By Cris Barrish
Over the last quarter-century, the population of Sussex County, the most rural and southernmost in Delaware, has nearly doubled — up to 250,000 from 130,000.
The county’s historic, explosive era of growth has largely been fueled by retirees from nearby states who are attracted to the area’s natural charm, laid-back lifestyle, and low property tax rates.
But the boom has come with a price.
Hundreds of farms have been sold and cleared to construct more than 55,000 homes and businesses to serve new residents.
Yet one overlooked cost in a county with several large tracts of protected woodlands and nature preserves is the massive loss of forestland.
From 1998 to 2021, 43,000 acres of forestland have disappeared in Sussex County, according to the Delaware Forest Service.
To put that number in perspective, imagine a swath of trees nearly four times the size of Wilmington, the state’s largest city.
Unlike Delaware’s other two counties and the neighboring state of Maryland, Sussex County does not mandate the preservation of a certain percentage of woodlands when approving housing development.
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