The regional Girl Scouts council has sold nearly a square mile of forest in Prince George’s County and will use the proceeds to seed a new fund to support camps and expand programming for Girl Scouts across the region.
The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, a bi-county agency that oversees parkland and land use regulation in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, bought the nearly 537 acres of undeveloped land, part of what’s known as Marlton Forest, near Charles Branch Stream Valley Park in Upper Marlboro. The sale price was $12.6 million.
Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital, the nonprofit overseeing scouting across D.C. and 25 counties in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, said Jan. 9 the money will allow it to create the Outdoor Legacy Fund. That fund, bolstered by future contributions, will help to operate eight existing camps spanning some 1,500 acres, including in Prince George’s, Montgomery, Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
An affiliate of Pleasants Enterprises Inc., a construction company in Clarksburg, donated more than 600 acres to the scouting council in 2018, according to a press release.
