Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Passes the 7,000 Acre Mark in Voluntary Conservation Agreements for the Ligonier Valley

(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  April 16, 2007). The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) has reached a land protection milestone in the Ligonier Valley, surpassing 7,000 acres under voluntary conservation agreements. In 2006, seven parcels of land totaling 440 acres were protected in Ligonier, Cook, and Fairfield townships through conservation agreements, also referred to as easements. This additional acreage pushed WPC’s total protected land in the valley past the 7,000-acre mark.

Since the program’s inception in 1980, WPC has protected 39 parcels of land encompassing 7,112 acres through voluntary conservation agreements. WPC also owns 154 acres in the valley.
           


Voluntary conservation agreements, are legal documents permanently limiting uses of land.  The agreements are made between a landowner and a nonprofit land trust like WPC and keep the land on the tax rolls, preserving private property rights and maintaining the ability to sell or pass land on to heirs. 
           
“The Ligonier Valley was at the forefront of land conservation in Western Pennsylvania and the nation,” said Mike Kuzemchak, WPC’s Laurel Highlands Program Director. “WPC’s earliest conservation agreements, dating back to the late 1970s, were signed by landowners in the Ligonier Valley. These were some of the first conservation easements in all of Pennsylvania.”

Barry and Kitty Tuscano’s donated easement on 81.3 acres of forested land in Fairfield Township, Westmoreland County, carried WPC’s total protected acreage in the Ligonier Valley over the 7,000-acre mark. The property features 1,200 feet of frontage on Tubmill Creek, which is a priority watershed in WPC’s  Laurel Highlands project area.

“We like the idea that this open space will always be preserved,” said Barry Tuscano. “We’re glad that we have the opportunity to do this.”

The headwaters of Tubmill Creek have been designated as Exceptional Value, and the creek has been identified as a priority wildlife corridor in the Westmoreland County Greenways & Open Space Plan. 

The Ligonier Valley remains an important component of WPC’s conservation efforts in the Laurel Highlands. Since the 1950s, WPC has worked to conserve the land and water of the Laurel Highlands, and continues today to advance conservation projects that protect the region’s significant natural resources. In Westmoreland County, WPC has assisted in the transfer of 19,885 acres to become part of state game lands, state parks and Forbes State Forest. WPC has protected more than 62,000 acres in Westmoreland, Somerset, Cambria and Fayette counties.

To learn more about protecting land with a voluntary conservation agreement, contact the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy at (412) 288-2777 or via email at wpc@paconserve.org.  In the Laurel Highlands and Ligonier Valley, contact Mike Kuzemchak at (724) 238-2492 or via email at mkuzemchak@paconserve.org.

High resolution photographs are available upon request.

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About the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy:
Since its founding 75 years ago in 1932, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has protected more than 212,000 acres of natural lands in Pennsylvania, restored watersheds and saved natural habitats for a diversity of life and uses.  Since 1963, WPC preserves Fallingwater®, the masterpiece home designed in 1935 by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar J. Kaufmann in Mill Run, Pennsylvania.   As a symbol of living in harmony with nature, Fallingwater offers a wide variety of educational programs to its more than 135,000 annual visitors.  Each year, WPC partners with 5,000 volunteers and dozens of community organizations and businesses to plant and maintain 135 gardens and greening projects in 20 western Pennsylvania counties.