PUBLICATIONS
|
September 2011 GreenSpace Connect Digest
This issue of the GreenSpace Connect Digest is dedicated to the memory of Bruce J. Hansen, who passed away on September 15, 2011. Bruce was an intern with GreenSpace Alliance for a year, and pioneered this newsletter. We will miss his hearty laugh and his expertise with the web.
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.
GreenSpace Alliance Launches Equinox Art with Nature Event
GreenSpace Alliance encourages you to get out and enjoy nature during the mild Equinox time of year. While you are there, try your hand at stacking some rocks, or rearranging the leaves, or making a design with seed pods - an ephemeral artwork. Capture the image digitally and send it to us at equinoxart@greenspacealliance.org. We'd like to share them with others at our website: www.greenspacealliance.org. Thanks, and enjoy!
List of Stories
4,000 Acres Protected in Cooks Creek Watershed
 Kathleen Connally.jpg)
To glance through Kathleen Connally’s A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania photo blog, you can quickly fall in love with the beautiful Cooks Creek watershed landscapes in the far northwest of Bucks County. The attractiveness of the area could easily become its downfall, with pressure to build houses on former farmland and woodlands. Fortunately, there has been a quiet effort to preserve this unique area.
Not only is the Cooks Creek watershed scenic, it has valuable recreational, natural, and agricultural assets, and it is also a water supply. Cooks Creek is the only Bucks County watershed to be designated as an Exceptional Value Cold Water Fishery, and is home to wild brown trout and native brook trout. The Cooks Creek Watershed Association reports that “The watershed is home to numerous rare and endangered species, including several rare reptiles and amphibians.” The limestone geology supports a high quality aquifer that provides drinking water to a majority of the residents. Where the limestone meets the adjacent granite, springs flow to the surface and create deep ravines. In other places farms spread across the wide valleys. Enjoying all this beauty are the many rural residents in the area.
A number of groups have prioritized protecting the beautiful natural areas and agricultural areas in the Cooks Creek watershed. In the Bucks County Natural Areas Inventory, the county lists this watershed as a first priority area to protect. This inventory identifies significant natural areas in Bucks County, many with rare plants and animals. The Heritage Conservancy has been working to preserve this area as part of their Cooks Creek Lasting Landscapes® region. The GreenSpace Alliance includes the Cooks Creek watershed in its Regional Green Plan, due to its agricultural values, as well as the area’s unique geology and beauty and its potential for scenic and recreational enjoyment. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection designated Cooks Creek as Exceptional Value waters, their highest designation. Cooks Creek is also part of the Highlands region, which runs through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, that the Highlands Coalition is working to protect. So the protection of this watershed is not just a local issue, but a county, state, and interstate goal.
Preservation efforts have been quite successful. In the 1990s the Cooks Creek Watershed Association helped to get a 64-acre parcel of land donated to the Heritage Conservancy. Pennsylvania Act 319 agricultural tax rates have also been used to take development pressures off of agricultural lands. In 2000, the Cooks Creek Watershed Association worked to convince Springfield Township residents to approve an open space referendum that taxed their wages one quarter percent (1/4%) to enable the Township to protect open spaces. Just this year, Heritage Conservancy has preserved 490 acres in Springfield Township, including farmland, stream corridor and woodlands. In neighboring Durham Township, Heritage Conservancy has completed conservation easements on two farms, preserving an additional 250 acres of farmland and wooded hillsides just this year. In the entire watershed, which includes Springfield, Durham, and Lower Saucon Townships, 4,000 acres have been preserved altogether, according to Laura Baird, Resource Protection Specialist at the Heritage Conservancy.
Progress like this is impressive. But there are concerns for the future. These include some concerns about increasing rural residential development, and the use of the Cooks Creek aquifer to provide water to adjacent sprawling uses. To help guide local growth, municipalities have adopted Open Space Plans in recent years to show those areas that jurisdictions want to preserve, and give an indication of where development may make some sense.
Diminishing funding to enact those new Open Space Plans and preserve land is a major concern. “This is all predicated on having money to spend on preservation,“ says Hans Reimann, Vice President of the Cooks Creek Watershed Association. Shrinking budgets of state partners such as Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture, as well as reduced federal, county and local funds are a big concern. As government funds dwindle, more groups vie for grant funds from organizations such as the William Penn Foundation. It is in this increasingly competitive financial environment that local land trusts, municipalities, counties, state, federal and foundation partners will work to protect the lands highlighted in their Open Space Plans, and photographed so beautifully by Kathleen Connally.
Find out more A Walk Through Durham Township Photo Blog Cooks Creek Watershed Association
Heritage Conservancy
Bucks-Montgomery Highlands
Photo credit: River Fog Near the Triangle, copyright 2007 Kathleen Connally
Go Back to Top
New Property on Pickering Creek Preserved
 If the ideal summer getaway for a young child (who can’t use electronic devices) could be devised, the White property in Chester County would be it. Pickering Creek, stocked with brown and rainbow trout, runs through woodlands and meadows waiting to be explored. If fish aren’t your cup of tea, the whinny of a mare in the paddock might speak to you. At 15 acres, this property has been eyed for its development potential to become yet another subdivision. Fortunately Charles and Alyssa White have chosen to preserve the land. West Pikeland Township and Chester County have funded the easements, and Natural Lands Trust (NLT) holds the conservation easement that will restrict future development and preserve the land.
Charles and Alyssa White initially bought the property as an investment. Having never lived in a historic house or on such a large acreage, they decided to give the 18th century house a try. Charlie, a hunter, appreciates the outdoors and nature. When the time came to create their dream home, they decided to stay with their historic home. When builders approached them about subdividing the property, they realized something. “We didn’t want the property chopped up and people living behind us,” said Alyssa White. Neighbors were to play an important role in their move forward. Living across the street from the Binky Lee Preserve, they had been impressed with the Natural Lands Trust and the work they did there. Their neighbor, Curt Grogan, is President of the West Pikeland Land Trust, which made it easy to work with that organization. Alyssa reported that the NLT and Township were great to work with, and credits the conservation easement with helping to keep the property intact and allowing them to be able to preserve the historic house and the land.
A lot of work went into making the conservation easements possible. The stage was set in 2007, when West Pikeland Township passed an Open Space Preservation Tax referendum, which raised funds dedicated to pay for land and easement purchases. West Pikeland Land Trust was appointed as the Open Space Advisors, and they designated the White property to be preserved with Open Space funds. Chester County provided matching funds of $115,998 through their Preservation Partnership Program. Charles and Alyssa White cared enough about preserving the natural beauty of the site to agree to the limitations that selling their right to develop entails. Natural Lands Trust worked with the Whites to write up the conservation easement, which NLT now holds. Natural Lands Trust takes the ongoing responsibility to monitor the site to make sure the easement restrictions are being complied with.
This insures that the site, which contains 9 acres of woodlands and 5 acres of soils suitable for agriculture, will continue to be preserved. Also, the public will now have an easement that allows public access to Pickering Creek. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission considers Pickering Creek a high quality trout stocking stream, and stocks it with trout for fishing. In addition a trail easement for hiking and horseback riding has been placed on the property. Its 30-foot width allows for the trail to meander around trees. The site currently provides habitat for horses, as well as wild creatures.
“The White property along the Pickering Creek is within a large and growing corridor of protected lands,” states Judy Thomas, Preservation Programs Coordinator of the Chester County Department of Open Space. “The property is adjacent to the Township’s Pickering Grove Park, and also links on its eastern corner to Natural Lands Trust’s Binky Lee Preserve. It is also adjacent to other privately owned properties with land trust easements. Most of the surrounding preserved land was also preserved with the help of County funds.”
Though the trail easements on the White property are not a direct link to other trails, they may help provide the building blocks for future trails. Jack Stefferud, Regional Director of Land Protection for Natural Lands Trust, points out they are hoping to get a trail along Pickering Creek. Though they try to connect trails, he notes that he can only work with willing landowners. To develop the trails from lines on paper to constructed trails on the ground, they try to use Boy Scouts who are looking for projects. Along the same lines, Curt Grogan, President of West Pikeland Land Trust, said he would be working with township and regional groups working on parks, recreation, and trails to get the trails built.
The conservation of the White property is another victory in a long line of projects that have involved numerous groups working together, and a willingness on the part of property owners to preserve the beauty we enjoy today for future generations.
Find out more
Natural Lands Trust
West Pikeland Land Trust
Chester County Open Space Program
Photo Credit: Natural Lands Trust
Go Back to Top
Fresh Creek to Flow in Logan Square
 Sister Cities Park at 18th Street and Logan Circle in Philadelphia, is a “new” and “old” park. New, because $4.6 million is being invested in renovating the site with a new design. Old, because it is part of Logan Square, one of William Penn’s parks in his original design for Philadelphia. The square’s history includes “open space” use as a burial ground, but since the 1920s it has been known mostly for Logan Circle’s Swann Memorial Fountain, and as one of the anchors for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
At the groundbreaking for the “new” park at the site on May 10, 2011, Paul Levy, President and CEO for Center City District, the organization coordinating the improvements, told the crowd that the Parkway had one major fault: "(It's) a wonderful cultural district. (It's) perfect in postcards, and great to drive on. But until recently it has been seriously lacking in pedestrian amenities." The renovation of Sister Cities Park is part of a $20.9 million makeover of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which the District has been working on for over a decade. This is one of the projects designed to make the area more pedestrian friendly.
Cultural institutions in the immediate vicinity include The Franklin Institute and the Academy of Natural Sciences which attract a high percentage of youth visitors, so part of the park is designed for children’s play. Not your standard playground, a “Discovery Garden” is designed for play in a natural area, with rocks to climb on, native plantings, and a stream. The fun doesn’t stop there. Toy boats, for rent or sale, can be placed at the headwaters, and followed fifteen feet downstream (stopping to watch them go under two bridges) into a boat pond near the outdoor dining area.
Water features prominently in many aspects of the park. The Sister Cities fountain is designed to allow park patrons to walk through the fountain. Each of ten spouts represents one of Philadelphia’s international sister cities, globally positioned with the central spout representing Philadelphia. The size of the spout signifies the sister city’s population. Other information on Philadelphia’s sister cities, which include Florence, Tel Aviv, Tianjin, Kobe, Aix-en-Provence and the Abruzzo region of Italy, will be available at the park. Water raining down on the site will be absorbed by the plantings, which can be found both in the landscaping on the ground, and on top of the proposed green roof of the pavilion. This is scheduled to be featured on a tour of downtown green roofs in November for the 2011 Green Roof Conference.
Following a trend to activate parks with amenities, a café is planned for the 3,000 square foot, one-story pavilion. In addition to the green roof, the pavilion will use geothermal technology for heating and cooling.
How did these improvements come about in a cash-strapped Philadelphia? The answer lies in the efforts of Center City District, a private-sector sponsored business improvement district dedicated to making Center City Philadelphia clean, safe and attractive, and maintaining Center City’s competitive edge as a regional employment center, a quality place to live and a premier regional destination for dining, shopping and cultural attractions. Center City District is leasing the land from the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation with a 15-year lease signed in 2009 that can be extended for an additional 10 years. Center City District has hired the design team of Studio│Bryan Hanes, landscape architect, DIGSAU architects, and Pennoni Engineers, Inc. to design the project. Funding for the improvements comes from The Pew Charitable Trusts, the William Penn Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the PA Department of Community and Economic Development, the State Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The Center City District will also manage the park.
The sister cities program the park is named for has as its mission to “Promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, & cooperation — one individual, one community at a time.” With the proposed design providing a place in which people will want to linger, the renovations may encourage that desired goal with our near neighbors too.
Find out more
Center City District
Sister Cities
Park Rendering: Studio│Bryan Hanes
Go Back to Top
Worcester Continues On Pace Preserving Open Space
 When it comes to preserving open space, the Township of Worcester excels. An area that many of us associate with leaving the suburbs and finally getting out into the countryside, this township is home to 2,897 acres of farmland, several historic sites, 965 acres of public and private parks and open space, and some amazing views all the way from the center of Montgomery County to the skyline of Philadelphia. Several groups have been actively working together to protect this beautiful countryside. As of December, 2010, they have succeeded in preserving 854 acres. It is especially remarkable, since the township only has a population of 9,750 as of the 2010 census, and an area of 16.2 square miles (10,368 acres).
The Township web site states, “The theme of ‘Keep Worcester Green’ has been heard for decades in our municipality. Preserving open space is a core initiative in Worcester, reflected in the types of development one sees when traveling through the Township.” The need to preserve open space is due in part to all the people who would like to live there. Population growth has come in waves to the township, peaking at over 60% per decade increase in 1950 to 1960, and 1990 to 2000. It is likely that watching farms and woods become homesites was on people’s minds when, in 2003, Montgomery County voters approved $150 million for an open space preservation program called Green Fields-Green Towns. This money, available through 2013, helps townships preserve open space and farmland. To take advantage of this program Worcester Township completed the Worcester Township Community Greenway Plan in 2004, which identified trails, riparian buffers, and greenways that the Township wanted to protect. Going further, in 2006 the Township adopted an innovative transferable development rights option. Also in 2006, the current Open Space Plan was adopted by the Board of Supervisors. In 2008 the Worcester Township Comprehensive Plan was revised and more was included regarding rural preservation, environmental protection, parkland, growth, development and infrastructure.
The development of plans and funding provides the framework. The rest is hard work and some very good will. Land has been preserved through gifts, outright purchases of property, and acquisition of development rights. Using the Montgomery County Agricultural Lands Preservation Program, the Township has preserved nine farms totaling 387 acres with $2.5 million in funding from both county and state. As of December 2010, a total of nineteen properties have been preserved, totaling 854 acres.
One recent example is the Moran property. Adjacent to Evansburg State Park, this site has mature woodlands that connect to the Pennsylvania Highlands Region. The property also has nationally significant wetlands, a tributary to Skippack Creek, stream buffers, and meadows. In flood mitigation alone, this property is a high-value site. At the end of last year an agreement was signed by the Moran family to protect 81 acres. Financial backing of $337,000 came from the Township, which leveraged $800,000 from Montgomery County and $700,000 from Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The funds were used by the Montgomery County Lands Trust to purchase the development rights so that the property will be preserved. The agreement stipulates that a trail can be built through the property, which will connect nearby Methacton High School with the trails in Evansburg State Park.
Another recent example is the D’Lauro property. Frank and Dorothy D’Lauro owned 104 acres along Valley Forge and Stump Hall Roads, called Long Lane Farm. Frank made provisions in his will for his land to be preserved, so after his death in 2007, the process began to protect the land. Sixty acres have been donated to the Natural Lands Trust, which will own and manage them. Frank’s cousin will live on the rest of the acreage. The entire 104 acres will have a conservation easement held and enforced by the Montgomery County Lands Trust, which will limit development on the site. This gift will preserve the beautiful twenty-mile vistas along Valley Forge Road for years to come.
It might seem that enough has been done. But the Open Space Plan shows many unique Worcester properties that are not yet protected. Friends of Worcester sums up the work to be done in their “Our Point of View” column on their web site:
Worcester Township is at a crossroads. The farms and woodlands that make our community unique are also the magnets that attract developers. We are one of the last remaining municipalities within a 40-mile radius of Philadelphia that is still green. We are in this position because of the strong leadership and foresight of the supervisors who served our community for many decades. Slow, deliberate decision making was appropriate in the past. But in the last decade, Worcester has almost doubled in population. We are among the fastest growing municipalities in Montgomery County.
The time to preserve Worcester is now. Our historic houses, our farms, and our scenic roads will not be here much longer if we do not act to protect them. By using available township funds, we can act now to preserve open space. We need to take advantage of the funds available from county and state land preservation programs. In addition, Worcester needs a historic protection ordinance that encourages developers to preserve and re-use historic houses, not tear them down. We need a commercial ordinance that requires developers to build villages, not big box stores and strip development. We need residential development to be planned for the benefit of the entire township, not just the developer.
The various partners in preservation have accomplished a tremendous amount already in Worcester Township. Their hard work will pay dividends to residents in the future who can let nature provide free stormwater treatment services, while they are enjoying the beauty of the open space around them.
Find out more
Worcester Township Open Space
Friends of Worcester
Montgomery County Lands Trust
Natural Lands Trust
Photo Credit: Jaime Bolognese, Potshop Road; 1st Place in Digital Division, Friends of Worcester 2005 Photo Contest
Go Back to Top
Bedminster Hosts Regional Open Space Roundtable
 Preserving open space can be a challenge anywhere, but it is even harder if you don’t have the advantage of other people’s experience and nearby training opportunities. That’s why the Bedminster Regional Land Conservancy and Bedminster Township recently co-hosted a Regional Open Space Round Table in upper Bucks County. Representatives of open space committees from Durham, Nockamixon, Plumstead, Springfield and Tinicum townships; three township supervisors; and several Tinicum Conservancy representatives took advantage of this opportunity, which was the third roundtable for land preservation officials in Upper Bucks County.
Eric Schaffhausen, Chairman of the Bedminster Board of Supervisors, and Don Moss, Chairman of the Bedminster Land Preservation Committee, praised the accomplishment of preserving 7,000 0f the 18,000 acres which comprise Bedminster Township. Bedminster Township has had four referendums, including one for the Earned Income Tax, to fund its land preservation program. They noted the work was in conjunction with the Bedminster Regional Land Conservancy which co-holds the conservation easements, and the Bucks County Agricultural Land Preservation and Municipal Open Space Programs.
Barbara Drew, Executive Director of the Bedminster Regional Land Conservancy (BRLC), led the discussions providing an overview of the accomplishments of the BRLC, including the conservancy’s groundbreaking accreditation status received in 2008 from the national Land Trust Alliance and their current holdings of 98 conservation easements protecting 4,247 acres of farms and natural lands. Based on the most recent (2009) statewide survey of land trusts, the BRLC ranks 8th out of 91 Pennsylvania land trusts in the total number of conservation easements held. Ms. Drew explained the services the BRLC provides and the benefits to municipalities of having a conservancy which is non-political, with a focused mission of upholding and defending easements, and the technical training to back that up.
Lynn Bush, Executive Director of the Bucks County Planning Commission, made a presentation on the state of the county Open Space Program remarking that 144 farms totaling 12,257 acres have been preserved in the county as well as 6,602 acres of natural areas and parkland. The county's frugal approach to spending has served it well: where other counties have cut back on their preservation program spending, Bucks County continues to fund the protection of farmland and natural areas and provide grants for municipal open space projects. A 2010 survey of county residents found that what they liked the most about the county was the farmland and rural character, followed by parks and recreation facilities and cultural and historic sites.
Tom Gilbert from the Trust for Public Land presented the “Economic Value of Protected Open Space” study results. Conducted by the GreenSpace Alliance and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the study showed the environmental benefits and services that open spaces provide to a community and translated the benefits into economic values. Data obtained in the study showed that homes that are closer to open space enjoy more significant property value increases, but on average, all homes in our region are worth $10,000 more because of their proximity and access to open space. Preserved lands also save money through naturally controlling flooding and filtering our water, saving on our health and recreation costs, and supporting nearly 7,000 jobs in tourism, agriculture and other fields. Mr. Gilbert, who is the Senior Conservation Finance Director for TPL, summarized, "This study is very timely and makes it clear that preserving our precious remaining open spaces in southeastern Pennsylvania is not just important for our environment and quality of life, but is also a wise investment that pays real economic dividends."
After hearing the results of a township preservation program questionnaire, the attendees discussed their common concerns. The dialogue included advice and possible solutions regarding procedures, funding issues, and other common concerns. All in attendance agreed that the exchange of information regarding land preservation among townships and conservancies was worthwhile, so the roundtable series will continue, with Springfield Township agreeing to host the next gathering.
When asked about her reflections on the meeting, Barbara Drew affirmed that, “The roundtable provided an informal opportunity for land preservation officials to compare notes on their processes and funding issues, which we hope leads to more collaboration and more preservation success stories in the upper Bucks County area.”
For more information please refer to the following:
Bedminster Regional Land Conservancy
Bucks County Open Space Program
Return on Environment study
Go Back to Top
|
  |
Print Preview