4,350 acres protected, open to public
Wildlife, outdoor enthusiasts to benefit from land in Monroe, Northampton counties
The residents of Cherry Valley and any visitor or conservationist who’s experienced the land firsthand knows it’s a special place.
Natural springs bubble out of the mountainside all along the slope of the Kittatinny Ridge, flowing into rare forested wetlands that create essential ecosystems for countless species. The conservation acquisition of more than 4,300 acres of the land means it will
remain that way for generations to come.
“This type of system is degraded or destroyed elsewhere,” said Mike Horne, manager of the Cherry Valley Wildlife Refuge. “That hasn’t happened here and we have a concentrated number of these types of areas here in the Cherry Valley.”
On Tuesday, officials with the refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit devoted to preservation tracts of environmentally important areas, celebrated the acquisition of 4,350 acres in Northampton and Monroe counties that are now a part of the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
The massive public and private partnership it required to lock the land into protection for generations meant an investment of $12.5 million in government, nonprofit and private dollars.
The land, purchased from the Pennsylvania-American Water Company, surrounds five miles of the snaking Appalachian Trail and is part of the Delaware River watershed, which provides clean drinking water for more than 15 million people.
The land is also part of the pivotal Kittatinny Ridge migration corridor, a natural northsouth migratory highway for raptors, birds and many other creatures. The region also features 77 amphibian-rich vernal pools and springs and is an important home for the threatened bog turtle.
The immediate and most important benefit of the final land acquisition is that it’s now safe from any future development, Horn said. The ultimate plan is for the refuge to create a network of connecting trails throughout the land.
Obvious attractions include outcroppings along the ridge that showcase the beauty of the sprawling valley. But Horne said he has a special place in mind for an eventual attraction in the refuge — a boulder field with water gushing a few feet below. Invisible under the massive rocks, the only way to detect the water is the sound of it rushing around the boulders some two to three feet below.
“It’s just incredible,” Horne said of the area, known as Stony Garden. “This would be a great spot to have an interpretation because this is an example of the dynamics of the watershed. This is that water before it even pokes its head out of the ground.”
The land stretches across two counties and five municipalities and some of it had not changed hands in more than 100 years. Because of this, there was no shortage of complications and obstacles that emerged during the effort, which began in earnest in 2014.
“There were lots of points where the path forward seemed tremendously difficult,” said Kyle Shenk, the Pennsylvania state director for The Conservation Fund. “But the commitment of all those involved made it possible for us to face those obstacles and find solutions.”
A major challenge came in 2017 after 1,731 acres of the land had already been acquired. A funding gap of millions of dollars loomed. The refuge managed to secure a critical $3.5 million from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund and another $4 million from nonfederal sources, including $2.5 million from Williams Companies, an Oklahoma-based energy company, which came from a voluntary mitigation fund for the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline.
“They helped provide the final grant to get this project past the finish line,” Shenk said.
The acquisition of the remaining 2,619 acres was finalized in August.
Andrew Swope, vice president and divisional general counsel for Pennsylvania American Water, said selling the land for conservation meshed perfectly with the company’s interest in ensuring the water in the watershed remains as clean as possible.
“It’s not unusual that at the end of such a long transaction, a buyer and seller may really have had enough of each other,” Swope said. “But that was definitely not the case here.”
In fact, Swope said, the company is looking for other opportunities to put more parcels of land into a trust for future protection.
The effort to conserve the land required the cooperation of elected officials, cooperative private companies and devoted nonprofits, but Horn thinks it’s important to note who was really behind it all: the people who have for a long time recognized the priceless nature of the Cherry Valley.
“Roots here run deep,” Horne said. “People have seen the rampant development happening to our north and south and the Valley, has in spite of all that, stayed in tact. There’s a desire to protect it. The people are the ones who kind of dragged us to the table here. This was truly a grassroots effort.”