Dozens of landowners in and around the Chesapeake Bay watershed have seen fit to preserve their properties in perpetuity to keep their land in its natural state.

The Chesapeake String of Pearls Project honors 56 of them, including 13 in Anne Arundel County, and this past week dedicated a permanent display of its official registry at the Anne Arundel County Circuit Courthouse in Annapolis.

“It is about the balance between preservation and development,” said Pearls' founder, Dick Lahn. “We don't know where the ideal balance lies, but we do know that protecting and preserving land is the ultimate answer, because what happens to the bay is a result of what happens on the land.”

By honoring those who have made the decision to protect their properties, Lahn and others hope to create more incentive for people to preserve their land forever.

“These are people who are leading by example,” Lahn said.

Parcels preserved range from the small — a community garden plot in Easton that's less than a quarter of an acre — to the 2,984-acre Andelot Farm in Kent County and Good Luck Farm's 1,435 acres in Dorchester County.

In Anne Arundel, the largest Pearl honored is the Bacon Ridge Natural Area and, as with many properties in the county, the Maryland Environmental Trust and the Scenic Rivers Land Trust are involved in its preservation.

Both organizations can guide potential landowners through the process of preservation and receiving the tax breaks that usually come with giving up development rights on the land.

The area is ecologically and historically significant. Bacon Ridge Branch is a major tributary of the South River. Colonial barges once moved up its waters, several miles above today's U.S. 50, to load hogs for shipment.

Unlike most of the preserved properties in the Pearls program, Bacon Ridge is open to the public — on a limited basis. Hiking trails run through the land that was once part of the Crownsville State Hospital.

The 575 acres of what was once a Colonial plantation overlooking the Rhode River, Contee Farm is Anne Arundel County's second-largest Pearl.

The property is part of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, which purchased the site in 2008 as part of a partnership with the Maryland Environmental Trust.

The property is dominated by the hilltop ruins of the manor house of Java Plantation. The original 760 acres were split among subsequent landowners, the Contee family's sons. Part of the property was left to the Smithsonian in 1964, and in 2008 the rest, then called Contee Farm, was purchased by the SERC in partnership with the Maryland Environmental Trust and Scenic Rivers Land Trust.

“Contee Farm is 575 acres of historic property and part of the String of Pearls that is essential to our mission of conservation, land preservation, environmental research, public access and education, and sustainability for the future,” said SERC Director Tuck Hines.

“The divided Java Plantation has been brought back together,” Hines added. Archaeological sites abound, and plans for the future include creating a visitor's center in the farmhouse still standing, and leaving the rest of the pasture and woodland as it is.

In Severn, Willow Oak Flower and Herb Farm sits on 40 acres along Telegraph Road in an area that was primarily agricultural before World War II. Aphrodite Poulos' parents bought the land in 1941.

“It was nothing but farms,” she said. “Right after we moved in, they paved Telegraph Road. It was a dirt road.”

Her daughter, Maria Price-Nowakowski, and her family run the operation, which includes herbs and flowers, chickens and eggs.

The farm, mostly dormant in the first week of March, is divided into a couple of dozen garden spaces planted in specific themes: lavender, pansy, rose, dahlia, medicinal and more.

It's all organic: They make their own compost, use naturally sourced seeds and grow some vegetables for sale along with the cut flowers and herbs.

Evidence of last year's flower harvest hangs from the ceiling of the farm's shop, where in the heated porch area dozens of flats of sprouting plants are tended by family and volunteers.

Poulos said putting the land into preservation was crucial to her family holding onto the property.

“It saved us,” she said. “The taxes on the land, we might have lost it. It is good to keep the farm; it seems every little piece of land, they want to put a house on it.”

The location helped as well, being so close to a major tributary of the environmentally sensitive Severn Run.

The Maryland Environmental Trust is a major player in the ability for landowners to preserve their land. It is part of the Department of Natural Resources and was formed by the legislature in 1967.

The organization works with local land trusts, such as the Scenic Rivers Land Trust, to preserve land. In the nearly 50 years since its inception, the trust has helped preserve 144,000 acres across the state in cooperation with 1,080 landowners.

“That's about 1 percent of the land in the state of Maryland,” said Ann Carlson, a conservation easement planner with the trust.

The trust's most active local partner is the Scenic Rivers Land Trust, which started years ago as the Severn River Land Trust. It concentrates on preserving land around the Severn, South, West/Rhode and Patuxent river watersheds.

“We have 61 properties and over 2,700 acres,” said Executive Director Rick Leader. The biggest property under their wing is Bacon Ridge Branch. “And we are working all the time to add to it,” Leader said.

He said having so many properties included in the String of Pearls helps spread the word about the program.

“They do a lot of the heavy lifting by recognizing the landowners — they help get the word out about what it is we do.”

He added, “After all, those landowners are giving up development on their land to benefit all of us.”