St. Mary’s County commissioners quietly took a step toward expanding public waterfront access on the lower Wicomico River last week, authorizing staff to obtain a second appraisal for a parcel of land at the end of Bushwood Wharf Road — right next to a county park and boat ramp that has served boaters and anglers in the remote western end of the county for decades.
The July 28 vote came with little discussion and no purchase decision attached; county officials described it only as a step toward a potential acquisition under Program Open Space, the state grant program that helps Maryland’s 24 counties and Baltimore City buy and develop parks and conservation land. County officials have said the acquisition, if it eventually moves forward, could improve public access to a nearby pier and boat ramp, according to figures presented alongside the vote.
That existing pier and ramp sit at Robert E. Pogue Memorial Park, the county’s public waterfront facility at 36803 Bushwood Wharf Road, near the spot historically known as Bushwood Wharf where the Wicomico River widens into a cove just upstream of its mouth on the Potomac. The county-owned facility includes a 175-foot fishing pier and a single boat-launch lane, and was last renovated in 2005; it remains a modest but well-used access point for anglers and small-boat owners in an area with few other public water access sites. State route MD 239 dead-ends at the site, a road built as a gravel route in the 1920s that historically connected the waterfront community to points inland.
The parcel now under appraisal appears to sit immediately adjacent to that county park, at 36850 Bushwood Wharf Road. County land-use records show the property has for years carried a recorded Declaration of Covenants restricting its sale to members of a single family — the same family name, Pogue, that the adjoining county park bears. In 2020, a property owner identified in county records as Ms. Pogue formally petitioned the county’s Department of Land Use and Growth Management for an exception to that intrafamily conveyance restriction, a step typically required before land bound by such a covenant can be sold, transferred or developed outside the family. It is not publicly known whether this month’s appraisal request is tied to that earlier petition, but the overlapping address, family name and waterfront location suggest the county may be in early discussions to acquire land that has remained in the same family’s hands for generations.
Program Open Space has funded parks and conservation purchases in Maryland since 1969, and St. Mary’s County has participated since the program’s inception, using the funding on roughly 10 acquisition and development projects over the past six years alone, according to the county’s most recent land preservation planning documents filed with the state. Securing Program Open Space money for a new acquisition typically requires a formal appraisal process, county Planning Commission review, and final sign-off from the Board of County Commissioners before a deal can close — meaning last week’s vote represents an early, preliminary step rather than a commitment to buy.
Bushwood itself is a small, unincorporated waterfront community in the far western reaches of St. Mary’s County, closer in practice to Charles County across the Wicomico than to the county seat in Leonardtown. The community sits near several other modest public and semi-private water access points along the lower Wicomico, including the privately operated Longview Beach community with its own boat ramp and fishing pier, and the historic Ocean Hall property nearby. Public boat ramps in that stretch of the county remain relatively scarce compared with more developed parts of St. Mary’s County, making any expansion of the county’s footprint at Bushwood Wharf notable for residents who rely on the site to reach the Wicomico and Potomac rivers.
County officials have not released a timeline for when a second appraisal might be completed or when commissioners might revisit the question of an actual purchase. As with all Program Open Space acquisitions, any eventual deal would still need to clear the standard review process, including confirmation of available state funding, before land officially changes hands.
