Explore Land Conservation
Municipal Partnerships
Protecting open space and natural land can have big dividends for communities – from drawing residents and visitors to climate resilience.
Land conservation creates beautiful and healthy communities that are attractive to residents and businesses alike.
Conservation easements are a critical tool to protect public spaces, like local parks, and to ensure that natural and recreational lands remain open to the community in the long term.
Heritage Conservancy holds conservation easements on public land and is called upon by local municipalities to help preserve and protect open spaces, as partners and through consultation, assessments, and monitoring services.
Municipal Services
Our professional team of conservation specialists can partner with your community to assist in public and private land conservation efforts. Our services include:
- Acquisitions planning for land preservation and open space programs
- Monitoring protected properties for compliance with easement requirements
- Preparing Baseline Documentation Reports for municipal-held conservation easements
- Mapping assistance
Contact Matt Babbitt for more information
Senior Resource Protection Specialist
215-345-7020 ext. 135
mbabbitt@heritageconservancy.org
Our Acquisition Work
We can assist with a wide range of services:
- Working with Township’s open space board and Board of Supervisors to implement the land protection goals and recommendations identified in the township’s Open Space/Comprehensive Plan.
- Facilitating programs to inform landowners about the benefits of preserving their land with a conservation easement.
- Meeting with prospective landowners to provide information about preservation options.
- Assisting with landowner negotiations for acquisition of fee simple lands and conservation easements.
- Working with townships to prepare funding reports, technical documents, and GIS maps, and more,
- Assistance obtaining 3rd party funding and preparing applications to meet funding requirements and complete acquisitions.
- Preparing conservation easements, acquisition agreements with landowners, project budget estimates, and technical reports.
- Working with Township representatives in promoting open space preservation projects through media outlets.
Heritage Conservancy's Protected Properties
This map shows the properties that Heritage Conservancy currently helps protect, many in partnership with local municipalities. Please note that most of these are privately owned and not publicly accessible, though we all benefit from the protected land and open space.
Agricultural Preservation Easement (these are often family farms)
Conservation Easement (natural land and open space)
Fee Simple (lands we own and manage; some are public preserves, others are sensitive habitats)
Facade Easements (protected historic buildings)
Facade and Conservation Easement (these properties include preserved land and protected historic buildings)
Case Study: Warrington Township
In 2024, Warrington Township reached out to Heritage Conservancy to serve as the holder of conservation easements on four properties that utilized the conservation development zoning to set aside nearly 175 acres of open space.
