ANNAPOLIS, Md. — One thing most of us have learned over the pandemic is that people like our parks.
The 75 state parks from the mountains to the ocean were overwhelmed with people looking to get a break from all the aggravation.
Our state parks were set up for not us but Mother Nature.
"Preserve for the environmental impact," said Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford. The species are both there both from plant to wildlife species."
Lt. Governor Rutherford took a big interest of our parks the last 8 years that he and Governor Larry Hogan have been in office.
The animals and plant life benefit and so do we. Rutherford has one more park to claim he's visited all 75 State Parks. His last one will be St Clements Island in St. Mary's county.
Since the Lt. Governor has been in office, the state has protected an additional almost 72 thousand acres of open space, recreations and conservation lands. That conservation of land is needed. In the last 5 years, park attendance has increased by almost 50%.
"Right not we are losing so much. Land, water, we're loosing it," said Rhode Island resident Jennifer Escher. "This is where we need to appreciate it."
Steve Phillips retired 2 weeks ago and plans to spend a lot of that time in our parks.
"we use Sandy Point more often than others but, i've been to Patapsco and deep creek," said Phillips.
The federal money, coupled with state money will be put to good use to keep the parks clean and natural.
"We'll continue to maintain the parks and get to a lot of the back log that's been there for many years," Rutherford said.
All of our parks present nice scenery but there's more that you can do then bringing home nice pictures form our parks. You can bring home a little peace of mind as well.
"Extremely pleasant, relaxing, you can take a deep breath and breath in the natural beauty of the area," said Rutherford.
Len Johnson goes for a walk almost every day in a park.
"Yeah, It's definitely worth it because it gets people to be themselves," said Johnson If you are in nature you are with yourself.
So be like the more than 40 million people who have gone to our state parks in the last two years and pull up a seat, relax and think about, nothing.
