Natural Lands - The Magazine of Natural Lands Fall/Winter 2019, Issue 155 | Page 16

14
transformational
Days start early for Natural Lands’ newest preserve
manager, Erin Smith. She arrives before sunrise at Stroud
Preserve, where her mobile stewardship unit lives, then
heads out to care for the 800+ acres at Willisbrook,
Sadsbury Woods, and Green Hills Preserves. These three
properties contain areas of vital ecological value, includ-
ing serpentine barrens, meadow restorations, and critical
habitat for migratory birds. And now, thanks to the
successful completion of our Campaign for Humans and
Nature, they also have dedicated, full-time management.
Over the last few years, nearly 1,000 Natural Lands
supporters have powered two ambitious fundraising
campaigns—one very public and another more dis-
creet—with combined results of close to $20 million.
In the winter of 2018, we completed our $5 million
Campaign for Bryn Coed Farms, which provided the
final funds required to save the farm’s 1,505 acres, one
of the largest remaining unprotected swaths of land in
the greater Philadelphia region, and to establish a new
520-acre nature preserve in Chester Springs. Natural
Lands’ Bryn Coed Preserve opened to the public in May.
Simultaneously, we undertook a three-year fundraising
effort designed to build more capacity to support Natural
Lands’ mission tenets of caring for nature and connect-
ing people to the outdoors. When the Campaign for
Humans and Nature closed in December 2018, campaign
Co-chairs and Natural Lands Trustees Jane Pepper and
Bill Warden cheered: “How wonderful to celebrate a sec-
ond, extraordinary achievement this year thanks to the
overwhelming generosity and dedication of friends who
enabled us to exceed our $10 million goal with a nearly
$14 million result!”
“The majority of gifts received through the Campaign
for Humans and Nature have been placed in endowment,
where they will generate more than $400,000 annually
to support budgets for stewardship and engagement—
providing steady income for mission priorities,” notes
Vice President of Development Ann Hausmann. “As