Maryland’s forests and farms provide valuable ecosystem services to the State and the Chesapeake Bay region. Ecosystem services produce many natural resources: clean water, clean air, timber, habitat for fisheries, flood control, and the pollination of agricultural plants. Despite their essential nature, ecosystem services, which are for the most part too sophisticated to reproduce, are often poorly understood. These environmental functions are essential to sustaining all life on earth. The vast majority of Maryland’s forest and agricultural lands are privately owned. Improved management of these lands will increase the quality and quantity of the ecosystem services they produce. It is therefore important that the proper incentives are put in place to promote sustainable land management practices. These incentives, both public and private, will encourage landowners to manage their lands in a way that best enhances ecosystem services.
