{"id":110321,"date":"2021-12-15T22:35:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T03:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=110321"},"modified":"2021-12-15T22:36:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T03:36:34","slug":"northampton-county-adds-open-space-to-county-park-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=110321","title":{"rendered":"Northampton County adds open space to County Park System"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Lamont McClure and the Division of Parks &amp; Recreation announce that on December 10, 2021 Northampton County officially acquired and permanently conserved 110.08 acres in East Allen Township.\u00a0This marks the 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0County Park and Conservation Area in the Northampton County Park, Trail, and Open Space System.\u00a0With this acquisition, the County Park system now totals 2,221 acres.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>The Spengler Preserve includes mature woodland fencerows, rolling terrain, agricultural fields, rock out-cropments, springs, riparian areas, and an unnamed tributary stream in the Catasauqua Creek Watershed.\u00a0Scenic views of the Lower Lehigh Valley including Bethlehem, Allentown, and the forested ridge of South Mountain (PA Highlands) are incredible.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cThe acquisition of this property will help protect local water sources and wildlife habitat by remaining open and not covered in pavement,\u201d says County Executive Lamont McClure.\u00a0\u201cOur Division of Parks and Recreation continues to manage stormwater naturally in the County\u2019s park system, helping to reduce the impacts of floods, erosion, and sedimentation.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cMultiple generations of the Spengler family were great stewards of the land, farmed the fields, and valued the mature woodland fencerows with some of the largest Sycamore and Red Oak Trees that I\u2019ve seen in this area\u201d, says Sherry Acevedo, Conservation Coordinator. \u201cWe are thankful for the Spengler\u2019s commitment to land conservation for future generations.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cThis acquisition protects the past, present and future character of Northampton County and farming will continue to be a major component of the overall concept of this Park\u201d commented Bryan Cope, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>The total purchase price of $2,690,000 is based on a fair market appraised value of $24,000 per acre to retain the rural character of the land and deter warehouse proliferation. This acquisition was made possible through the Northampton County Livable Landscapes Grant Program, which supports open space, environmentally sensitive land, and greenway goals. The Spengler family worked with the Conservation Coordinator to conserve this landscape as a nature preserve for future generations.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nBecky Bartlett<br \/>\nDeputy Director of Administration<br \/>\nNorthampton County Government Center<br \/>\n669 Washington Street<br \/>\nEaston, PA 18042<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.northamptoncounty.org\/\">https:\/\/www.northamptoncounty.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lamont McClure and the Division of Parks &amp; Recreation announce that on December 10, 2021 Northampton County officially acquired and permanently conserved 110.08 acres in East Allen Township.\u00a0This marks the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=110321\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Northampton County adds open space to County Park System<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,5738,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-northampton-county","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/nc-parks.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}