PA/DE 2022 Impact Report

What a year! 2022 has delivered historic legislation on climate action in Pennsylvania and Delaware and at the federal level. In just 12 months, we’ve seen significant climate action that will go a long way toward achieving TNC’s 2030 goals: driving down emissions, protecting our lands and waters, building strong communities and enhancing equitable outcomes. These recent victories are worth celebrating, and your support makes our local-to-global work possible. Thank you!

Of course, there is much more to be done. We are facing the biggest, most complex challenges of our lives. And that calls for our biggest, most ambitious plans. Here in Pennsylvania and Delaware, we’re developing creative approaches to conservation and implementing best practices to ensure that we meet the moment in order to address the environmental challenges before us. We are hard at work incorporating our most recent set of strategic initiatives, including an important focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. We’re prioritizing community outreach, reaching across aisles and forging long-term partnerships so that we can make durable, lasting progress in support of TNC’s 2030 goals.

This year’s report is full of exciting highlights: the completion of our green stormwater infrastructure project at the Holmesburg Baptist Church in Northeast Philadelphia; successful reforestation efforts along the Kittatinny Ridge in the Appalachians; big state policy wins in Harrisburg and Dover; a first-ever leadership hire for Delaware’s Oceans and Coasts program and so much more. I often like to highlight the importance of resiliency—both within ourselves and our natural spaces—and the sheer breadth and scope of our recent work demonstrates that our chapter has emerged from these two pandemic-impacted years stronger than ever before.

From managing our forests to improving our water quality to improving green infrastructure in our cities, TNC’s science-based approach is made possible through the tireless efforts of our staff, our volunteers, our partners, our dedicated Board of Trustees and you. Your commitment to The Nature Conservancy in Pennsylvania & Delaware is a tangible investment for today and a legacy for future generations.

Please join us as we create a stronger tomorrow together.

Yours in Conservation,
Lori Brennan, Executive Director

2022 has been an eventful and important year for conservation here in  Pennsylvania and Delaware. Even as our lands and waters continue to face significant challenges—many of which are the direct result of climate change—I’m optimistic that we can come together and find innovative solutions. Like you, I’m passionate about this work, and your support for our work grows more essential each day.

This year, we’ve seen tremendous progress within our chapter. Our Board of Trustees is becoming more diverse in its expertise and composition in order to represent our constituents across our area. As a group, we are committed to implementing the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice into our work. We’ve also welcomed new staff members to the team, all of whom are already making a big impact.

I’ve been inspired by the ongoing work at Cove Mountain, where a 1,200-acre expansion in 2021 has unlocked new opportunities for public education and habitat restoration along a critical migratory corridor in the Appalachians. We also expanded our Delaware Bayshore program in a big way when we hired our first-ever Director of Oceans and Coasts, who is helping us build out tools for climate resiliency along our low-lying beaches and wetlands. Our science-based management team remains second to none in preserving natural spaces for future generations.

Finally, I’m heartened by this year’s historic policy wins in Pennsylvania, Delaware and at the national level. These legislative achievements will bring much-needed resources for climate infrastructure and allow us to make faster progress on longstanding environmental priorities in order to meet our organization’s 2030 goals. Governments, financial markets and public corporations are increasingly driving progress for conservation. These accomplishments reflect many years of hard work and perseverance from our chapter and TNC’s global team. There is still much more that can and should be done, and the momentum is building! 

Most of all, I’m thankful to you and all of our supporters across our two states who are committing their time, talent and treasure to make our communities and our world a better and more equitable place.

Rich Aneser, Chairman
Pennsylvania & Delaware Board of Trustees

Last year with the support of our donors, we closed on a land deal to significantly expand the Hamer Woodlands at Cove Mountain Preserve. The purchase of 1,200 acres adjacent to the existing preserve quadrupled its size and—most importantly—filled a gap between existing conservation lands, creating a 14-mile protected stretch along the ridge.

Due to its north/south orientation, the 185-mile Kittatinny Ridge landscape serves as a critical climate refuge for species that are shifting their ranges north and upslope to find more hospitable conditions.  

The Hamer Woodlands at Cove Mountain sit along one of the premier raptor migration corridors in the northeast, and even the world. Tens of thousands of hawks, eagles and falcons pass through each year alongside other notable species such as ruby-throated hummingbirds and monarch butterflies.

Invasive species, which are degrading the forest cover and threatening to create a weak link in the chain of migratory habitat, pose a major threat. To combat this, recently TNC partnered with Audubon Mid-Atlantic on a proactive restoration project. 

The restoration project began by tackling invasives such as Tree of heaven, a rapidly growing species that is native to China. The felled trees were left onsite to naturally decompose and add organic material to the forest floor over time. Next, the team focused on two other highly disruptive plants that had moved into the area: Japanese stilt grass and mile-a-minute. A selective herbicide targeted the invaders and will prevent their seeds from germinating in the next growing season.

Forests are dynamic, ever-changing places. Surrounded by much more mature stands of hardwood forest, this restored section of ridgetop in the Hamer Woodlands at Cove Mountain Preserve—and the entire Kittatinny  Ridge of which it is a part—will continue to provide life-sustaining benefits to both people and nature in the decades and centuries ahead.

Jenna Baljunas, a student at Chatham University who is majoring in environmental science with a minor in botany, spent her summer on a unique flora scavenger hunt.

“My volunteer work with TNC involved visiting the Dick and Nancy Eales Preserve at Moosic Mountain and exploring the area of the O’Conner Reservoir to monitor the new vegetation growth since the recent dam removal,” says Jenna. “Through finding and identifying the vegetation, I am helping TNC to plan for further restoration of the area.” 

Using the iNaturalist app, Jenna tracked and identified 56 plant species in one area of the restoration site during the summer. The most dominant species were three-way sedge (Dulichium arundinaceum), narrow-pinnacle rush (Juncus brevicaudatus), red maple (Acer rubrum) and American burnweed a.k.a fireweed (Erechtites hieraciifolius). 

In the course of her work with TNC, Jenna has seen real progress in the landscape. 

“I have already seen so much change and the beginning of the area’s restoration,” says Jenna. “I am excited to see how much changes in years to come. I think it is so special to be able to hold the picture of what the land looked like at the very start of restoration in my head because I believe there will be a time in the future where the area will look established and significantly different.”