Endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel is feeling "lucky". Photo by Megan Simon, Maryland Environmental Service

A partnership including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and The Nature Conservancy purchased a conservation easement on the 1,429-acre Good Luck Farms property in Dorchester County, Maryland. The easement will provide protection to important forest habitat for the Federally-endangered Delmarva fox squirrel and migratory birds, including nesting bald eagles.

The property, located in the Nanticoke – Blackwater River watershed, contains a large block of coastal plain forest with fox squirrel populations. Habitat loss and fragmentation from development, incompatible timbering, and agriculture continue to threaten the species' recovery. 

Protection of this property is critical to the partnership’s efforts to stabilize fox squirrel populations in core forest areas in order to remove the species from the endangered species list.

For more information, contact:
Dan Murphy
Chesapeake Bay Field Office
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
177 Admiral Cochrane Drive
Annapolis MD 21401
410.573.4521