Over the course of spring and two transactions, Heritage Conservancy partnered with Bucks County to preserve a 90-acre rural property in Hilltown Township.
The Weikel Property is a valuable mix of farmed fields and woodland that provides vital habitat for local wildlife. It is located in the Pleasant Spring Creek Watershed and has an unnamed tributary to Pleasant Spring Creek that is designated as a Trout Stocking Stream by Chapter 93.
Both Bucks County and Heritage Conservancy are holders on the conservation easement. A large portion of the funding came through the Bucks County Agricultural Land Preservation Program (BCALPP).
“The County is very grateful to the Weikel family for preserving their family farms,” says John Ives, Director of Agricultural Land Preservation & Open Space Programs, Bucks County Planning Commission. “By securing agricultural conservation easements on the Weikel tracts, which took over two years to finalize, we’ve added more than 90 acres of protected farmland to a contiguous expanse of preserved land in Hilltown Township that exceeds 525 acres. Besides preserving viable Class I-IV agricultural soils, the easements will protect the scenic rural corridor of Souderton Road.”
The property is located within the bucolic Route 113 Heritage Corridor.
The first easement closed in April on three parcels totaling 39 acres. And at the beginning of June, the second easement closed on the parcel across Callowhill Road. This 51-acre parcel has the farmhouse and most of the barn structures.
The property ranked highly in the Bucks County program for the value and quality of its soils, its large size, and the fact that it is a family-owned and run farm.
“The cost for both easements was funded by three co-grantees: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Bucks County, and Heritage Conservancy,” says John. “We would like to remember and acknowledge Doris L. Weikel, who sadly passed away during this process.”
The Weikel Property adds to the more than 10,000 acres Heritage Conservancy protects under conservation easement or ownership in Bucks County alone. Over its 60+ years, Heritage Conservancy has protected more than 17,000 acres in Bucks, Montgomery, and Northampton Counties.
