Notes from a Changing Patapsco Landscape

Discovering the Wetlands I Didn’t Know Existed

Patapsco Valley State Park

A historian with the Maryland Park Service, once shared that the settlers who arrived here in the 1600s would’ve seen a green valley—but not this kind of green. There were trees, yes, but not these trees. The species were different. The land was different. The valley has always been transforming. It has never been static.

If we lived for centuries, we might see that gradual transformation unfold.

But today, the pace of change feels accelerated. Development is altering the landscape at a scale and speed that would have been unimaginable to early settlers. And we’re here to witness it—not centuries later, but in real time.

Last week’s piece on the Old Frederick Road conditional use hearing—about the proposed 54-unit, age-restricted adult housing development—prompted a number of private messages and a few shares. While I can’t speak for everyone’s reaction, the piece clearly struck a chord. It sparked conversations about land use, conditional use petitions, and th…