Page 24 - December 2023 Issue.indd

Protecting the Tuckahoe

Submitted by Eastern Shore
Land Conservancy

Tucked into the center of the Eastern Shore between Queen
Anne’s, Caroline, and Talbot counties, the Tuckahoe Creek
watershed is a rural world of winter rye, potato fi elds, cardinal
flowers, massive beech trees, yellow-blooming water lilies, and

wild rice nodding above fresh quiet water. Canopies of decidu-
ous trees arc across winding back roads. Wild blueberry bushes

sprawl between tidal marshes and stands of pine. This is the
point on the peninsula where the wide and flat farm fi elds of

the lower shore give way to small hills so gradually, so gently,
you may not even notice the slope.

The watershed stretches across 97,900 acres, covering an area
about the size of two Washington D.C.’s. More than half of
that area is devoted to agriculture, the rest consumed by small
towns, forests, wetlands, and the creek itself, which runs over
20 miles from north of Queen Anne to its confluence with the

Choptank River at Gilpin Point in Caroline County. If there’s
one important takeaway for this region, it’s that the Tucka-

hoe is abundant. For fishermen, the Tuckahoe offers one of
Maryland’s few fl yfishing spots with wide openings, steadfast

water, and a stony creek bed. For farmers, the watershed off ers
freshwater irrigation and prime soils that have produced in
abundance for centuries upon centuries—from the gardening
A map of current rural legacy areas in Maryland.
Photo credit: ESLC
THANK YOU

for allowing me to
serve you as your
Register of Wills.

Part of the Tuckahoe Rural Legacy Area, the Daffi n House
Farm in Caroline County. Photo credit: ESLC

Jim Phelps,
Register of Wills
for Caroline County

In God
We Trust

Photo credit: ESLC

Part of the Tuckahoe Rural Legacy Area. Photo credit: ESLC
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