A new conservation easement obtained by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has added close to 300 acres in Cook Township to nearly 27,000 acres the nonprofit conservation organization has protected in the Ligonier Valley.
The easement covers 289 acres of privately owned forested property along Chestnut Ridge. The property includes more than a half mile of frontage along two headwaters tributary streams in the Loyalhanna Creek watershed — Campbelle Run and an unnamed stream.
The easement includes permanent deed restrictions on development of the land, according to Jane Menchyk, land protection manager at the conservancy’s Laurel Highlands office.
“It limits the number of houses that can be on it,” she said. “The focus is on making sure it’s sustainably used, that there is a healthy forest on that land and healthy water coming through it.”
There also is a restriction against subdividing the property.
“You’ll have less fragmentation of that land along the ridge,” Menchyk said. “It helps with wildlife corridors and helps protect the scenic character of the Ligonier Valley.”
Portions of the property fall within the Campbelle Run Natural Heritage Area, a 14-acre site along Noel Road. The area features buffalo-nut, a shrub that depends on nutrients provided by host trees and is considered a vulnerable species in Pennsylvania, according to natureserve.org.
The streams included in the new easement flow into Fourmile Run, which, in turn, flows into Loyalhanna Creek.
“It’s good news for Fourmile Run to have that protected forested area,” said Susan Huba, executive director of the Loyalhanna Watershed Association. “We’ve been focusing on that stream for the past five years, to implement stream restoration work to help it out a bit.”
Over the past decade, she said, the diversity of fish and invertebrate species in the stream has improved as the impact of sedimentation has decreased and more homes bordering the waterway have been connected to municipal sewage service.
“The main goal is to protect the water resources and other ecological resources,” Huba said.
Purchase of the Cook easement in Cook was supported by grants from the Richard King Mellon, Hillman, Katherine Mabis McKenna and Babcock Charitable Trust foundations and by individual donations to the conservancy.
Visit waterlandlife.org for more information about the conservancy.
