{"id":36987,"date":"2017-10-16T08:02:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T12:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=36987"},"modified":"2017-10-16T08:02:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T12:02:59","slug":"sunset-farm-gets-conservation-easement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=36987","title":{"rendered":"Sunset Farm gets conservation easement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/SunsetFarmPhotoByErinMcCormick.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5452\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/SunsetFarmPhotoByErinMcCormick-350x226.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"226\" \/><\/a>NEW GARDEN \u2014 Natural Lands announced Friday the preservation of 28 acres of farmland, orchard, and forest in the northwestern corner of New Garden Township, Chester County. Owners Lynn Sinclair and John Morris placed the property\u2014known as Sunset Farm\u2014under conservation easement, ensuring it will remain open forever.<\/p>\n<p>A conservation easement is a legally binding agreement that remains in place in perpetuity.\u00a0 The easement on the Sinclair-Morris property encompasses 23 of the 28-acre tract of land. Under the terms of the easement, passive recreation, meadow management, and sustainable agriculture are permitted.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout landowners like Lynn and John, who chose conservation, the beautiful landscape around us would be lost,\u201d said Molly Morrison, president of Natural Lands. \u201cSunset Farm is among 23,617 acres\u2014and counting\u2014that Natural Lands has placed under conservation. Together, these meadows, woodlands, pastures, and stream valleys contribute to our air and water quality, offer us trails to explore, and build the character of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Sinclair-Morris property lies within the White Clay Creek watershed and contains a section of the East Branch White Clay Creek, a federally designated \u201cWild and Scenic River.\u201d Fewer than 1\/4 of 1 percent of our nation\u2019s rivers are designated as such. \u00a0The property\u2019s rolling hay fields and orchards create a charming vista, and embody the iconic Chester County landscape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing involved in the\u00a0preservation of this small piece of Chester County history and natural, scenic beauty for future generations has been rewarding,\u201d said landowner Lynn Sinclair.<\/p>\n<p>A public trail easement, held by the township, runs from north to south along the western boundary of the property, providing one of the first, critical links of a New Garden Township Greenways Trail planned for the area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled that residents of New Garden Township now have 23 more acres protected from development,\u201d said Chris Robinson, chairman of the township Open Space Review Board. \u201cPreservation of the farm provides bucolic views, expands protection for the White Clay Creek Watershed, and makes possible a planned trail along the creek.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Arts and Crafts-style house on the property was built in 1915 by Thomas Crowell whose uncle was Thomas Eakins, a painter and sculptor known for his realistic depictions of Philadelphia and the surrounding countryside. Eakins spent several summers visiting his relations there and painting the local landscape.\u00a0In 2001, PBS produced a documentary about Thomas Eakins, and spent a day filming on the property.<\/p>\n<p>Funding support for this conservation project was provided by the National Park Service and New Garden Township.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW GARDEN \u2014 Natural Lands announced Friday the preservation of 28 acres of farmland, orchard, and forest in the northwestern corner of New Garden Township, Chester County. Owners Lynn Sinclair and John Morris placed the property\u2014known as Sunset Farm\u2014under conservation easement, ensuring it will remain open forever. A conservation easement is a legally binding agreement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10387,10497],"class_list":["post-36987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-natural-lands","tag-sunset-farm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36988,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36987\/revisions\/36988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}