Natural Lands - The Magazine of Natural Lands Fall/Winter 2019, Issue 155 | Page 19

NAT U R AL LAND S
. FALL/W INT E R 20 1 9
17
ace
BUCKS COUNTY, PA
2
Keller Property
8 acres
Haycock Township
Key Partners: PA DCNR Bureau of State Parks; US Forest
Service – Highlands Conservation Act; Virginia Cretella
Mars Foundation
Bryn Coed
CHESTER COUNTY, PA
3
Bryn Coed
| a conservation community
East Pikeland, West Pikeland, and
West Vincent Townships
Key Partners: Chester County Preservation Partnership
Program; East Pikeland Township; PA DCNR Bureau of
Recreation and Conservation – Keystone Recreation, Park
and Conservation Fund; West Pikeland Township; West
Vincent Township; William Penn Foundation; and gifts via
the Campaign for Bryn Coed Farms, chaired by George
and Christy Martin and Peter and Eliza Zimmerman
In 2017, Natural Lands purchased the 1,505-acre Bryn
Coed Farms property, which was the largest remaining
undeveloped—and unprotected—property in the Great-
er Philadelphia region. Since that time, we’ve created the
This eight-acre property is immediately adjacent to
Nockamixon State Park in Haycock Township, Bucks
County. Using the Highlands Act to obtain funding, Nat-
ural Lands acquired the property and then immediately
transferred ownership to the State Park. The Highlands
Act authorizes the Department of the Interior, through
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to provide federal
matching grants to support the agencies in purchasing
land, or an interest in land, from willing sellers. Congress
appropriates funding annually under the Land and Water
Conservation Fund.
Nockamixon State Park draws thousands of visitors
every year to its hiking and biking trails, diversity of birds
and other wildlife, and large lake used for boating, pad-
dle-boarding, and fishing. Now part of the Park, the Keller
property will be open to visitors for recreation.
“This acquisition fills a longstanding inholding and
will further conserve Nockamixon State Park’s natural
resources and provide protective enhancements to the
Park boundary in a region with significant development
pressure around our public lands,” said John Hallas,
director of the PA Department of Conservation and Nat-
ural Resources, Bureau of State Parks. “We are pleased
that this new parcel will provide expanded recreation op-
portunities to the citizens of the Commonwealth at this
already very popular destination park in Bucks County.”