A Special Request for Your Membership

Thanks to short-term tax incentives and the reduction in development opportunities for local landowners, French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust is in a unique position to make significant strides this year in protecting the natural and agricultural lands of our region.  I am writing you today with a special appeal to support the Trust’s work this year with a membership donation.  If you haven’t become a member before but truly care about protecting the priority open lands of our region, now is the time to join.  If you have been a member in the past, please renew today and consider increasing your membership level over last year’s, even doubling it if at all possible. Now, more than ever before, your participation matters. Here’s why:

Conserved land is not just a pretty space.
The rural beauty of northern Chester County has inspired many with a passion to preserve our landscape for future generations, but the protection of open land does much more than preserve a lovely view. It is essential to the sustainability of our community, our bodies, and our planet, and in ways that most of us are just beginning to understand. In fact, it plays a vital role in resisting the emerging environmental and economic threats to our individual and collective well-being.

When we protect local land, we help clean our atmosphere by reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases.
The removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and its harmless storage in the soil and organic matter is a crucial component of the fight against global warming.  As discussed in the spring issue of Land Matters, forests, grasslands, and sustainably cultivated farmland play an important natural role in the harmless storage of carbon, known as carbon sequestration. Conversely, the excavation of land for building both releases stored carbon from soil into the atmosphere and reduces our land storage capacity.

When we protect local land, we protect local opportunities for agriculture.
Buying locally grown food is not only a way to enjoy the fresh, healthful and delicious products, it keeps money in the local economy, and it reduces the use of fossil fuel in food shipping and packaging, which is important both to the environment and our wallets.

When we protect local land, we enhance the desirability of our region, which helps it to retain its economic value.
Real estate values in northern Chester County have decreased more slowly than in many other places, and some areas still saw property value increases in 2008.  West Vincent Township, for example, loved for its natural beauty and high proportion of conserved land, saw real estate prices increase by 23% last year.

Conserved land provides local residents with nearby recreational opportunities such as pedestrian, horseback and bike trails; parks and preserves; and fly and bait fishing access. These opportunities make our area attractive to live and work in and can form the basis of a regional ecotourism economy.

So, ultimately, protecting land protects people—like you, your children, and those who come after.
When you decide this year about the causes you want to join, please think carefully about the real impact French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust has made on the sustainability of our local communities in its 42 years of service.  As of this writing, we are working on projects in East, South and North Coventry, East and West Vincent, East and West Pikeland, East Nantmeal, and Charlestown Townships.

We are working for you. Please help us make 2009 our best year.
Thank you.

Join the Trust today!

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All contributions are tax-deductible and will be used to support programs to save land in northern Chester County.

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