Delmarva Peninsula, Lower Eastern Shore, USA

Delmarva Peninsula, Lower Eastern Shore, USA
CASE-STUDY SUMMARY
PROTECTED LANDSCAPES: GUIDELINES FOR BEST PRACTICE
Protected Landscapes Task Force Meeting
IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas
November 2001

Name of Protected Landscape: Delmarva Peninsula, Lower Eastern Shore Heritage Area
Location (State, Province and/or Bio-region/Country): Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, USA
Local contact(s):
Name: Ms. Dale Maginnis
Institution: Delmarva Advisory Council
Address: P.O. Box 4277, Salisbury, MD 21801
The Delmarva Advisory Council is a voluntary association established in 1964 by the governors of the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia within the region known as the Delmarva Peninsula. The Council consists of 43 members and is intended "to advance the economic and cultural welfare of the people of the Delmarva Peninsula through advice, counsel, and assistance to governmental agencies and private organizations concerned with the programs and opportunities for the region".

Telephone and Fax: (410) 742-9271
E-mail: delmarvaregion@aol.com

1. Summary description of the Protected Landscape
The Lower Eastern Shore is a six-county region in Maryland and Virginia that is a portion of a larger geographic area known as the Delmarva Peninsula. The Lower Eastern Shore in the southwest portion of the Peninsula and is bounded by the Chesapeake Bay to the west, the State of Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the States of Maryland and Delaware to the north.

The region includes Dorchester, Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset Counties in Maryland, and Accommack and Northampton Counties in Virginia. The region is accessible by boat, automobile, aircraft and ferry. By auto the region is accessible by Route 13, one of the oldest highways in the US that connects northern New Jersey to Florida--a distance of over 1,000 miles. Route 50 is another access route and it connects the region to metropolitan Washington and Baltimore. Route 113provides access to the north to Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Lower Eastern Shore is largely a rural area with small towns and medium size cities located along the coast and at crossroad areas. Commerce is diverse and includes agriculture, timber management, fin and shell fishing, sport fishing, recreational boating, poultry producing and processing, and tourism.

The Lower Eastern Shore possesses an extensive variety of natural, cultural and recreational environments, including barrier islands, coastal bays, tidal and non-tidal wetlands, cypress swamps, upland fields, and old growth forests. The area links the fragile barrier island system on the east with the Chesapeake Bay and islands to the west. The counties lie within the primary watersheds of the Choptank, Nanticoke, Wicomico and Pocomoke Rivers. Dominated by wetlands, each of these watersheds contains a diversity of natural, physical and human settlement characteristics.

The Chesapeake Bay and the Virginia Coastal Barrier Islands (VA Coastal Reserve) are recognized internationally for their values. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest and, historically, most productive estuary in North America. The Virginia Coastal Reserve is recognized internationally for it's undeveloped and often pristine conditions and biological diversity.

The Lower Eastern Shore contains a variety of traditional land and water use activities. Author William Warner, in his book "Beautiful Swimmers" featured the unique relationships than man has with nature in the region. In many ways this region is what Warner, and many others, refer to as "Chesapeake Country" where Watermen, Skipjack sailboats, Cypress trees, soft-shell crab shacks, seasonal waterfowl, and waterfront views are the major icons of the landscape.

Most of the region is privately owned and controlled by local governments, within existing State and Federal government laws. Traditions of local home-rule are held high and protected vigilantly. Federal and state governments have acquired a variety of parks and wildlife refuges to help conserve migratory and resident waterfowl and neo-tropical bird populations, unique natural areas and accommodate recreation and tourism interests. Private organizations, such as The Nature Conservancy and the National Audubon Society, are frequently involved in managing habitat and bird conservation efforts.

More recently there have been numerous efforts to develop collaborative partnerships between all levels of the government and the private sector to further heritage conservation and nature and culture-based tourism. In addition, some communities such as Cape Charles in Northampton County, VA. have been working collaboratively with public and private interests to shift to sustainable development practices.

For example, Cape Charles created the first "Ecological Industrial Park" in the U.S. and The Nature Conservancy is helping local farmers and watermen to produce and market local agricultural products.

2. Current status
The Lower Eastern Shore doesn't have a Category V or overall designation. Within the region, however, are a number of sub-regions that have federal, state, local or private designations. These designations include: recognition and cooperative management for Coastal Bays, Coastal Reserves, heritage areas, migratory bird habitats and routes, islands, and river corridors. Each of these designations are intended to foster collaboration, integrate environmental, cultural and economic decision-making, leverage outside financial and technical assistance, and take specific actions to protect, conserve, preserve, or regenerate ecologies and economies.

Although there are no specific plans for additional designations, the public and private interests in the area have taken numerous sophisticated actions to collaborate to further individual and common interests. For example, the Delmarva Advisory Council led an effort with nearly 60 different public agencies and private groups to coordinate migratory and neo-tropical bird conservation and tourism. It is an example of the region's willingness to look at new arrangements in order to protect the area and make the communities prosperous.

3. Local Communities and Stakeholders
Participation in the Lower Eastern Shore landscape conservation effort has involved hundreds and hundreds of businesses, private groups, government agencies and private individuals. Inclusion, equity, public access to decision-making and communication are a foundation of all the collaborative efforts that been undertaken in the region.

There is a strong interest in stewardship and it is common to see private sector involvement and initiative in partnership with government efforts, or taken independently, to conserve important values. For example, there is an increased effort to form local land trusts in the region and some have been successful working with private companies to protects habitat, agricultural lands, wetlands, and forests.

4. Major challenges and/or threats to the area.
The Lower Eastern Shore has struggled economically at times due to diminished agricultural, finfish, shellfish and waterfowl-based economies. Poor water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, reductions in bird habitat and the region's location have all contributed to these economic problems. There are a number of conflicts that regularly arise within the region related to the use of timber area, agriculture lands, poultry farms and wetlands. Progress has been made in resolving many issues related to riparian forest buffers.

As the economies of the region have varied, so have the proposed solutions for its future. The uncertain future of the traditional industries continues to put pressure on local leaders to come-up with new ideas for economic growth and development. For example, a maximum-security prison was proposed for the Virginia portion of the Eastern Shore. The proposal, which was rejected locally and withdrawn, would have obliterated an African American Watermen's community and adversely impacted the areas sole source aquifer recharge area. In addition, a recent change in agricultural practices to "Plastic-culture" has negatively impacted shellfish industries and tidal wetland areas.

The region has experienced serious water quality problems that are linked to poultry operations. Recent outbreaks of Pfiesteria have hindered the region's image, tourism, recreational fishing and the health of its residents.

5. Relevance to developing Guidelines for Best Practice
The leaders of the Lower Eastern Shore could help other areas by: 1) describing the collaborative landscape conservation activities of the last twenty years to illustrate different techniques that have been used to build local capacity, expand nature and cultural tourism efforts, and work more effectively with state and federal governments; 2) describing the approaches and benefits of using designed and discovered approaches to landscape conservation; and 3) demonstrating how an voluntary non-regulatory, non-land managing organization like the Delmarva Advisory Committee can play a quiet, enabling leadership role in supporting landscape conservation and sustainable practices.

6. Why this Protected Landscape is special and important?
The Lower Eastern Shore is special and important because it contains nationally and internationally unique living resources, communities and settlement patterns. It illustrates a unique relationship that certain traditional industries and their populations have with natural values and functions. It is a region that continues to be threatened by the need to find new economies to replace those that have diminished or disappeared.
Case study prepared by:

Glenn Eugster, Assistant Regional Director of the National Park Service, National Capital Region, prepared this case study. Mr. Eugster worked extensively with public and private interests in this region for nine years in various positions with the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service. For further information contact: NPS-NCR, Partnerships Office, 1100 Ohio Drive, SW, Room 350, Washington, DC 20242. By telephone call (202)619-7492. By e-mail: glenn_eugster@nps.gov