Sussex Land Trust acquires Ard Na Greine site

Fred and Linda Miller knew the day would come when they would no longer own their beloved Ard Na Greine. The 88-acre tract, just outside Lewes city limits, has been in their family for more than 70 years.

“It’s bittersweet, it’s very emotional, especially during the last week as it all has been coming closer to reality,” Linda said.

The Sussex County Land Trust officially closed on ownership of the property April 28. The land is generally bordered by the Ebenezer Branch, Canary Creek, New Road and Old Orchard Road.

The settlement completes a seven-year journey to raise about $9 million to buy and protect the land as open space. The property will be known as Ard Na Greine Preserve.

“It’s Gaelic for the rise that catches the sun,” Linda said. “When Uncle Martin [Wells] lived here, they called it Happy Hill. It’s a way of honoring the previous name.”

At first, preservation efforts for Ard Na Greine and the Lewes Fourth Street Forest were tied together in a single fundraising campaign. Mark Chura, SCLT director of conservation, said they soon realized splitting up would benefit both.

“The problem always was, for both projects, it’s $17 million. How do you do that? We had a lot of skeptics in government. The DNREC secretary at the time was not interested in preserving coastal land in Sussex County; it was not a priority for him,” Chura said.

Chura said an anonymous donor was the first to put up $1 million for Ard Na Greine. They also received $250,000 from 100 other private donors.

From there, the fundraising started to gain traction: $1 million from the Longwood Foundation, $2 million from the Open Space Council, $1.75 million from Sussex County and $3.1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Ard Na Greine is the first time the NRCS has partnered with anyone in Delaware, other than the state Department of Agriculture, according to Elena Stewart, NRCS easement program manager.

The land trust will also have $600,000 for an endowment for maintenance and completion of a master plan.

The land trust wants everyone to know the land is not yet open to the public.

“Donovans Road is not a public access point. There is no current public access point to the property,” said Sara Bluhm, SCLT executive director. Her staff will be responsible for stewardship of the land.

Chura said they expect to eventually have a walking path that branches off from the Lewes-to-Georgetown Trail and circles the property. They also plan to reforest some of the acreage and to increase the buffers between homes on New Road and Old Orchard Road.

The agreement with the land trust keeps the Millers as the caretakers of their 1950s-vintage home, where they live part time, for up to 20 years. The old silo will remain, as will the garage that still houses Uncle Martin’s 1975 John Deere mower.

Miller said their cousin, Jeff Wells, will continue to farm corn and soybeans on the land.

“It’s been a low-key, handshake deal. We’ve trusted them to take care of the ground, which they’ve done beautifully. We’re doing this to formalize it, so they can continue doing that,” Linda said.

Chura said acquiring Ard Na Greine was the most complicated and challenging project he’s ever been a part of. The land trust had to get two separate easements: 57 interior acres will be held by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, and 33 acres on the perimeter will be held by DNREC. The trust will manage the entire property.

Linda said they knew changes were coming, but they want the heritage to stay.

“I never wanted to see Ard Na Greine developed; that was the most important thing to me,” she said. “I hope that we could say, generations from now, that this little piece of the area will look as much like it does now as possible.”