Northampton County has 43.36 acres of new open space, at the confluence of the Little Bushkill and Bushkill creeks in Stockertown.<\/p>\n
The county recently closed on the land purchase approved May 15 by the county council for $1,430,880<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Highlands Conservation Act program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided $730,000 toward the permanent protection of the land<\/a>, with additional funding coming from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Northampton County Livable Landscapes grant program.<\/p>\n Located just southeast of Main Street and Old Mill Lane in the borough, the new Bauer Preserve comprises two parcels purchased from the Judith L. Bauer Trust. <\/p>\n It is not yet open to the public, but public access is planned once improvements are completed that include parking, county Deputy Director of Administration Jessica Berger told lehighvalleylive.com.<\/p>\n DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn joined Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure and others on Thursday in celebrating the purchase.<\/p>\n \u201cThis acquisition project is a testament to the importance of collaboration to help protect our natural spaces and make them accessible to the public,\u201d Adams Dunn said in a statement released by the county. \u201cWe are grateful to Northampton County for its support of this project, which is a major triumph for conservation work that showcases the value of open space protection and the many benefits it can provide to a community.\u201d<\/p>\n Preserving the land from development seeks to enhance water quality, sustainable agriculture and habitat in a sensitive stream corridor, according to county officials.<\/p>\n \u201cThe project aligns with the Highlands Conservation Act goals in a four-state region and will serve as a preserve managing floodplain restoration, active farming, stormwater management, and public access in Northampton County,\u201d McClure stated. \u201cOur staff in the Division of Parks and Recreation worked diligently to facilitate this acquisition in partnership with DCNR, USFWS, and our professional service team in a federal acquisition process to conserve critical open space.\u201d<\/p>\n This purchase also aligns with the county\u2019s Livable Landscapes Plan to conserve and enhance local natural resources, and represents \u201can incremental step toward closing a trail gap in the Two Rivers Area Trailway, co-aligned with the September 11th National Memorial Trail<\/a>,\u201d according to Sherry Acevedo, county conservation coordinator.<\/p>\n The Bauer Preserve serves as the county\u2019s 23rd park and conservation area totaling more than 2,400 acres owned by the county and managed by its Department of Public Works Division of Parks and Recreation.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northampton County has 43.36 acres of new open space, at the confluence of the Little Bushkill and Bushkill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-36825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}