{"id":29633,"date":"2019-12-03T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=29633"},"modified":"2019-12-02T23:26:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T04:26:41","slug":"forever-maryland-foundation-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2019\/12\/03\/forever-maryland-foundation-launched\/","title":{"rendered":"Forever Maryland Foundation Launched"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New Nonprofit Created to Advance Land Conservation\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright \" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49159504638_c8d45dd99f.jpg\" alt=\"Logo of Forever Maryland Foundation\" width=\"364\" height=\"254\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forevermaryland.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forever Maryland Foundation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/met\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Environmental Trust<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a unit of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, jointly announce the launch of a new statewide venture in land conservation. Forever Maryland has been created to undertake a bold agenda to meet the need for a nongovernmental organization with a Maryland-specific focus on land conservation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forever Maryland will work closely with the 40 local land trusts in Maryland and state and federal government agencies to find new ways for people to better connect with Maryland\u2019s beautiful landscapes, scenic vistas, farmlands, and natural resources. <\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhile there are a number of entities engaged in a variety of roles involving land conservation in the region, Forever Maryland is the first and only nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to land conservation issues and opportunities in all of Maryland,\u201d Forever Maryland Board Chair Steve Quarles said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSupporting existing land trusts in the work they are accomplishing in local communities is an important part of what we will be doing,\u201d Forever Maryland board member Nick Dilks said. \u201cWorking together, we will develop creative ways for landowners to preserve and protect more acres throughout the state.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Quarles said Forever Maryland is helping volunteers in Frederick and the Catoctin area to work together as a regional alliance with an online presence. The foundation will also manage MET\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/met\/Pages\/grant_programs.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keep Maryland Beautiful<\/a> grants program and host the 2020 statewide Annual Land Conservation Conference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI\u2019m very excited that after years of planning Forever Maryland is a reality,\u201d Maryland Environmental Trust Chair Mary Burke said. \u201cLand is critical to clean air and water, and it provides us with food and places to play and reflect. Forever Maryland will be key to future generations enjoying what makes Maryland such a special place to live.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forever Maryland Board member James O\u2019Connell of Walkersville said the foundation will also \u201cprovide a clear voice on behalf of the Maryland land conservation community on matters of executive and legislative policy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">More information about the Forever Maryland Foundation is available at<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forevermaryland.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">www.forevermaryland.org.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Nonprofit Created to Advance Land Conservation\u00a0 Forever Maryland Foundation and Maryland Environmental Trust, a unit of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, jointly announce the launch of a new statewide venture in land conservation. Forever Maryland has been created to undertake a bold agenda to meet the need for a nongovernmental organization with a<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2019\/12\/03\/forever-maryland-foundation-launched\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,23],"tags":[4312,5037,3039,4585,3147],"class_list":["post-29633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-land","tag-conservation","tag-forever-maryland-foundation","tag-keep-maryland-beautiful","tag-land-acquisition","tag-maryland-environmental-trust"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29633"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29635,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29633\/revisions\/29635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}