Maryland's Irreplaceable Natural Areas

In 2022, the Maryland legislature established an Irreplaceable Natural Areas Program within the Department of Natural Resources. This Program’s purpose is to preserve Maryland’s native biodiversity on lands owned and managed by the Department for the current and future residents of the State. The new law also defines an Irreplaceable Natural Area (INA) as an area with habitat necessary to support a unique natural community or a plant or animal species listed as Threatened or Endangered by the State. The law further defines a unique natural community as an area that either: (1) has an assemblage of native plants or animals that is rare or declining in Maryland or (2) supports an unusually pristine example of a native ecosystem type.

Irreplaceable natural areas in Maryland. — Maryland’s Irreplaceable Natural Areas (Wildlife and Heritage Service, August 2023).

Maryland’s state-owned lands currently include 326 INAs designated in the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR 08.03.17). Descriptions of the features, threats, and compatible and incompatible activities, as well as maps depicting the boundaries of each of these can be downloaded as county-based files.

Maryland's Irreplaceable Natural Areas

Allegany

Anne Arundel​

Baltimore

Calvert

Caroline

Carroll

Cecil

Charles

Dorchester

Frederick

Garrett

Harford

Howard

Kent

Montgomery

Prince George's

Queen Anne's

Somerset

St.Mary's

Talbot

Washington

Wicomico

Worcester

Anne Arundel