Located on the upper reaches of Hellen Creek in Lusby, the Hellen Creek Preserve covers some fifty acres of marshes, forests, streams, and slopes. Together with the adjacent TNC Hemlock Preserve over 120 acres of the watershed are under permanent easement. Our offices are located on the Preserve and our Business Manager is responsible for the upkeep and monitoring of it.

The focus of activities on the Preserve is to support biodiversity. Steps taken to further that goal include seasonal deer hunting to reduce the overabundance of that species. The understory of the forest is severely depleted by their grazing activities. As part of our habitat restoration effort we have regular invasive removal workdays and efforts to restore native species through plantings. These include two fenced areas to exclude deer from the “garden”. We have healthy population white turtleheads along the streambed “garden” which includes other wildflowers and wetland shrubs.

The Forest Stewardship Plan for the former TNC Hemlock Preserve is being implemented.  Identification of invasive species and plans for their removal are a top priority.  The State of Maryland has assembled teams from the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources to treat the hemlocks for the wooly adelgid.

On Turner Road the process of rezoning and sale on agricultural and residential parcels has been completed.  We retained over 59 acres of mostly wooded waterfront property and a barn with easy access to the road.

A good part of our plans for 2023 are exploring the potential for using the barn as a new office and utilizing the open space adjacent to it for habitat improvement.  Leasing the property for deer hunting will still be a facet of our management plans.

Our plans for water monitoring on Hellen Creek have been on-going and should bear fruit in 2023.  The count has some plans to revive the non-tidal water monitoring we supported in the past.  It would include sampling from the creek on a quarterly basis.