remain undeveloped forever.

In 2005, Delaware Wild Lands conveyed over 700 acres of our Angola Neck holdings to the State of Delaware to be managed as a nature preserve by the State of Delaware Department of Delaware Parks & Recreation.