The Crothers Family

Perryman property preserved forever

In May 2023, the Crothers family permanently preserved 32-acres in Perryman. The property contains 14 acres of tillable land as well as 16 acres of forest within the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area. The coastal plain property is near and drains into Cranberrry Run, a tributary of Church Creek, and is adjacent to the County owned Perryman Park.

HLT was honored to work with the Crothers and Maryland Environmental Trust for over three years to preserve their beloved family property. This success was made possible with funding from HLT’s partnership with Aberdeen Proving Ground (known as the Army Compatible Use Buffer Program or ACUB). 

The Crothers have deep roots in Perryman. Their father, Ed Crothers, was the catalyst and community organizer for HLT’s first project in 1991, the Perryman-Forest Green’s Lake Preserve. 

The Crothers siblings shared some of their story with us below.

The Crothers family has lived in Harford County for about 75+ years and moved into Perryman about 70 years ago when Ed & Joyce purchased the ¾ acre property with the two-story house for their growing family of 4. In the years that followed they added 5 more children, several additions to the house, an attached garage and a detached garage, and purchased the 30+ acreage behind the house. I think our father Edward wanted to see this land stay as natural as he could for along time. He planted several rows of trees in front of the existing woodland for later down the road. Because we used a lot wood in our fireplace/heat unit he was constantly cleaning out the woodland area of the dead trees. As children, in the winter, we used to go back thru the woodland to a small pond to ice skate when it froze over.

Since my father’s passing some 29 years ago it was always thought that we would keep the property natural like our father would have wanted. My brothers still clear out the dead trees for firewood for themselves and friends and about 8 years ago we were contacted by farmer to plant the front 10 acres in rotating crops. This leads up to the present situation of placing this property in the Harford Land Trust and after several years of getting all our i’s dotted and t’s crossed, we will be settling on this venture.

Many thanks to everyone at the Land Trust for making this happen.

Crothers children – Bruce Crothers, Paula Thetford, Lynn Crothers, Deleen Vincenti, Brent Crothers (wife Gina Pierleoni), Bradley Crothers and Brooks Crothers