Useful Resources & Links

Pike County Office of Community Planning
Updates on the latest Comprehensive Plan, watersheds, County and Municipal information, and more.

Monroe 2020
Learn how Monroe County’s open space plan, comprehensive plan, Agricultural land preservation program and more are helping protect quality of life in Monroe.

Chester County 2020
Support for livable communities, enhancing the vitality of the agricultural economy, and more.

Coalition for Smart Growth of Lancaster County
"The Coalition’s intent is to provide a framework within which discussions about Lancaster County’s future can take place and to incorporate public policy recommendations into practical applications"

Save our Land, Save our Towns
Founded by Tom Hylton to facilitate change — change in private attitudes, change in public policy. Through education and advocacy, the non-profit champions the use of regional planning, growth boundaries, and traditional town design to protect rural areas and encourage the redevelopment of cities and towns that house people of all ages, races and incomes."

Pennsylvania Farmland Preservation Program
With over a quarter-million farmland acres preserved, Pennsylvania continues to set the national standard in farmland preservation.

Land Trust Alliance (LTA)
As the national leader of the private land conservation movement, LTA promotes voluntary land conservation across the country, provides resources, leadership, and training to the nation's 1,200-plus nonprofit, grassroots land trusts and helps them to protect important open spaces.

Delaware Highlands Conservancy
Pike County’s local land trust, the Conservancy is dedicated to conserving the natural and cultural heritage of the Upper Delaware River Region.

Montgomery County Lands Trust Open Space Success Stories
A sampling of the wide range of innovative projects merging from Montgomery County’s first open space program.

Pennsylvania Land Trust Association
Find a local land trust, Read stories about projects, find out more about conservation in Pennsylvania.

Heritage Conservancy
Founded in 1958 as the Bucks County Park Foundation, Heritage Conservancy has grown to be a respected leader in protecting the natural and historic resources of our region and beyond.

The Nature Conservancy
The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.

Trust for Public Land
TPL is a national, nonprofit, land conservation organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, community gardens, historic sites, rural lands, and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come.

Pike County Conservation District
Promoting natural resource conservation through education, resource management and cooperative partnerships with citizen groups, community organizations and local, state and federal agencies. Your community clearinghouse for conservation education and assistance, including state and federal regulatory permit information.

10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania http://www.10000friends.org/
An alliance "committed to enhancing the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians … by promoting policies and actions that will … preserve farmland and rural resource lands, conserve our natural heritage and fiscal resources" and more.

Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County
Seeks to encourage growth that improves the quality of life for current residents and businesses, but will also insure vibrant, high quality growth for future generations in Westmoreland County.

Green Space Alliance of Southeastern Pennsylvania
Together, more than 100 organizations in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties are working together under the banner of the GreenSpace Alliance to define a shared vision—an integrated network of open space throughout the region.

Books

Save our Land, Save our Town
Thomas Hylton explains how planning can lower the cost of living, preserve farms and forests, protect our environment, enhance our communities, and more. "Now in its fifth printing, Save Our Land has been eagerly read by conservationists, farmers, city dwellers, and others looking for ways America can protect its cities, towns, and countryside."

Preserving Family Lands: Book I, Book II, and Book III
Author and Tax Attorney Stephen J. Small is recognized as the nation's leading authority on private land protection options and strategies. Before authoring the Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements and Preserving Family Lands: Book I, Book II, and Book III, he wrote the Federal Income Tax Regulations on Conservation Easements as attorney-advisor in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service. Can be ordered online at www.stevesmall.com

Randall Arendt is a land-use planner, site designer, author, lecturer, and an advocate of "conservation planning". His books include:

• Growing Greener -- Putting Conservation into Local Plans and Ordinances
  by Randall Arendt
  Island Press, 1999
  
• Rural by Design -- Maintaining Small Town Character
  by Randall Arendt
  with Harry Dodson, Christine Reid, Elizabeth Brabec, and Robert Yaro
  Planners' Press, 1994
  
• Crossroads, Hamlet, Village, Town
  Design Characteristics of Traditional Neighborhoods, Old and New
  by Randall Arendt
  American Planning Association (Planning Advisory Service), 1999
  
• Conservation Design for Subdivisions
  A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks
  by Randall Arendt
  Island Press, 1996
  (Co-published by the American Planning Association and
  the American Society of Landscape Architects)
• (More info about Arendt's books can be viewed at http://www.greenerprospects.com/products.html)