Protect Love Creek Natural Area

Sussex County Council has scheduled a hearing Tuesday, June 28, on Belle Terre, a 378-unit project on 124 acres known as the Dorman Farm, off Mulberry Knoll Road in eastern Sussex County.
A closer look at this tract reveals parts of it lie in Love Creek Natural Area, a 1,000-acre tract along the banks of Love Creek and nearby marsh.

Ten years ago, state officials identified this tract as an ecologically significant resource, giving landowners rights to preserve the land through a conservation easement or natural preserve designation. Were this land located in New Castle County, development within the natural area would be restricted; allowable development is specified in the county’s comprehensive development plan.

But in Sussex, there is no legal protection for this land. Instead it’s left to Sussex County Council to decide how it may be developed.

At the hearing, council will surely be told the developer will cut down as few trees as possible, leaving buffers along waterways. Testimony will point out no endangered species have been found.

Maybe not, but as Center for the Inland Bays Executive Director Chris Bason pointed out, woodlands along Inland Bays tributaries, wetlands and seasonal ponds are rapidly disappearing.

It’s no longer a question of protecting rare frogs. It’s about protecting land that allows wildlife to move through the watershed. As Bason put it, protecting important habitats is not only critical for rare species; it’s the only way to keep common species common. Developing this area, Bason said, could seal the fate of the Inland Bays.

Thousands of acres in Sussex County will be developed over the next 50 years; developers are keenly aware the rules may change when the next comprehensive plan is adopted. Is development a question of who’s first in line? Or should we demand that council take a longer view?

Nothing requires council to upzone a parcel of land.  So much open land in Sussex will one day see houses. This narrow ribbon of marsh and woodlands along Love Creek deserves to be set aside and protected.