Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, MD

In more than a decade, The Conservation Fund, working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Maryland, has acquired more than 6,800 acres in almost 20 separate transactions to establish and expand the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Located 12 miles south of Cambridge, Maryland, the refuge helps to preserve the Chesapeake Bay’s designation as a "Wetlands of International Importance.” Rich tidal marshes, freshwater ponds and mixed woodlands provide a winter home to some of the largest concentrations of canvasback and redhead ducks in the Chesapeake Bay and winter roosting and feeding habitat for wood ducks, black ducks, mallards, northern pintails and blue-winged teal. The refuge also shelters many other species, including bald eagles, Sitka deer, and the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel.