Duvall Farm

There's a lot more going on at the Duvall Farm than just a lodge. Wood duck boxes and blue bird boxes, for instance, rising out of the marsh with guards attached to keep small predators out of the nest. Mallard nesting cylinders, held off the ground with tripods, also spot the property off state Route 333, Oxford Road. Almost a third of the 500-acre Duvall Farm is in conservation programs, another third is used for agriculture and the rest is woodland. It is a showcase for property that has been taken out of commercial agriculture and put into conservation. "We took 80 percent of it out of commercial agriculture and put it into conservation," said John "Chip" Akridge, who along with his wife Sally owns Harleigh Farms, which owns Duvall Farm. The Duvall Farm and Lodge will be featured in the Talbot County House and Garden Tour May 15, and displays will be set up in the lodge with people to answer questions about the conservation project. The emphasis on conservation was two-fold, Akridge said: To provide habitat for waterfowl and bobwhite quail, and to improve the quality of the water runoff into the Chesapeake Bay. "We've had success at both," Akridge said. The work at Duvall Farm can also provide a demonstration for other land owners, Akridge said. Although Duvall Farm is a work in progress, some parts of the restoration showed surprisingly quick results, Akridge said. "It really doesn't take that long," he explained. "We brought the ponds back and we had ducks in the water before the vegetation grew back." Recent weather has also had an effect on the property. The multiple heavy snows of the winter, combined with the heavy rains that followed in the first days of spring, meant heavy runoff into the watershed, bringing in more sediment and more agricultural chemicals and nutrients that are still leaching out of the ground. The repeat snows this winter were particularly hard on the quail, which rely on seeds and vegetation at ground level. "We've been feeding them all winter," Akridge said. But the quail are still a success story. "In terms of success of the program, we have been able to propagate bobwhite quail," Akridge said. "There are more than we started." Oysters are a tough animal to restore to an area. "Oysters will take a little longer because because of the years and years of commercial agriculture," Akridge said. One of the first steps, he said, was to acquire enough land around the headwaters of Trippe Creek to help control the chemical and nutrient runoff from agriculture. "But it's really coming along here lately." Another variable in an oyster's life is the quality of the water bottom. "We will be testing different bottoms for oysters to grow," Akridge said. "If there is too much sediment, the spat (baby oysters) sink into the mud and die. "We're going to try to create a hard bottom using recycled materials, such as concrete, brick and oyster shells. We're also looking to put down filter cloth first so the spat don't sink into the mud." "The water quality of Trippe Creek has changed," Akridge said. "We control most of the watershed. The oyster quality has also improved, and I'm convinced it's because of the water quality." Harleigh Farms bought the property six years ago, Akridge said, with the aim of stopping it from being developed. "There was a 23-lot subdivision already platted out," Akridge said, "and I didn't really want 23 houses there. That drove the timing of the purchase." The Duvall farm also made the third large tract of land around the Trippe Creek Akridge had purchased, all contiguous. The conservation project has been in coordination with Conservation Reserve Program, administered by Farm Service Administration, and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program at the federal level, and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program at the state level. The contracts with the conservation agencies generally run on 10- to 15-year cycles, said Clay Robinson, wildlife manager of Harleigh Farm, and the Duvall property is in the middle of its programs. The programs pay an annual rent payment per acre, Robinson said, to keep the land in conservation. The payment is "very competitive" with farm rental rates, he said. To start, the programs pay a large part of construction costs for putting the land into conservation, Robinson said. "When you put the land into grassland it doesn't cost much, but putting in ponds take a lot of work," he added. In addition to the program-related conservation, Robinson said the farm leaves some crops for the game. "Instead of harvesting every single inch, we leave some of the standing crops for the deer and birds," he said.