Maryland DNR’s Roots to Resilience Makes Stop in Somerset County

(WESTOVER, Md) – The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is meeting with local farmers on the Lower Eastern Shore as part of a years long program announced earlier this year.

As a group of environmental scientists make their way through Sugarwater Farms in rural Somerset County, property owner Dana Zucker is showing just some of the issues impacting her land.

Dana tells WMDT, “As we got to see the monarchs in there, where here it is October, and they’re headed back down in the migration. And we saw so many in there that were active, but also to see how it’s been able to preserve some of the land, how some of the salt intrusion areas are now covered with seeds…”

It’s all part of the Department of Natural Resources Roots to Resilience Program.
An initiative launched earlier in 2026 to protect Maryland coastlines and waterways, especially in the most frequently impacted areas.

“I mean, I think that’s why we want to work, you know, here in Somerset County, they’re seeing the impacts more acutely than anywhere else. And so I think it’s important for us to be working with the community to get the immediate kind of help that they need through some of these programs,” says DNR Secretary, Josh Kurtz.

Getting an idea of how farmers in Somerset County, an already low-lying area in Maryland, are handling conditions is going to be vital to farmers across Maryland.

“And if we can start to do some of that stuff and educate people here, I believe that then we can engage in other practices on a smaller levels in homes and backyards in order to help that. But this is one way to get started on a larger level and then help educate and pass on that knowledge,” says Dana.