Earth as Equity Partner: A Revolutionary Approach to Ecological Conservation through Housing Development

Abstract

Duddington Farm is a 312-acre site north of Baltimore, Maryland. A stream restoration project was completed at the location nearly a decade ago in concert with the State of Maryland, the Manor Conservancy, Ecotone, and landowners Harry and Tara McDonough. The project was conducted with some success, however due to a lack of State oversight and long-term management provisions, the ecology has since declined. The following proposal outlines a new model for long-term land restoration and conservation, whereby land conservation and restoration are financed not solely through short term grants and fragile easements, but through the thoughtful use of modest real estate interventions. A small cluster of homes is developed on one portion of the site. The act increases the value of the land, generates equity, and establishes a permanent conservation fund. The design protects habitat and invites people into a deeper relationship with the natural world. The plan offers scalability in taking the land value capture and applying it to future land conservation projects, compounding returns and projecting a model to preserve hundreds of thousands of acres of critical land across the United States. This model highlights Indigenous ecological knowledge (TEK) and traditional practices of engaging with the land, highlighting a deeper understanding of how humans and nature can coexist in mutually healthy ways. The model is designed at a time when watersheds, national parks, and old-growth forests are faced with the greatest threat to global ecology. Duddington Farm is used as a retrospective case, but the broader goal is to create a regenerative framework for conservation-based development across critical watershed regions.