An additional 7.5 acres in northern Chester County have been preserved thanks to a partnership between French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust and Charlestown Township, according to a staff report from the Daily Local News. 

The Green Lane Road property is owned by Frances Rodgers. Tax dollars dedicated through the township’s Open Space Initiative helped to fund the conservation easement, which expanded the protected land along Green Lane to 175 acres. 

Rodgers and her late husband, Mike, raised all nine of their children on the Charlestown Township property. He was a multiple-time township supervisor and staunch supporter of the Open Space Initiative. When Rodgers decided to sell the property to her neighbors, Rick and Holly Bernhard, she wanted to place it under easement first. 

Charlestown Township Supervisor Kevin Kuhn contacted French & Pickering, and they were able to complete the easement by June 14. 

“The Rodgerses’ property is surrounded by three other French & Pickering easements, including the Bernhards’,” said Pam Brown, French & Pickering conservation director. “A yield plan indicated that two additional houses could be constructed, but all were eliminated through the easement agreement.” 

Read more about the preservation efforts in the Daily Local News.