HAWLEY, PA — An additional 50 acres in Pike County is now permanently conserved and is protecting clean water and wildlife habitat, thanks to its owners and the Delaware Highlands Conservancy (DHC). Tri-Angle Farm is home to beautiful 150-year-old apple and pear trees—the remaining part of the orchard on the farm when it belonged to its original owners, the Angle family. Over the last 24 years, the diversity and the beauty of the land has inspired the present owners to permanently protect this special property.

Now, most of the property is forested, with a mixture of hemlocks, oaks and maple trees providing important habitat for a variety of wildlife, from songbirds to white-tailed deer, bears and small mammals. The hemlocks provide important shade over the stream that runs through the property—a tributary of Dingmans Creek, whose clean waters flow directly into the Delaware River and is designated as a high-quality cold-water fishery for the habitat it provides for trout.

The property is adjacent to the 70,000-acre Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and close to the Delaware State Forest. This protected property now helps to create a corridor of unbroken, protected habitat, which is important for the safe nesting and migration of birds and wildlife. If this property had not been protected, it would probably have been developed into at least three dozen residential lots, and the cutting of forestland would have significantly impacted the water quality in Dingmans Creek.

The owners choice to donate this conservation easement to the DHC is a generous and meaningful gift that will ensure that no matter who owns this property, now or in the future, it will forever remain protected. Funding to cover the costs of the transaction was provided by the Pike County Scenic Rural Character Preservation Program and the William Penn Foundation. For more information call 570/226-3164 or 845/583-1010, or email info@delawarehighlands.org.