UPPER DELAWARE REGION — The Common Waters Fund has announced that an additional dozen landowners on 8,000 acres across three states will share more than $140,000 in Common Waters Fund grants to develop forest management plans and implement sustainable management practices that protect water quality in the Upper Delaware River Basin.

The fund works on the principle that protecting forests in priority areas protects drinking water. Facilitated by a partnership of regional stakeholders, the initiative has distributed over $700,000 to 100 private forest owners in Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties in Pennsylvania; Delaware, Orange and Sullivan counties in New York; and Sussex and Warren counties in New Jersey. Together these landowners represent over 46,000 acres of high priority forestland.

The fund also works with regional land trusts to permanently protect forests. “We were fortunate in this round of funding to be able to permanently conserve 939 acres of land by defraying the legal expenses of placing conservation easements on two properties,” said fund director Stephanie Pendergrass.