Conservancy receives grant from DuPont Clear into the Future

Posted by Press Release on June 26, 2013

The Brandywine Conservancy has received a $10,000 grant from DuPont Clear into the Future to preserve and improve the water quality of the Brandywine at its source in Honey Brook Township, Chester County. The funds will help the conservancy to continue its work to protect farms in the headwaters of the Brandywine and help farmers and other landowners implement best management practices on their properties. The conservancy has worked for more than 45 years to restore and protect the Brandywine Watershed, which is the source of drinking water for more than 500,000 people in communities in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

"By focusing at the top of the watershed at its source in Honey Brook Township, the conservancy can help reduce sediments and pollutants in the water for all users living downstream," said Sherri Evans-Stanton, director of the conservancy's Environmental Management Center. "These funds will enable us to continue to help farmers stabilize stream banks, install stream bank fencing to prevent cattle from entering the water, and eliminate some sources of erosion and pollutants to reduce their impacts on water quality."

Helping farmers with BMPs is one element of the conservancy's Source Water Protection Program for the Brandywine. Once implemented, conservancy staff assist farmers in placing agricultural easements on their farms to permanently protect the farms. The conservancy has also embarked on a five-year initiative to plant 25,000 trees by the end of 2014. Already in its fourth year, the Conservancy is on pace to exceed that goal, with 6,000 trees planted in 2013 alone.

In a unique bi-state partnership, the conservancy worked with the City of Wilmington on its recent Source Water Protection Plan. This plan was created by city officials who understand that the cost of keeping pollutants out of the Brandywine at its source is dramatically less than the cost of cleaning the water in a treatment plant when it reaches Wilmington. The conservancy's work funded under this Clear into the Future grant are listed as priority recommendations in the City of Wilmington's Plan.

For more than 45 years the conservancy's unique approach to watershed management has established models and provided technical assistance to municipalities while also providing direct land preservation assistance to private landowners to balance water quality and watershed hydrology in this developing watershed. The conservancy's programs have crossed municipal and state lines and have involved municipal officials, government organizations and private landowners.

The Brandywine Conservancy holds more than 440 conservation easements and has directly protected and facilitated the permanent preservation of over 58,000 acres in Chester and Delaware counties in Pennsylvania, as well as New Castle County in Delaware. The Environmental Management Center provides conservation services to landowners, farmers, municipalities and developers. The staff of professional planners and natural resource managers offers technical assistance and expertise for conservation and comprehensive land use planning. Conservation easements, assistance to local governments and water protection efforts are the key elements of these programs. In 2008, the conservancy was among the first land trusts in the country to be awarded accreditation by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission.