Located on the outer rim of the metropolitan area surrounding Washington, D.C., Charles County has experienced stunning growth in just a few years. Increasing population, flight from the city, and the demand for modern homes and lower taxes have all combined to fuel this growth. 
As a result, field, forest, and village life are giving way to ever-expanding residential and commercial development. The greatest growth is occurring in the northern part of the county closest to the nation's capital, in and around Waldorf. However, development is changing traditional landscapes even far outside the development district established by the county government. Projections predict a population increase of nearly 50 percent over the next 20 years.
The Conservancy recognizes a huge challenge--how can a community like ours accommodate fast-paced development and yet preserve irreplaceable natural resources, productive farmland, and sensitive historic sites?
No organization or individual can meet this challenge alone, but the Conservancy for Charles County is tackling it in two ways. 

• We are saving land with perpetual conservation easements donated by landowners.
• We are raising awareness within the community and helping educate the public and decision makers about the vital need for conservation and ways of achieving it.

The February 2005 Progressive Farmer magazine ranked our two neighboring  counties in southern Maryland--Calvert and St. Mary's--as among the best places  to live in rural America. Charles County did not make the list.
Nevertheless, only two other counties in the state can boast of more forest than Charles County--and they are in the Appalachians on the state's northern border. 
The Mattawoman Creek that flows through Charles County supports one of the nation's most productive bass fisheries. The Zekiah Swamp that begins at the county's northern boundary and flows into Allen's Fresh to the south has been recognized by scientists as one of the most ecologically important and sensitive areas in the mid-Atlantic region. North America's second largest Great Blue Heron rookery is located in western Charles County.
Charles County has 186 miles of Potomac River shoreline, much of it still undeveloped. At the river's edge in Piscataway Park, established by Congress in 1961, visitors can look directly across the water to Mount Vernon.
 

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Copyright © 2005-2007 Conservancy for Charles County, Inc.