The Land Conservancy of Adams County partnered with the owners of Kuhn Orchards to permanently preserve nearly 10 acres of rural land in Franklin Township.
Fruit growers Dave and Mary Margaret Kuhn donated a conservation easement on nearly 10 acres of wooded bottomland on their family farm in Cashtown.
No strangers to land preservation—over the years Dave and Mary Margaret have preserved a total of 150 acres of their family farm through the Land Conservancy and Adams County’s Agricultural Land Preservation Program—the Kuhns chose to preserve this parcel, which encompasses stony tributaries of Marsh Creek, in part because it adjoins another 41-acre wetland parcel they preserved in 2009 through the federal Wetlands Reserve Program, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that aims to restore, protect, and enhance the nation’s wetlands.
This newly preserved parcel protects a unique and fragile lowland ecosystem. “The Kuhns’ most recently preserved parcel, with its wetlands bordering the headwaters of Marsh Creek, is host to many of the plants you typically find in those places,” said the Land Conservancy of Adams County’s Land Conservation Coordinator Sarah Kipp. “You see a lot of trees like swamp oak and shagbark hickory as well as perennials like mayapple and Jack-in-the-pulpit.”
Love and respect for the land runs deep in the Kuhn family. Dave is a fourth-generation Adams County farmer, and the Kuhns’ daughter Sidney represents the fifth generation to work the family farm. “Our family, like most farming families, has a reverence for the land,” explained Dave Kuhn. “Conservation and preservation aren’t just concepts for us—they’re our daily practice.”
The Land Conservancy of Adams County is a nonprofit, member-supported land trust accredited by the national Land Trust Alliance’s Land Trust Accreditation Commission. The organization’s mission is to preserve the rural lands and character of Adams County, Pennsylvania. For more information about the Land Conservancy of Adams County, visit PreserveAdams.org.
