The protected land includes a one-acre fish hatchery at Unicorn Lake in eastern Maryland and the sprawling Green Ridge State Forest in the west. It includes shorelines, farms and woods around Naval Air Station Patuxent River, and the Chesapeake Forest Lands, some 75,000 wooded acres that are home to species like bald eagles and the once-endangered Delmarva fox squirrel.

None of it can be developed, and all of it has helped Maryland reach a landmark conservation goal six years ahead of schedule, before any other state that’s joined an effort known as “30 by 30.”

The program is part of a global initiative to protect 30 percent of the Earth’s land and waters by 2030. In 2023, Maryland joined the effort and a year later, Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, announced that the goal had already been met. Nearly 1.9 million acres of land has been permanently protected from development, and the state has set a new target, to conserve 40 percent of its land by 2040.

Two years ago, Albert Nickerson and his wife, Kristen, a sixth generation farmer, conserved about 350 acres of farmland known as King’s Ridge. That land is among roughly 1,600 acres that the Nickersons own and that are permanently off-limits to development. Along with producing food, conserved farmland can support wildlife, store carbon, reduce erosion and improve water quality through soil conservation practices.

50 States, 50 Fixes is a series about local solutions to environmental problems. More to come this year.