Northampton County is in line to receive a $730,000 grant toward the permanent protection of about 43 acres of open space in Stockertown, officials said.
County Executive Lamont McClure and the county Division of Parks and Recreation on Monday announced the grant award. It comes from the Highlands Conservation Act program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Conservation Investment, according to the county officials.
Running through the heart of the Lehigh Valley, the Highlands region spans 3.4 million acres across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
Highlands Conservation Act grants aim to conserve natural resources in the region and sustain key landscapes for the benefit of people and wildlife.
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in partnership with Northampton County applied for the grant, according to the announcement; the grant represents the program’s first competitive funding award in Pennsylvania this year.
County officials were not commenting on exactly where in Stockertown the 43 acres of open space are located, with the agreement of sale still pending.
Northampton County will need to provide matching funds for the acquisition projected to cost about $1.4 million. The county council will need to approve the purchase, according to Jessica Berger, the county’s deputy director of administration.
“Funds for this acquisition are available in the 2025 budget through the Administration of the Division of County Parks and Recreation,” she said Monday by email.
Closing on the purchase is anticipated for this year. The land will be open to the public, consistent with the Northampton County Parks Rules and Regulations, Berger said.
Adding to the 2,380 acres of green space preserved and managed by the county, the acquisition would help to “conserve critical landscapes” within Lehigh and Northampton counties, Monday’s announcement states.
“Our acquisition protects the land from development and conserves the agricultural, environmentally sensitive habitat, and trail connections in the Bushkill Creek Watershed,” McClure said in a news release, noting the county’s “exponential growth in large-scale warehouse and logistics development eliminating open space and farmland ... at a record pace” over the past decade.
State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn in the release from the county called the pending acquisition “a major step in improving trail access in the region.”
“Not only does addition of the property help the Commonwealth close a key trail gap in the Two Rivers Trailway in Northampton County, it helps the Lehigh Valley Greenways Conservation Landscape expand the LINK Trail Network and its work to build a world-class trail system within the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor,” she stated.
Highlands Conservation Act grants are designed to preserve land of high conservation value — fulfilling the act’s conservation objectives of clean water, healthy forests, thriving wildlife populations, agriculture and recreation opportunities, according to Monday’s announcement.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.
Kurt Bresswein may be reached at [email protected].