UPPERCO, Md. (WJZ) ? Farmland has a way of going from crops to subdivisions to suburban sprawl. Saving that land as open space is a challenge, and as Alex DeMetrick reports, it isn't cheap.

The beauty of Maryland's countryside can also be its undoing with development tearing up cropland to bring new homes for those drawn by the view.

These developments break up farmlands and open space.  The aim of Maryland's Rural Legacy Program is to forever preserve as much of this as possible.

That goal brought the governor out to visit farmers and land holders in Northern Baltimore County.

"So the property will still stay on the tax rolls. Somebody will continue to farm or forest the property and use it in a private way, but it won't get developed. You won't see lots of houses on it," said Shaun Fenlon with DNR Land Acquisition.

The goal is to keep adjoining land together and farming viable.

Even for the youngest Marylanders in these particular areas, land saved now will still be the land of their youth, even as old men.

Land selected for the Legacy Grant also has a Chesapeake Bay component, preserving property to improve the health of the state's waterways.