Land Preservation in Honey Brook Township Reaches Milestone Figure of 25%, Thanks to the Brandywine Conservancy

From source water to tap water: Preserving open space around the Brandywine headwaters is critical to protecting water quality and quantity.

The Brandywine Conservancy has helped to permanently protect an astounding 25% of the open space in Honey Brook Township with the acquisition of its latest easement of 20 acres. The easement will be co-held by the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art along with Chester County and Honey Brook Township. Honey Brook is critical to protecting the headwaters of the Brandywine, the source of drinking water for approximately 500,000 people in Pennsylvania and Delaware including the City of Wilmington.

This significant milestone in land preservation was reached when an easement was granted on farmland that has been in the same family for three generations. The farm contains pastures for horses and woodlands threaded with headwater streams of the East Branch of the Brandywine. This brings the total preserved land in the township to over 4,000 acres.

Just 6% of the open space in Honey Brook was preserved in 2004. The rapid increase in preservation coincides with the coordinated focus of the Conservancy's Farmland Preservation and Municipal Assistance programs to protect open space in the Township. Their goals are to help support and preserve a thriving agricultural economy, increase agricultural productivity, and protect natural resources-soils and water, while guiding development into urbanized areas. The Conservancy has also provided technical and financial assistance to farmers by developing and implementing conservation plans, further protecting and enhancing the prime agricultural soils and water resources of these farms. Working with members of the Plain Sect (Amish and Mennonite) communities who own and operate many of the farms in Honey Brook, the Conservancy has also helped permanently protect their lands, meet regulatory water quality requirements, and reach their fiscal goals for their farm operations.

This remarkable 25% land preservation achievement is the result of a focused effort by numerous organizations, including the Conservancy, Honey Brook Township, Chester County,The Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, the Margaret Dorrance Strawbridge Foundation of Pennsylvania I, William Penn Foundation, Open Space Institute, the City of Wilmington, Delaware and other private individuals and private foundations.

About the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art

The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art (www.brandywine.org) preserves art and the environment in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Conservancy conserves the natural, cultural, and agricultural resources of the Brandywine watershed and other selected areas with a primary emphasis on conservation of water quality and quantity. To achieve its mission, the Conservancy reaches beyond traditional land preservation techniques and employs a multi-faceted approach to conservation. The Conservancy works with private landowners who wish to see their lands protected forever, and provides innovative community planning services to municipalities and other governmental agencies. The Conservancy currently holds 460 conservation and agricultural easements and has facilitated the permanent preservation of more than 62,000 acres of land.

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