Natural Lands Trust

In addition to owning and managing preserves, Natural Lands preserves land by working with private land owners to establish and enforce conservation easements. A conservation easement is a voluntary but legally binding agreement that permanently limits a property's use. To date, the organization holds easements on more than 22,000 acres.

Natural Lands also provides a range of consulting services to Pennsylvania municipalities (152 municipalities in 26 counties, to date). These services include redrafting a township's zoning ordinances to incorporate open space, thereby using development to save land.

Natural Lands has been accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance,[1] which endorses a land trust's ability to "operate in an ethical, legal, and technically sound manner and ensure the long-term protection of land in the public interest."[2]

To date, Natural Lands has saved more than 125,000 acres of land in its nearly 64-year history. This is equal to about half the total acreage of Pennsylvania's state park system.[3]

Natural Lands is a nonprofit organization that saves open space, cares for nature, and connects people to the outdoors in eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. More than 2.5 million people live within five miles of lands under the organization's permanent protection. The organization's approach to conservation includes:

• Saving open space - Permanently protecting natural areas using acquisition and conservation easements and by helping growing communities preserve more of their land
• Caring for nature - Providing leadership in managing natural resources on its preserves and sharing its expertise with other landowners
• Connecting People to the Outdoors - Creating opportunities for people to connect with and learn from nature

Natural Lands' founder Allston Jenkins

Natural Lands was founded in 1953 as the Philadelphia Conservationists, Inc., by a group of birdwatchers who wanted to protect what is now the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, a tidal freshwater marsh in Tinicum Township, Pennsylvania. Led by Allston Jenkins, a local accountant who was new to birding when he founded the organization, The Philadelphia Conservationists achieved their goal of protecting the Tinicum Marsh from being filled with sediment dredged from nearby waterways by the following year. Allston Jenkins (1903-1994) became Natural Lands' first president and executive director, and was an active member within the organization until his death.

As the Philadelphia Conservationists, the organization worked to preserve land up and down the East Coast and beyond – however, they would usually turn the land that they preserved over to government agencies and other non-profits. In 1959, the organization created its first nature preserve. Sharp's Woods Preserve[4] in Chester County, Pennsylvania, had 28 acres, and is still owned and stewarded by the organization today.

In 1961, the members of The Philadelphia Conservationists established themselves as Natural Lands Trust, Inc., as a means of being able to permanently own and preserve the land that came under their care. The same year, they received its first donation of land, now the Willisbrook Preserve[5] in Willistown Township, Pennsylvania.

In 2017, the nonprofit shortened its name to Natural Lands.

Natural Lands has continued to acquire and steward open land in eastern Pennsylvania and in southern New Jersey in the interest of preserving open spaces and native habitats and ensuring that residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey benefit from open spaces in perpetuity. In addition to acquiring land outright for preservation and stewardship, Natural Lands has also been responsible for conservation easements on 20,000 acres of land. The organization's first easement was the Upper Main Line YMCA in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1966, which was the first known conservation easement in Pennsylvania. Since its incorporation in 1961, Natural Lands has saved more than 125,000 acres of land from being developed.

Natural Lands' headquarters are located at the 55-acre Hildacy Preserve[6] in Media, Pennsylvania since 1981.

• Hopewell Big Woods
• Musser Scout Reservation
• Perkiomen Trail
• Resica Falls Scout Reservation

• Natural Lands - official website