Land use has changed over time. As Rob explains, “Many of the original farmers of the area who had the poorest land left the area in the early 1800s because the soils lost there fertility and became 'played out'. The abandoned farms gave way to loblolly pine forests that contributed to record timber harvests around 1900. This coincided with the estimated lowest total acreage of forests in the area in the 1880s or 1890s.”

Accompanying this peak was the zenith of the shipbuilding and timber harvesting age in Delaware. The large stands of loblolly pine eventually gave way to orchards and strawberry fields. After the birth of modern poultry production, cereal crop production took over after the Great Depression, and until recently, was the largest land use in the area. Suburban development is quickly changing the picture. In fact, Rob identifies development as the largest threat to the Inland Bays’ environmental balance; forests, wetlands and tidal reaches.

State and private conservation efforts have focused around several protective organizations. Delaware Wild Lands, Inc. has bought land around Angola Neck, a narrow strip of land extending into the Bays, adjacent to the Great Cypress Swamp State Park. DWL is a private non-profit organization committed to preserving important natural resource lands throughout the state.

The Delaware Nature Society is perhaps one of the state’s best known environmental education organizations. DNS focuses much of its resources towards legislative efforts as well as landowner education. It sponsors activities such as Backyard Wildlife Habitat, a certification program of a yard or garden as suitable habitat, and Stream Watch, where volunteers monitor and evaluate the water quality of neighborhood streams, reporting their data to the state-wide effort. The Nature Conservancy, although a world-wide conservation organization, has protected several hundred acres in the Inland Bays watershed. They concentrate on land acquisition in Areas of Concern, as identified by Ecological Regional Planning. These are target areas, such as streams and seashores and headwater forests, which perform vital environmental functions.

Delaware State Parks, and Fish and Wildlife Management Areas work to protect forests in the Inland Bays Watershed, largely near the bays. The Delaware Forest Service a division of the Delaware Department of Agriculture protects some working forests, especially in the headwaters areas of the watershed.

Since land prices have risen in recent years, conservation can be difficult. State and private organizations increasingly rely on donations by land owners. As a quasi-government organization, the Sussex County Land Trust has set aside close to $1 million dollars to buy land and open space, preserving it for the public good.

Rob also points out the least protected habitats are those of the upland forest, "The tidal reaches of the Bays have federal and state protection and freshwater wetlands have federal protection, but upland forests have no formal protection.”

Forests are an important part of ecosystems, providing free environmental services for Delaware’s citizens, vital habitat for birds and animals, flood plains along streams and recharge areas for aquifers. Remarkably, after 300 years of consumption and utilization of forest habitats for human uses, many large forest tracts remain in the watershed. Their future depends on all of us. With many organizations working towards the same goal of preservation, the future of the Inland Bays forests has hope … but we all need to work together to help wisely manage them into the future.