October 2009 GreenSpace Connect Digest
The GreenSpace Connect Digest is a publication of the GreenSpace Alliance that highlights success stories about preserving and connecting open space throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania. To contribute or suggest future stories, please contact us.
List of Stories
Coalition for Philadelphia's Riverfronts Seeks to Establish a Continuous Public Greenway Along Both Rivers
The Coalition for Philadelphia's Riverfronts (CPR) is a new advocacy partnership dedicated to improving the quality of Philadelphia's riverfronts by establishing an urban, high quality, continuous, connected, and publicly accessible greenway along the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. Philadelphia has an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen the city by restoring both riverfronts so that they achieve their enormous cultural, economic and environmental potential. By creating a greenway along our rivers, the city can be on its way to meet the goal of being America's greenest city. CPR will hold an official launch event on Tuesday, October 6th. This event will start at 5 pm and will be held at the new Schuylkill Banks Plaza at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive on the Schuylkill River adjacent to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
CPR grew out of Next Great City's public riverfronts recommendation, and draws heavily on the success of groups like the Complete the Schuylkill River Trail Coalition, the Central Delaware Advocacy Group, and others that have addressed riverfront issues much more effectively as a collaboration than they could have as individual neighborhood associations. CPR takes that collaboration even further. Existing coalitions have united riverfront neighborhoods in different portions of the city to work together towards the shared goal of improving the Schuylkill or the Delaware. CPR believes that every riverfront issue along every portion of the city's two major rivers needs to become a citywide issue.
The coalition is advocating for a riverfront greenway to become citywide policy, applied to all riverfront neighborhoods with the same high standards and believes that City Council and the Philadelphia City Planning Commission must make the greenway a priority of the city. In practice, City Council should pass an ordinance that the land along both rivers is reserved for a future greenway, and, with the help of the Planning Commission, it should add the greenway to the official City Plan. At a minimum, the new law should require that all new riverfront development be setback far enough to allow for a high quality trail with enough room for biking and walking, and with a green space to protect the rivers and wildlife from stormwater and pollution.
Investing in a high quality greenway is an important part of the city's future vision, and there are many financing options available. Other cities have found that public spending on greenways yields high returns on private investment. In addition to making a riverfront greenway official city policy, CPR advises the city to examine creative financing options like tax incremental financing (TIF) mechanisms, as well as looking to state and federal funding to make the creation of the greenway a reality.
Partners in this initiative include among others 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, GreenSpace Alliance, Next Great City, and Philadelphia Parks Alliance.
To find out more about CPR's October 6th launch event on the Schuylkill River banks, contact Rachel Vassar at 215-545-9691 or vassar@pennfuture.org.
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Chester County and Audubon Pennsylvania Partner to Permanently Protect Important Bird Area
Chester County Commissioners unanimously lent their support to preserving a critical bird habitat in Upper Ridley Creek, dedicating county tax dollars towards Audubon Pennsylvania's purchase of a 50-acre "doughnut hole" in the center of the preserve. The land will be added to Willistown Conservation Trust's 30-acre Rushton Woods Preserve, and its protection will ensure that development does not destroy what Audubon has designated as an Important Bird Area, one of a global network of sites recognized for outstanding value to bird conservation.
"Audubon of Pennsylvania is thrilled with the support of the commissioners for this project," Philip Wallis, the organization's executive director, told the Chester County Daily Local. "This particular property is located in the heart of one of the most significant important bird areas in Chester County. It will allow a variety of bird species that are in decline in southeastern Pennsylvania to continue to have a home." The $1 million grant is paid for through the county's $20 million open space funding for 2009, allocated through the open space conservation program. The Willistown Conservation Trust, with continued support by Audubon, plans to raise money from the state and other sources to fund the remainder of the $3.9 million purchase.
Important Bird Areas (IBA) form a global network of sites recognized for outstanding value to bird conservation. The program was established to reverse declining bird populations and is administered in the U.S. by the Audubon Society. To qualify, a site must satisfy at least one of four criteria; the Upper Ridley/Crum IBA is highly significant as a nesting and foraging area for migratory songbirds. According to a 2009 Audubon Society report, "As a large patch of green in a fully suburbanized region, the Upper Ridley/Crum IBA acts as a vital stopover site for many species of neotropical migrant songbirds. Several woodland species of concern stay for the summer and nest within the IBA."
Public access and collaboration by landowners and conservation groups on conservation strategies were also important factors in earning the IBA designation. The Upper Ridley/Crum IBA represents a large amount of diverse habitat protected by both private landowners and conservation groups primarily under the auspices of the Willistown Conservation Trust. A Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources watershed conservation plan details specific community projects: "The Willistown Conservation Trust sponsors a grassland bird restoration project to work with landowners on mowing schedules and native grass plantings to support breeding populations of species such as meadowlarks, bobolinks, and savannah sparrows. The area was also selected because of the number of habitat restoration projects in which local residents are involved, including riparian buffer plantings and native grassland management."
The Willistown Conservation Trust began as a satellite program of the Brandywine Conservancy in 1979, and has since protected over 6,000 acres of land. In recent years, they have centered their land protection and land management strategies around the IBA designation, thus forming a model relationship with Audubon Pennsylvania. Audubon hopes to replicate this relationship across the state and even the country.
The two organizations are addressing the three major threats to bird habitat in the area: residential development, overabundance of white-tailed deer, and invasive plant species.
Willistown Conservation Trust has also identified all of the unprotected lands within the IBA that provide contiguous wildlife habitat and are thus priority areas for bird conservation. Volunteers from the Valley Forge Audubon Society and the West Chester Bird Club are monitoring bird life in the area in order to demonstrate to private landowners how crucial their properties are to local bird conservation.
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Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust preserves additional 37 acres through public and private partnerships
The Pennypack Preserve encompasses 771 acres and is the second-largest privately-owned natural area open to the public in Montgomery County. The Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust (PERT), which manages the preserve, recently acquired an additional 37 acres in a deal that involved private, state, county, borough, and township resources. This complex acquisition was made possible by the generous support of Montgomery County's Green Fields/Green Towns open space program. Three municipalities partnered with the Trust to complete the project by dedicating portions of their Green Fields/Green Towns allocations to the project: the Borough of Bryn Athyn, the Township of Lower Moreland, and the Township of Upper Moreland. In addition, the Trust received equally significant support from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' (DCNR) Community Conservation Partnership Program (C2P2), which provided a grant that covered nearly 40% of the project cost.
In total, three properties were protected. The properties, on the grounds of the Lord's New Church in Bryn Athyn Borough and Upper Moreland Township, encompass the headwaters of a tributary to Pennypack Creek as well as upland forests, mature evergreen plantations, and acres of old-field habitat. The Trust protected two of the parcels (10.07 and 14.01 acres) with conservation easements, and purchased the third (12.75 acres) outright. This acquisition illustrates the important role that organizations such as PERT play in maximizing available funding by bringing different stakeholders together to preserve land and resources that are mutually beneficial
Although the acquisition of these properties was complex, it wasn't unusual. Almost all of the projects that PERT has completed in the past 10 years have involved multiple funders and partners. Dr. David Robertson, PERT's executive director, credits the organization's longstanding and carefully cultivated relationship with local municipalities for streamlining the process. He points to the beginning of Montgomery County's open space program in 1993 and the State's creation of C2P2 in 1993 as the impetus for these types of projects: "These collaborative efforts could not have happened without state and county funding. These granting agencies have had a significant impact on the amount of land that we have been able to preserve."
There are several benefits to preservation efforts such as this one, not the least of which is the economic benefit to local communities. Research has shown that greenbelts and trails through urban and suburban areas increase adjacent property values by thousands of dollars per acre. In addition, businesses often measure local assets such as recreational opportunities to help them determine where to relocate or expand their operations. Because of this, conserved land can directly translate to development and expansion of business investment in a community. Ecologically, preserved natural lands sustain high levels of rainfall infiltration, reduce erosion and flooding in streams, help to maintain groundwater quantity and quality, and filter pollutants out of the air in addition to providing many other benefits.
The Montgomery County Commissioners adopted the Green Fields/Green Towns Program in 2003. This 10-year, $150 million program, approved by voter referendum, built on the success of the 1993 Montgomery County Open Space Program that preserved nearly 4,500 acres of open space through municipal and private organization grants. The Green Fields/Green Towns Program was established to continue the success of the earlier program in providing recreation opportunities, conserving natural features, preserving historic and cultural landscapes, maintaining scenic quality, protecting water resources, shaping the pattern of land use and development, and preserving agricultural land.
The C2P2 grant program administered by DCNR provides grants to local governments, county governments and non-profit organizations. The funding is meant to address community recreational and conservation needs and to support economically beneficial recreational tourism initiatives. Eligible grant components include rails-to-trails conversions, river conservation projects, and community recreation enhancements. Project types can focus on planning, acquisition or development. Generally, C2P2 grants require a 50% match of cash or in-kind contributions.
The recently preserved properties in the Pennypack Preserve are part of the larger Pennypack Greenway, an initiative coordinated and lead by the Pennypack Greenway Partnership. This group of nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies works together to preserve, expand, and restore natural areas along Pennypack Creek. The Partnership is committed to linking the Greenway's neighborhoods and communities, improving water resources, enhancing recreational opportunities, and safeguarding the Greenway's natural and cultural heritage. This important natural and recreational corridor connects the Delaware River in Philadelphia to surrounding communities in suburban Montgomery County. When completed, the greenway will encompass over 2,500 acres and extend 21 miles along the Pennypack Creek.
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Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association and TreeVitalize Partner to Restore Delaware County Creek Corridor
Earlier this year, 55 volunteers planted 100 trees along Ridley Creek in Delaware County's Ridley Creek State Park. Coordinated and led by the Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association (CRC), this project is an excellent example of public and private collaboration. The trees were supplied through a grant from TreeVitalize, a state program with the goal of planting over 1 million trees in Pennsylvania. Funding for this CRC project came from Aqua Pennsylvania, a major contributor to TreeVitalze. Additional partners in this project included the PA Department of Environmental Protection, the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Delaware County Conservation District (DCCD), Trout Unlimited, and LyondellBasell. LyondellBasell's Newtown Square facility provided the bulk of the volunteers for the planting through their Global Care Day.
For years, the riparian corridor along this section of the creek, which is situated in a floodplain, has been significantly impacted by tree cover loss, invasive plants and downstream erosion. The tree plantings are part of an ongoing effort to restore 16 acres of the Ridley Creek corridor. Along with the removal of invasive plants and installation of warm season grass plugs, the trees will increase the canopy cover of the region (thereby reintroducing native plant species) and reduce flooding along the creek.
Ridley Creek State Park is an important green space in rapidly developing Delaware County. With over 2,500 acres, the park provides one of the largest contiguous areas of tree cover in the county and significantly contributes to improved air quality and reduced pollution. The five-county region, which includes Philadelphia and Delaware Counties, has suffered an 8% (34,000 acres) loss of heavy tree cover in only 15 years. This reduction in tree canopy directly translates to increased storm water runoff, higher energy costs, and a loss of air quality. In light of this information compiled by American Forests, Inc. and the U.S. Forest Service, Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) launched TreeVitalize in 2004.
The program aims to restore tree cover throughout the state. In southeastern Pennsylvania Tree Vitalize is administered by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and has a number of major focus areas including the city of Philadelphia, local municipalities and regional watersheds. Michael Leff, TreeVitalize Program Manager at PHS in southeastern Pennsylvania, emphasizes the importance of the program. "This one initiative provides a wide range of benefits including storm water management, reduction of heat island effects, beautification and the improvement of water quality." According to Leff, "Pennsylvania's TreeVitalize program is unique and the only regionally coordinated effort in the state that seeks to preserve tree cover."
 Tree planting is supported through a combination of trees, technical assistance, education and funding. To receive a watershed grant, community and conservation groups need to match tree grants or trees supplied through a combination of cash and in-kind services from volunteers, municipal employees, and contractors.
State funding for the program comes from DCNR and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) through Growing Greener, which provides funding for a variety of environmental conservation initiatives including open space preservation, watershed protection and community revitalization. In addition, major private contributors in Southeastern Pennsylvania include the William Penn Foundation, Aqua Pennsylvania, PECO/Exelon, and the U.S. Forest Service.
As of 2009, TreeVitalize in Southeastern Pennsylvania has planted over 100,000 trees and restored over 400 acres of forested riparian buffer. Over 2,600 people have attended PHS Tree Tenders© classes and volunteered to plant trees in neighborhoods. The program was expanded to include Pittsburgh in 2008 and DCNR is currently extending the initiative to the remaining 12 metropolitan regions of the state. TreeVitalize has a goal of planting over 1 million trees throughout the state by 2012. In 2004, CRC was the first organization to receive a grant from TreeVitalize for planting trees along a waterway. This partnership continues today, with CRC receiving six TreeVitalize grants in 2009.
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Preserved Farms in Bucks County Create 350 Acre Corridor of Permanently Protected Land
Two large farms in Bedminster Township, Bucks County have recently been preserved creating a corridor of 350 acres of contiguous land that is permanently protected. These properties are in close proximity to over 650 acres of preserved land in the north western corner of the township, within the Highlands region. Located in central upper Bucks County, Bedminster has approximately 28% of its land permanently preserved. Totaling over 5,300 acres, the preservation of this land has been made possible through formal conservation easements or protected as park land owned by either the township, county or Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The 100-acre AGA Farms was protected by the state and county through the Bucks County Agricultural Land Preservation Program. Directly abutting this land is the 105-acre Brubaker farm. The state, county and township purchased the easement for this property which is co-held by the Bedminster Land Conservancy (BLC).
AGA Farms is a popular site with local families where they can pick their own pumpkins, go on hay-rides or walk through a corn maze. The farm also grows and sells Christmas trees as well as a variety of other crops.
"The preservation of this farm was extremely important because of its direct connection to five other preserved properties along a major road" explains Barbara Drew, Director of Conservation for BLC. After initial conversations with BLC, the Devery's worked with Rich Harvey, Director of Agricultural Preservation for Bucks County, to place easements on their property through the county's program.
The Brubaker farm includes a meadow and headwaters for East Branch Perkiomen Creek in a forested riparian corridor, with a large amount of road frontage and scenic views. The majority of the property is currently used to grow soybeans or corn. In addition to the county and state, Bedminster Township contributed a portion of the costs needed to purchase this easement. The Conservancy worked with the owners the farm when they were first considering placing an easement on the property. "We were able to provide them with background information on the procedures for preserving their property and the benefits of bargain sales" said Drew.
The township's open space and farmland preservation is funded by a $7.5 million voter referenda approved in 1999 and a more recent voter referenda approved .25%
dedicated earned income tax.
The Bucks County Agricultural Land Preservation Program is part of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program which was developed in 1988 to help slow the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural uses. The county program seeks to ensure that farming heritage and an agricultural economy remain a viable part of Bucks County's future. To date, 111 farms totaling over 10, 000 acres have been preserved throughout the county. Over 60 farms are included on the program's waiting list.
Bedminster Land Conservancy is an accredited regional land trust that serves the upper Bucks County area and works with several area townships and open space organizations to preserve the agricultural heritage and rural lifestyle of the area. Incorporated in 1997, BLC currently has 88 easements on over 3,700 acres of land in five different municipalities. In 2008, the conservancy accepted eight new easements in Bedminster and Solebury townships, totaling over 330 acres, which was a 10% increase in acreage preserved from 2007.
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