The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County

The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County (TLC) is a nonprofit land trust located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Our mission is to ensure the perpetual preservation and stewardship of open space, natural resources, historic sites, and working agricultural lands throughout Southern Chester County.

Here are just a few examples of what we do in our community:

·         Land Conservation—the cornerstone of our mission. We strive to protect and enhance our local natural resources, watersheds, cultural, scenic, and recreational resources, wildlife habitat, working agricultural landscapes, and community values through conservation of land.

·         Historic Preservation—we actively seek to preserve historic sites and structures, including a historic Civil War cemetery, Kennett’s oldest one-lane bridge, and the 1850s mill worker’s house, which we acquired and preserved in 2000 on a 40-acre parcel of land slated for subdivision development.

·         Environmental Education—we have developed a full, year-round schedule of Environmental Education programming, such as the upcoming Edible Plant Forage, Origami Dragonfly Macroinvertebrate Workshop, Open Hive Days, Overnight with Nature, Living History Hikes, Chronicles Day Public Archaeological Dig, Hawk Watch, and Full Moon Owl Prowls.

·         Outreach to Underserved Youth—we believe that the benefits and experience of active engagement with nature should be available to everyone. Because many schools lack the funding for environmental education or to bring students to our preserves, we bring environmental education to them by working with organizations such as Kennett’s After the Bell Program and The Garage Youth Center. We offer free and low-cost programming, as well as scholarships for all of our educational offerings, and all of our nature preserves are free and open to the public from dawn until dusk, 365 days a year.

·         Landowner Outreach—programs such as our Landscape Visionaries and Conservation Stewardship Organization help landowners create and carry out responsible land management plans that are mutually beneficial to the landowner and the environment.

·         New Leaf Eco Center Sustainability Demonstration Site—Located on our most visible nature preserve and open to the public free of charge, the New Leaf Eco Center includes installations such as a Home Composting Demonstration, Edible Forest Garden, Professionally Managed Apiary, and BioSwales for stormwater management.