There's no denying the natural beauty of Chester County, particularly the countryside surrounding the borough of Phoenixville and nearby townships. A leisurely stroll along the Pickering Creek in Charlestown or French Creek could make even the most adamant city-dweller dream of owning country property. Development on area land, however, has an impact on the surrounding environment, particularly the 69,770 acres of land encompassed by the French and Pickering Creek watersheds.
That's where Clare Quinn, Executive Director of the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, comes in. Quinn has been an active member of the community for decades. After living in West Pikeland Township, Quinn moved to West Vincent in 1994, where she worked for six years as a West Vincent Township Supervisor. During her tenure as Supervisor, she was also a member of the township's planning commission, of which she is the current Chair.
Quinn, who graduated college with a degree in English, came into her current role as a land conservationist after seeing fellow members of the community back down from a land-use disagreement in West Vincent. The land at stake, a parcel in Ludwig's Corner that was slated for development by Hankin, was a source of unease for Quinn, primarily because of the lack of public opposition it was facing from local residents.
"The main reason I was concerned about it was that there had been a proposal for another development before [Hankin], and everyone was opposed to it even though it was a much less intensive development," said Quinn. "I was concerned that people had lost their interest in what was going on from fatigue. There were both good and bad things about the Hankin development, but the citizen's participation had really dropped."
In an attempt to conserve the land, Quinn began urging residents to attend meetings on the development. Although the development ended up being built, the fight against it awakened in Quinn a desire to work toward best-practice land management. In 2001, she started on the board of the Trust, and was hired as its Executive Director in late 2006.
The French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust (FPCCT) has already successfully protected 21,000 acres of land within the French and Pickering Creeks watershed, 30 percent of the total region. Along with land conservation, the FPCCT also works toward historic preservation of local landmarks, and has placed over 60 sites and districts on the National Register of Historic Places.
In order to preserve land, the FPCCT must buy easements, which are permanent legal restrictions placed on a property to prevent future development of the land. One of the main functions of the FPCCT is to monitor the easements each year to ensure that the restrictions on the land are being upheld by the property owner.
Though they are rare, violations of easements have happened. In a 1993 ruling that set a precedent for land trusts nationwide, Pennsylvania courts ruled in favor of the FPCCT in the case of French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust v. Natale, finding the Natale family to be in violation of the easement on their land. As a result, the house that caused the violation was torn down, demonstrating the power of land trusts to preserve and protect the integrity of local landmarks and open space.
On Saturday, August 1st, the FPCCT will be celebrating the summer with their first-annual Homegrown Harvest Supper and Hoedown, which will be held at the Coventry House in Coventryville. "This is a new event for us," said Quinn. "We want to make people aware of the value of open land—our theme is that conserved land is not just a pretty space, so we're trying to tie it to historic preservation and local food production."
Local businesses such as Becca's, the Camphill Village Cafée, Henry's Cafée and Fine Groceries, and the Funky Lil' Kitchen will be contributing signature dishes to the cause, and local CSAs and farms will be providing locally-grown produce and meat. "We want to build a relationship with these food providers, and let everyone know that what we do benefits them," said Quinn.
Along with locally grown food, the hoe-down will feature sack races, square-dancing, and cow-pie bingo, where the $500 grand prize winner is the lucky person who's square on the oversized bingo card is gifted with a cow-pie from a local heifer. "We're trying to make it country," said Quinn. The search is still on for the cow.