The state of Maryland will buy a tract 16-hundred acre tract of forest and wetlands in Somerset County.
The narrow decision by the Board of Public Works will mean the state will spend $3.4 million.
It’s located west of Route 13 just north of Princess Anne.
But the Salisbury Daily Times reports it was a narrow 2-to-1 vote with Comptroller Peter Franchot saying that he was not satisfied the land needed to be purchased to preserve it.
He noted that much of the tract is swamp and is not expected to be developed even within the next hundred years.
State Treasury Nancy Kopp and Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford voted to move ahead with the purchase.
