Directors' Report
Dear Fellow Conservationists,
As winter settles in, we celebrate the enduring beauty of our natural world and the collective efforts to protect it. Specifically included in our celebrations is marking 40 years of preserving the iconic King Ranch landscape, a testament to the power of shared vision and collaboration. We hope you join us in celebrating this accomplishment and invite you to reminisce and learn more in our featured article.
During winter, the Conservancy remains busy and there are plenty of environmental activities you can undertake at home, too. From managing invasive species to adopting greener holiday and winter practices, this issue of Environmental Currents offers practical tips for making a positive impact. In addition, our Climate Corner shares ways to celebrate sustainably, keep your home energy-efficient, and responsibly dispose of your Christmas tree. For even greater impact, landowners can take a survey to start engaging with us through our new Landowner Stewardship Program.
Looking forward, we’re excited to invite you to the Brandywine-Christina Watershed Conference on January 16. This event will showcase regional conservation efforts and introduce the draft of the Brandywine Flood Study—a vital resource for building resilience against future flooding.
From winter sowing with native seeds to updates on regional planning initiatives, this issue highlights the layered approach we take to mission fulfillment as we connect communities to the land and water that sustain us. Your support makes this work possible, and together, we’re making a lasting difference.
Thank you for being part of our mission. Wishing you a joyful holiday season and a peaceful New Year.
— Stephanie and Grant
Stephanie Armpriester, Director of Conservation and Stewardship
Grant DeCosta, Director of Community Services
Celebrating 40 Years of Preservation of King Ranch
In Southern Chester County, along Route 82, there is an agrarian oasis. The landscape undulates, with hay growing on rolling hillsides and copses of woods dotting the viewshed. Small streams meander through the lowlands, carrying some of the highest quality water in the region to the Brandywine Creek. Looking closely, you’ll notice farmhouses here and there; some old, and most nearly hidden from view. While it may feel like the aesthetics and character of this landscape are happenstance, the story of this idyllic place, like most stories about land, started with a vision. It's with this vision that an iconic landscape came to be and sparked a conservation movement throughout our region 40 years ago.
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Invasive Species Spotlight: Bush Honeysuckle
Exotic bush honeysuckles, originally native to parts of Eurasia—including Japan, China, Korea, Turkey, and southern Russia—were introduced to North America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially, these shrubs were sought as ornamentals, used for erosion control, or chosen to create wildlife cover. Over time, their fast-growing nature turned problematic and they outcompeted native plants, disrupting local ecosystems. The most prevalent species in Eastern North America are Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), Morrow’s honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii), and Tartarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica).
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Celebrate Sustainably: Tips for a Joyful and Sustainable Holiday Season
Dreaming of a green holiday? From decking the halls with natural decorations to gifting presents that don't require wrapping, here are some of our top holiday tips to help you celebrate sustainably this season.
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Sustainable Christmas Tree Disposal Ideas
Buying a real Christmas tree can be a great sustainable way to deck the halls and bring home some holiday cheer. Not only are trees powerful tools for absorbing and storing carbon, they also filter other pollutants in our air and water and provide important habitat for wildlife. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, for every Christmas tree harvested, one to three new seedlings are planted to ensure consistent supplies for upcoming years. This means, by purchasing from a local tree farm, not only are you helping to support local agriculture and forestry, you are also supporting the planting of more trees.
But sustainability doesn't stop there. When the holidays are over and it's time to take the tinsel down, there are multiple sustainable options for disposing of your tree. Read on for some ideas of how to recycle your real tree, what to do with an artificial tree that's past its prime, as well as some tips on what to avoid.
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How to Have a Cozy and Energy-Efficient Winter
From weatherizing windows to using the right fan settings, these simple tips can reduce your electricity consumption and cut down on costs this winter without sacrificing comfort.
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Smart Salt Strategies for Safer, Greener Winters
Rock salt and other deicers can negatively impact waterways and plants. Even with our winters becoming milder, it is still important to know how to properly treat icy surfaces while minimizing the environmental impacts. Read on for seven smart salting strategies to help keep your walkways clear this winter.
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Join us Jan. 16 at the Brandywine-Christina Watershed Conference
Join us on Jan. 16 for a one-day conference celebrating the William Penn Foundation’s Delaware River Watershed Initiative (DRWI). The conference will highlight the work of the DRWI partners to improve the quality of the Brandywine-Christina watershed, the complementary project work by peer organizations, and collaborative strategies for the betterment of the watershed. A draft of the upcoming Brandywine Flood Study will also be released at the conference. Following the release, the Flood Study Team will be hosting a series of public meetings throughout the watershed in Delaware and Pennsylvania to support the public comment period and receive feedback on the draft results and recommendations.
When: January 16, 2025; 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m.
Where: Mendenhall Inn, 323 Kennett Pike, Chadds Ford, PA
Click here to register
Take Our Landowner Stewardship Survey
The Brandywine Conservancy is launching a new Landowner Stewardship Program to encourage and inspire landowners to get involved in the active stewardship of their land and to provide them with the tools and opportunities they need to accomplish their stewardship goals. The program’s objective is to offer technical and financial assistance for stewardship projects on eased land that will improve the overall health and sustainability of the landscape on a local and regional scale.
An essential first step in the process is to engage with landowners to assess their current land use practices, goals for their properties, and interest in furthering the stewardship of the natural resources found on their properties. We kindly ask all landowners willing to share their knowledge and goals for their property to participate in our landowner stewardship survey linked below. It should take less than ten minutes to fill out. Thank you!
Click here to take the survey
Winter Tree Identification Tips
In our region, deciduous trees—those that lose their leaves during the colder winter months—dominate the forests, making tree identification more difficult. Luckily, there are other characteristics we can turn to when the temperature drops and the days get shorter.
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Winter Sowing with Native Plant Seeds
Winter sowing is a simple, cost-effective, and efficient way to grow native plants from seeds. By using natural stratification processes, this gardening technique can yield higher germination rates and stronger plants. Winter sowing promotes biodiversity, strengthens local ecosystems, and gives gardeners the satisfaction of growing native plants from seed—without the need for indoor grow lights or complicated care routines. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or a beginner, winter sowing offers an easy, accessible and sustainable way to support the growth of native plants.
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Brandywine Creek Greenway All Partner's Meeting Recap
The Brandywine Creek Greenway celebrated with more than 30 municipal and non-profit partners at the All Partner’s Meeting on October 22. Guests from Chester County, Delaware County, and New Castle County joined Conservancy staff for an evening, sharing dinner and year-end updates and project progress. University of Delaware undergraduate students joined us to share their studio work from the Spring 2024 course “Creek Cultures,” offering conceptual plans with vivid schematic drawings for ecological remediation, community development, and flood mitigation projects along the Brandywine Creek.
In it’s third year, the Greenway’s Annual Award of Appreciation was granted to Janet Ebert, a long-time volunteer and botanical expert who has aided in the surveying, teaching, planting and implementation of native plants across the Brandywine landscape for multiple decades.
Brandywine Conservancy staff were proud to announce the update to the Strategic Action Plan for the Brandywine Creek Greenway, originally created in 2013. This is the guiding document for the Greenway, a regional municipal planning initiative that works with 30 municipalities from Honey Brook, PA to Wilmington, DE, along 40 miles of the Brandywine Creek. This Plan articulates goals and objectives for recreation and transportation; natural resource conservation; cultural resource protection; community and environmental resiliency; diversity, inclusion, accessibility and equity; education and outreach; and economic prosperity.
Over the last two years, extensive public outreach was conducted, with Conservancy staff engaging more than 500 members of the public about their goals for their municipality and the Greenway as a whole. Additionally, each municipality was engaged for 1:1 sessions with Conservancy staff to reconnect and gain insight into progress over the last ten years and set tangible goals for the decade or further. The Plan is helpful to tracking progress, educating municipal staff and the public, as well as leveraging partnerships and showing collaboration for available grant funding to move these projects forward towards completion. It is the hope of Brandywine Conservancy that this entire document serves as an evergreen resource for all that are invested in the future of the Greenway and the future of the region which we so deeply enjoy and protect.
Connecting Communities with the Local Landscape
On any given weekend during the hot summer months, Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art’s parking lot is filled with people excited to jump into the water for a day of leisurely fun with friends and family. Whether swimming or taking a lazy river ride in a tube, you can count on people recreating in the Brandywine Creek. Water is a unifying theme, as it attracts families to grill, picnic and listen to music while kids splash around, creating a chance to come together for the day.
As a way to engage with local communities, the Conservancy worked with non-profit partners in the Kennett Square region whose missions support work to build a greater sense of community by advocating for education, housing, recreation, health and wellness to form the Diverse Community Outreach Committee (DCOC). The main goal of this shared partnership is to increase diversity and equitable access to local trails, open space, and recreation for all members of our community and encourage families to spend quality time together in nature.
Let's Go Fish!
Branching out from Mighty Writers’ and Casa Guanajuato’s existing partnerships with the Brandywine Museum of Art, the DCOC hosted a series of programs this past spring that taught young anglers how to catch fish. Events were held in the winter and early spring of 2024 in the community, at Kennett Library and Mighty Writer’s El Futuro Kennett, to introduce the educational activity of dry casting—a type of fishing that is used to develop skills on land before attempting to catch live fish in water while using a rod, reel, hook, and bait. This programming was developed in partnership with Mid-Atlantic Youth Anglers/Legacy Land & Water Partners to provide families with proper equipment and a safe space to learn and practice fishing in their local waterways. By the end of the dry-casting programs, there were many new anglers excited to go out and reel in their first catch!
Following these practice sessions, a Community Fishing Day was held at Anson B. Nixon Park (Kennett Square) in May, funded through the William Penn Foundation and the Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund. This event welcomed over 200 members of the local community, with family members of all ages having the opportunity to pick up a rod and catch a fish from the park's public pond. Participants snacked on popsicles and ice cream from La Michoacana and sipped cold drinks and fruit from GIANT Food Stores. In addition to fishing, the committee of local partner organizations offered other activities including a bilingual story-time of Senorita Mariposa, a fish-themed craft, and lawn games. At the end of the afternoon, the Brandywine Conservancy was able to raffle off 17 fishing rods to future anglers. The smiling faces and giggles echoing around the pond after the first—or fifth!—catch radiated throughout the park that afternoon.
These events were enjoyed by the community, with some attendees requesting additional opportunities to continue fishing as entire families. “My children and I usually watched their father fish, but this event provided the resources for us to all fish together as a family for the first time,” one participant shared. Alongside Brandywine Conservancy and other partners, angling consultant Todd Pride returned to lead several pop-up Family Fishing Nights at Anson B. Nixon Park throughout the summer months. Once again, all fishing equipment was provided during the events, and families were invited to bring a picnic dinner to enjoy while everyone fished together with support from many volunteers. Some community members even showed off the fishing rods they had won at the Community Fishing Day raffle.
Local Treasures
The open space and public natural resources within the Brandywine Valley attracts visitors beyond the Pennsylvania and Delaware state lines. On summer weekends at the Smith Bridge Picnic Area in First State National Historical Park, Superintendent Joshua Boles will frequently arrive to find cars with New York license plates lined up waiting for the gates to open. Being newer to his role, Josh was curious to know more and asked a family where they had traveled from. He was shocked to hear they had made the trip from Brooklyn. While its evident that the Brandywine Creek and surrounding greenspaces are an attractive destination to many, the DCOC looks locally to develop stronger connections to the wealth of natural resources within Chester County, Delaware County, and New Castle County.
As water moves dynamically through the landscape, either pausing or roaring as it works its way around obstacles, the Diverse Community Outreach Committee does the same. Currently comprised of passionate representatives from Mighty Writers El Futuro Kennett; Casa Guanajuato; Garage Community & Youth Center; Kennett Area Community Services; Kennett Area Park Authority; Kennett Library; Kennett Trails Alliance/Square Roots Collective; LCH Health and Community Services; CCIU Migrant Education Program; and the National Park Service, the DCOC consistently revisits the changing and current needs for families to gain more access to outdoor recreation in their community. Brandywine Conservancy explores the next steps with our dedicated partners, mindfully framed by the richness of public land and water resources in the greater Kennett Square region.
Unionville Area Regional Comprehensive Plan
The Unionville Area (made up of the municipalities of East Marlborough, West Marlborough, and Newlin Townships) recently updated its Regional Comprehensive Plan—a document that helps guide a vision for future land use, growth, preservation, housing needs, and community facilities and services at the municipal level, which is meant to be updated every 10 years. While many municipalities plan individually, there are advantages to planning with your neighbors. By planning cooperatively, municipalities can share the responsibility of providing for their fair share of development in areas that are best suited; consider preservation efforts at greater geographic scales, and provide for the efficient and cost-effective provisions of facilities and services, including recreation and public safety. The Unionville Area started to plan in this manner back in 2011.