We love trees—they provide food and shelter for wildlife, filter pollution, provide cleaner air and cooler summer temperatures, increase property values, and reduce polluted runoff. But developers in Maryland are clearing forests at an unsustainable rate.
Maryland’s Forest Conservation Act (FCA) is supposed to protect forests from overdevelopment. But the Forest Conservation Act needs dramatic improvement. The law has slowed forest clearance during some development but in areas where development pressure is intense and forests are considerable, the law has allowed clear cutting of some of Maryland’s highest quality forests with little to no replacement or transparency in the process. Few, if any, acres are replanted.