Local Conservation with Broad Impact
The founders of Willistown Conservation Trust have been inspiring people to conserve the land of the Willistown area since 1979. Working with willing, private landowners, we have protected over 7,500 acres of wildlife habitat, agricultural ground, and scenic views.
We use our conserved land as a platform for our holistic approach to conservation, focusing on the connections among land, farm, birds, habitat and water. People come here to study our practices and model solutions for healthy food systems, bird conservation, habitat restoration and improved water quality. They are drawn to this special place to learn, become inspired, and leave with a deeper commitment to save land and serve as stewards of our natural world.
While our land conservation efforts are local to the Willistown area, our work has a broad impact regionally and nationally.
The mission of the Willistown Conservation Trust is to preserve and manage the open land, rural character, scenic, recreational, historic, agricultural and natural resources of the Willistown area and nearby communities, and to share these unique resources with people of all ages and backgrounds to inspire, educate and develop a lifelong commitment to the land and the natural world.
In furtherance of the above mission, the Trust seeks to promote a heightened sense of community and a strong land ethic within our program area and beyond. Through ongoing initiatives including the Land Protection Program, the Community Farm Program, the Bird Conservation Program, the Habitat Restoration Program and the Watershed Protection Program, the Trust is dedicated to serving as an important outreach, educational and collaborative resource for communities and organizations in the greater Philadelphia region.
Here in the Willistown area, the land tugs on each of us in different ways. A landowner gazing across a rich pasture with horses might see a lifestyle that has connected his family to the land for generations. A naturalist might scan the rolling hills, meadows, streams and woodland, awed by the diversity of plant and animal life hidden in the landscape before her. An outdoors lover might itch to explore one of the area’s special places by foot, horse, or bike. For others, the simple beauty of Willistown’s rural setting provides welcome respite from the surrounding Philadelphia suburban metropolis.
