A GOOD SAVE
Former Reading mayor Karen Miller places her home in northern Berks in conservation easements
The ruby-throated hummingbird appeared suddenly at the window.
Karen Miller looked out at the hovering creature mere inches away.
“This place is loaded with birds,” she said. “I have a wonderful bird app. I can’t identify songs at all, so I’m always running around with my phone with the bird app on it so I know what I’m listening to.”
A visitor needs to be forgiven for experiencing some mild cognitive dissonance.
Miller was the first woman elected to Reading City Council, the only woman elected mayor of Reading, serving two terms; born in the Chicago area, arriving in Reading in 1970 with her husband, Barry, after six years of living in Philadelphia.
She worked at a variety of state government jobs in Harrisburg, first in the cabinet of Gov. Bob Casey as the secretary of community affairs and then had several positions in the Gov. Ed Rendell administration, retiring in 2009.
And here she is sitting in a comfortable chair in her living room with binoculars and cellphone within easy reach on the windowsill of the rebuilt 1856 log home tucked into the base of the Kittatinny Ridge in Upper Tulpehocken Township.
There’s back of beyond in Berks County. And then there’s even farther back of beyond at the end of a narrow lane that winds through the forest, to where Barry and Karen Miller retired after careers in public service and law, living on what eventually totaled 143 acres.
Barry passed away two years ago, and Karen made the difficult decision to sell the property. It was beginning to be too much to have to stoke the wood-burning furnace — “I’m 80, after all!” she laughed — and to attend to all of the myriad chores the property needed.
This was a retirement home for them after the home they owned in Reading’s Centre Park became too big after their son, Josh, left the nest.
“It was something we always had in mind,” she said of the move to northern Berks. “When we went on vacations, we went to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan to get awa-a-a-ay.”
When they first saw the property on the original 47 acres, they fell in love with it.
The property had been owned by a doctor who used it as a getaway, and the rustic house that was there originally had no electricity or plumbing or any other amenities.
“When we first started coming here over 30 years ago, the previous owners had been acquiring woodlots to preserve the land,” she said.
They followed suit and also began to buy small woodlots for preservation. They decided that conservation easements were the way to go and worked with Berks Nature.
“A conservation easement is a voluntary, legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits the uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values,” said Berks Nature’s land specialist, Larry Lloyd. “The recorded deed of a conservation easement is superior to all liens and mortgages, and runs with the deed; the conservation easement stays with the land and is passed between future owners of the property. In other words, any subsequent owner of an eased property is subject to the terms of the conservation easement. Berks Nature currently holds conservation easements on 9,100 acres of private land across Berks County.”
They started informal talks in 2013 that culminated in a conservation easement in 2015 that covered four parcels and totaled 78.55 acres, Lloyd said.
“The situation changed after Barry passed away,” Lloyd said. “Since the initial easement, the Millers had purchased additional properties, so the decision was made to amend and then restate the conservation easement to include the four more recently acquired parcels, bringing the total easement acreage to 143.”
Karen was amazed at how Lloyd and Sarah Chudnovsky, Berks Nature’s Land Preservation Specialist, turned what seemed to be a complicated process into an effortless and rewarding experience.
“We believe nature is essential to our quality of life,” said Kim Murphy, president of Berks Nature. “Berks Nature, a nonprofit land trust, is delighted to have worked with Barry (during his lifetime) and Karen Miller for the protection of their important forested property on the Kittatinny Ridge.
“Their dedication and commitment to protecting this forest will benefit the environment, wildlife and people for generations to come.”
The Millers had also used the property as a weekend getaway, although they rarely stayed in the original house because of its condition.
A mysterious fire in 2005 destroyed the house, and that’s when they made the decision to rebuild. They had thought about building a contemporary home, but then were made aware of a log home in Upper Bern Township that was being dismantled for eventual destruction.
They decided to buy the parts and have it reassembled on their land.
“The house was stacked like Lincoln logs on our land here for a year while we were trying to conform to modern codes,” she said.
For instance, the staircases were steeper in those days and needed to be rebuilt.
She was grateful that Barry, who had no experience with construction, hired an excellent crew and oversaw the rebuilding of the home.
“The summer beam that supports the house is 28 feet long,” she said. “It was 150 years old without a wobble in it, but the codes said we needed to have posts to support it, so we got posts from an old barn.”
The home was finished in 2009, and the Millers moved there full- time.
They quickly acquired lasting memories.
Soon after they moved in, Karen stood by one of their two ponds at 5:30 a.m.
“I was absolutely motionless,” she said, “and all of a sudden I was surrounded by this music, and I was in the middle of a warbler migration, and it was just — I can’t even begin to describe it — all these tiny little birds singing their hearts out.”
Barry didn’t have a bird experience but did have encounters with deer.
“The deer were the bane of my existence because I’m a gardener,” she said. “Barry was standing in the middle of the backyard when all of a sudden a young fawn came racing up, like bounding, let’s play! Barry kept assuring the fawn that he was the wrong age and the wrong species, but the fawn kept running off and running back like let’s play!”
The Millers settled into the community and helped with local causes in Strausstown like the volunteer fire company and the Penn State Health Urgent Care facility.
“And not one dime of government money went into them,” she said proudly.
Karen was particularly touched when Barry’s image was included on a mural surrounding the Urgent Care.
She recently closed the sale on the property to new owners who also have a conservation ethic.
Karen has since moved to the Highlands at Wyomissing, but her heart remains in Strausstown.
“I’m going to miss all of the people here,” she said. “I will be coming back, though, for many visits.”