SALISBURY -- Rick Culver has spent nearly 50 years living and working on his family's farm just outside of Salisbury.
With the help of the Lower Shore Land Trust and Wicomico County, Culver's family settled an easement to preserve the land and still provide a monetary inheritance to his siblings.
Culver worked on the farm with his father up until the 1970s when his siblings left and became business owners. He eventually stopped working on the farm but said he still enjoyed living there.
"I like living on the farm and not being right in town," he said. "I quit farming myself; it just wasn't profitable. I became a home builder in the end."
When it came time to consider the future of the farm, Culver was worried about his siblings' inheritance. But he didn't want to lose the land to housing developments like the ones on which he had been working.
"By doing this, my mother has been able to give something in monetary value to my brother and sister that they can have, and then I can have the land," he said. "It can remain like it has been without having to sell it off, which would immediately become the next spot for a development."
The Culver farm is located on Burnt Branch Road. It was originally more than 500 acres, purchased in 1937 and has been the home of a dairy farm, vegetable farm and a training and breeding spot for race horses.
The 500 acre parcel was split among three sons in the 1970s. The Robert L. Culver farm, 138 acres, will be protected by the easement.
"By protecting the farm, the family has not only protected a valuable resource for the county, but has preserved a part of Wicomico County's rural heritage," said Kate Patton of the Lower Shore Land Trust.
Patton said prime agricultural lands are often considered prime development land, so protecting the parcel was imperative.
"This is one of several farms identified by the county and the Lower Shore Land Trust as containing prime soils," she said. "Good agriculture soils are also good perking soils for development so developers like the prime farm land. When these areas get broken up, you end up with developments in between farmland."
Patton said conservation easements are different for each property owner and may not always provide monetary compensation.
