Ensuring Unbroken Forests in Bucks County, PA

Map showing five labeled properties and their relationship to PA State Gamelands

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA, Pa., May 7, 2025 – Natural Lands announced today the permanent preservation of several wooded properties in Haycock and East Rockhill Townships, Bucks County, totaling 30 acres. The properties were all inholdings within PA State Game Lands and have now been transferred to the state.

Two parcels totaling about 28 acres (“Grace Briarwood” and “Grace Sawmill”) were transferred to Game Lands No. 157, and a nearly two-acre parcel (“Grace Rockhill Mountain”) was added to Game Lands No. 139.

“While individually each of these parcels are small, the conservation impact of protecting them is huge,” said Jack Stefferud, senior advisor of land protection. “These properties were all inholdings, pockets of privately owned land within a larger landscape of state game lands. Were they to have been developed, the trees would have been felled to make way for driveways, buildings, and lawns, destroying the unbroken forest.”

Dense forest provides essential habitat to wildlife, particularly migratory songbirds such as Scarlet Tanager and Wood Thrush. In fact, these birds—along with 89 other bird species and hundreds of mammals, amphibians, fish, reptiles, and invertebrates—depend on Pennsylvania’s natural areas for their survival. The Commonwealth plays a key role in sustaining these Pennsylvania Responsibility Species’ global security by hosting at least 10 percent of their North American population or encompassing at least 25 percent of their North American range.

Forests that are fragmented into smaller plots by roads and developments favor predators that thrive along the edge of the woods, such as raccoons, snakes, Blue Jays, domestic cats, and Brown-headed Cowbirds. These predators impact the survival of songbirds and other vulnerable species face when added to challenges like climate change and habitat loss.

Said Tim Haydt, PA Game Commission bureau director for habitat management, “Acquiring these tracts eliminates indentures and adds additional forested habitat to the state game lands in Bucks County. Through our partnership with Natural Land, we are able to protect important wooded wildlife habitat for current and future generations of Pennsylvanians.”

To purchase and transfer the properties, Natural Lands used funds from the PA Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Bureau of Recreation and Conservation (Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund – LT).

“These properties provide critical continuous forest cover for migratory birds and native wildlife that depend on heavily wooded habitat to survive,” DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said. “Thank you to Natural Lands for supporting this important conservation work and thank you to the Game Commission for protecting these areas of critical wildlife habitat from development in rapidly expanding southeastern Pennsylvania.”

Additional financial support came from the Highlands Conservation Act (administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).

Two other properties—one in Nockamixon Township (“Grace Nockamixon”) and another in Haycock Township (“Grace Toprock”)—are scheduled for purchase and transfer to State Game Lands No. 56 and No. 157, respectively, but are held up pending the release of federal funds.

Natural Lands is dedicated to preserving and nurturing nature’s wonders while creating opportunities for joy and discovery in the outdoors for everyone.  As the Greater Philadelphia region’s oldest and largest land conservation organization, Natural Lands—which is member supported—has preserved more than 136,600 acres, including 40+ nature preserves and one public garden totaling more than 23,600 acres. About five million people live within five miles of land under the organization’s protection. Land for life, nature for all.

Please note: “Natural Lands” is the organization’s official operating name and should be used instead of its legal designation (Natural Lands Trust, Inc.).

Media Inquiries:

Kit Werner, Senior Director of Communications
610-353-5587 ext. 267

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