The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County (TLC) started as the Kennett Township Land Trust, an all volunteer organization dedicated to preserving open land within Kennett Township. The Trust acquired land, the township adopted a preservation tax, and the resulting workload kept expanding until the Trust transformed itself into The Land Conservancy, a non-profit land preservation organization staffed by a core of seven professionals dedicated to its mission to ensure the perpetual preservation and stewardship of open space, natural resources, historic sites, and working agricultural lands throughout Southern Chester County.
Abbie Kessel, the Conservancy's Conservation Director shown to the right of President Tammy Duering in this photo, is focused on land acquisitions that fit the unique TLC role in local land conservation efforts - building corridors of preserved land by collecting small parcels of adjacent land. TLC focuses on developing preservation corridors to help bring the County's vision for development into reality by providing the green landscape within the areas designated for concentrated development. As a result most of its land is in the eastern portion of southern Chester County since that is the area meant to be more densely developed. Once land is acquired the focus shifts to maintenance. This includes restoring historic structures where they exist, and developing historic sites so that we can understand their significance. For example, the New Garden AME church site has been restored. The graves of black Civil War soldiers are properly maintained, and the foundations of the church have been rediscovered, the church was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan about 100 years ago. Archeological digs at the site have shed light on the church members' lives.
The land is returned to native plantings and erosion damage is minimized. This starts by removing invasive species. Unfortunately the removing invasive species role never seems to end. As the plantings are changed trails and other features are developed for all of us to enjoy. Stream banks are planted with trees to buffer the water coming off the land to ensure it is of the highest quality. This improves the drinking water quality for those using municipal water systems that rely on surface water sources. Land in agricultural use may stay in such use.
The Stewardship effort is assisted by paid high school interns. The students are improving the land while participating in a strong Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) environment that shows the value of these disciplines. TLC also offers education in the form of the Pennsylvania Master Naturalist program, a 50 hour training program conducted on weekends. 500 students participate in school trips to sites to learn about our natural environment. They learn about edible plants, work on stream studies, go birding and generally learn how we depend on these natural environments.
TLC both buys land and acquires easements that control the degree of development. Easements, because they cost less, are preferred. Easements allow the landowner to meet their financial needs without leaving their land. The earnings from the easement, together with the increased value of the remaining home and home sites (homes overlooking open land have greater value) often make easements of higher economic value to the land owner.