One of County’s Last ‘Big Woods’ Saved in $4 Million Deal
By Ad Crable, Lancaster New Era, Pa.
Jul. 18–A purchase agreement is in place to protect for public use 800 acres in the Welsh Mountains — the second-largest block of continuous forestland in Lancaster County.
Buttressed with county, state and, likely soon, federal funds, the private Lancaster County Conservancy recently signed a contract to buy what it calls a “natural gem” from the New Holland Water Authority.
The purchase, totaling about $4 million, would take place in three phases between this fall and 2009.
It would be the largest forest buy in Lancaster County since the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the private Wildlands Conservancy bought 1,055 wooded acres in the Furnace Hills north of Brickerville in 1995 for state game lands.
Long sought by Lancaster County officials, the woods surrounding New Holland Borough’s drinking water reservoir also has been a top target of the Highlands Coalition, a congressionally funded effort to protect a 3.5-million-acre belt of woods, farms and open space in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York state.
On Monday, state Rep. Joe Pitts spent about two hours touring the woodland in East Earl and Salisbury townships, then promised to author a grant application for $1 million in federal funds from the Highlands Conservation Act that would help fund the Conservancy effort.
“There’s not a lot of woodland left in a lot of my district, so it’s good to see it’s being preserved,” Pitts said Tuesday. “It’s really very nice pristine woodland.”
Lancaster County’s own “big woods” is adjacent to the 385-acre Money Rocks County Park, created in 1996.
The Conservancy will encourage hunting as well as hiking, fishing, birdwatching and other passive recreation by the public, said Ralph Goodno, president of the nonprofit organization.
“We have very little interior forest in Lancaster County. What we have is a lot of small woodlands and hedgerows. That doesn’t provide the habitat for certain species that don’t grow in edges,” he said.
Turkeys, fox, deer and a variety of songbirds inhabit the mountain land, Goodno said.
In addition to its value as wildlife habitat, the bowl-shaped property is a virtual watershed, protecting the Conestoga River and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.
The land also was a priority for protection because it’s in an area where there is not much recreation land open to the public and because it’s threatened by development.
New Holland Borough, in fact, has sold off wooded lots along roads for development and has retained roadside properties. The Conservancy has a right of first refusal for any sale of those borough-owned lots.
The woodland has long protected New Holland’s drinking water. But when federal regulations required the borough to build a water-treatment plant, much of the buffer was no longer necessary.
Lancaster County had sought to buy the land, but borough officials sought to maximize profits, at one point planning a golf course on the property.
Lancaster County’s commissioners have given the Conservancy a $1 million grant, provided the Conservancy matches the amount.
The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources already has committed about $2 million toward the purchase of the property.
In 2004, Congress and President Bush authorized $100 million over 10 years to fund protection of the highlands greenbelt along the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains in four states.
However, Congress only has been allocating $2 million a year in the early going of the Highlands Conservation Act. The Oley Hills in northeastern Berks County is the first Pennsylvania region that received funding under the act.
Congress is expected to make its allocation for fiscal 2008 soon, and Highlands Coalition officials say the Welsh Mountains project is a top priority for funding.
Furnace Hills and Mine Ridge in southern Lancaster County also have been designated for protection under the legislation.
The legislation forbids condemnation and encourages local and state officials to carry out protection measures.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Lancaster New Era, Pa.
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