Rockwell
Harmony Township • 95 Acres
Zygmunt
Auburn Township • 50 Acres
The Zygmunt Property
By George Smith
The Times Leader newspaper
Appeared in the Times Leader newspaper.
August 12, 2001
Reprinted with permission.
AUBURN TWP.
Ed and Amber Zygmunt wear the badge of “conservationist” with pride and sincerity. They walk the walk, and they talk the talk. “I put my land where my mouth is,” Ed Zygmunt said with a smile. The Zygmunts have spent countless hours of their adult lives volunteering time for conservation work on the local, state and national level. They practice what they preach, as they are in the process of finishing work on their 50-acre Susquehanna County farm – including a century-old farmhouse – that has become a landowner model for modern conservation and wildlife management practices.
The farm is called “Perennial Acres.” The name is appropriate, as it is now protected from subdivision forever. Formerly a 24-year resident of Avoca, Ed is the Chesapeake Bay Technician for the Wyoming County Conservation District and an avid outdoorsman. He is one of the National Wildlife Federation’s state affiliate representatives from the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, Inc. Amber works as a framer in an art shop and enjoys bird watching, canoeing, and gardening. Collectively, they pooled their talents, expertise, convictions and hard work to create the haven that is “Perennial Acres.”
“We wanted to create a model for the landowner. We wanted to prove that there is the technical and financial assistance out there to improve water quality and bolster wildlife habitat on private land,” Zygmunt said. To safeguard the re-assembled 50-acres of original farmland the Zygmunts purchased in four parcels, they secured it with a conservation easement through the North Branch Land Trust.
The easement ensures that the contiguous acreage will not be subdivided. “A lot of people don’t understand what the conservation easement means. We retain ownership of the land. We retain the right to sell it. “What we ‘lost’ is the right to subdivide it,” Zygmunt said. And what they gained were significant income tax credits and the peace of mind that their land will be free from development forever.
“The deal was sweetened when a neighbor enrolled his 100-acre farm into Susquehanna County’s Farmland Preservation Program. “Now these 150 contiguous acres will always remain open space,” Zygmunt said. Restoring the run-down farmhouse, built in 1860, was a top priority. It now has an attached garage fashioned from the old kitchen and a new sun room — amenities the old farmhouse lacked. “We try to make it as country and as energy efficient as possible,” said Zygmunt of the farmhouse that now has oil heat supplemented by a wood stove. Another top priority was the dirt township road that dissects the property and passes in front of the farmhouse. The road represents an environmental success story. “It’s gratifying as a sportsman to see the benefits of past legislation I helped work to enact,” Zygmunt said.
He explained that sportsmen’s groups such as Ducks Unlimited and the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, Inc. worked with mainstream environmental groups to demonstrate the impact sediment pollution from the water runoff from dirt roads has on streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.
“This sediment pollution was funneling downhill into a little stream. After a thunderstorm, the stream would run chocolate brown. “And we wonder why the Susquehanna River is muddy?” Zygmunt said. A grader was used to alter the slope of the road. Sheet water runoff was diverted into a field, which now serves as a natural buffer and filter. Pipes lower on the slope divert channeled stormwater into a wetland. As a result, ground water levels are recharged with every storm and sediment runoff is minimal.
“I as a landowner allowed these improvements on my land. We are using vegetation and the wetland to filter the sediment that used to run into the stream,” Zygmunt said. The project cost $17,000. The work was performed by Auburn Township and paid for with funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Dirt and Gravel Road Pollution Prevention Program.
As a sportsman, Zygmunt is proud of the 15-acre wetland that he expanded. As a nature lover, Amber enjoys the wildlife it attracts. The 2-acre expansion is an outcome of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s wetland replacement program. This program creates wetlands to replace those destroyed by development elsewhere in the state. “Ten months ago this was a corn field,” Zygmunt said, pointing to boggy, water-filled potholes that attract muskrats, frogs, waterfowl and songbirds. The wetland project tied in nicely to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation/Ducks Unlimited Habitat Stewardship Program.
The program helps landowners reserve marginal pastureland with financial incentives called “conservation credits.” For every acre of buffer land a property owner excludes from livestock, the program will pay for the installation of the required fencing as well as an average of $1,000 per acre.
The money comes in the form of credits that can be applied to other conservation work needed on the farm. The program will also pay for tree plantings in the excluded area. Technical assistance for the field improvements was part of a Soil Conservation Plan designed by the local field office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The service also helped with what is called the WHIP, or Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program.
In the next few years, the Zygmunts plan to convert a small hay field to native wildflowers, perform a field border cut to create habitat for small game, and plant fruit trees as wildlife food sources. “We already have an area reserved for monarch butterflies,’ Zygmunt said, referring to an exclosure in the center of the field where milkweed plants favored by the butterflies thrive.
The Zygmunts also worked with the state Bureau of Forestry to formulate a forest management plan for a small woodlot they have agreed to manage for the benefit of wildlife. The plan calls for the culling of less desirable species to allow sunlight to reach younger mast-producing trees, planting of new trees, leaving dead and decaying trees for den and nesting habitat, and installing deer exclusion measures to promote forest regeneration.
While all these projects were underway, Amber worked tirelessly to create natural habitat for wildlife in the backyard. She transformed a sterile half-acre yard into a haven for birds, butterflies and other wildlife by providing the four elements that backyard wildlife needs to survive: food, water, shelter, and space to raise young.
As a result of Amber’s work, the backyard filled with daisies, day lilies, rhododendrons and mountain laurel is among about 28,000 others nationwide certified under the National Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Wildlife Habitat program.
Amber said all the hard work at the homestead was worth the effort. “It’s important to keep open space and not have it developed,” she explained. Her husband agrees. “All this gives me peace of mind. I put my land where my mouth is,” Zygmunt said.
Ed and Amber Zygmunt say there is an important lesson to be learned from their experiences creating farmland and backyard habitat that is friendly to wildlife and the environment. “Without the technical and financial assistance that was available to us, our conservation story would not be possible,” Ed Zygmunt said. “For instance, every county has a Conservation District. If money is not available for a particular project, the technical assistance certainly is.”
What follows is a list of organizations the Zygmunts turned to for assistance in developing conservation-oriented, wildlife-friendly land management practices.
Gates
Silver Lake Twp. • 116 Acres
Bordering New York State near the community of Brackney in Susquehanna County, the Gates property consists of northern hardwood and conifer forests. The property’s topography includes stream bottomlands, gradual sloping terrains and moderately steep sloping terrains. Noteworthy natural habitat features include vernal pools, a hemlock palustrine forest, a stream, wetlands and dozens of spring seeps emanating from the mountainside, all supporting wildlife diversity of high quality flora and fauna species.
The hemlock palustrine forest along Snake Creek, for example, provides habitat for forest-dwelling mammal species such as southern flying squirrel, short-tailed shrew, black bear and mink along with bird species such as golden-crowned kinglet, yellow-bellied sapsucker, blue jay and white-breasted nuthatch. The spring seeps found along the northern slopes host beautiful springtime wildflowers that include species like round-lobed hepatica, foam flower, goldthread and northern wood sorrel. Fern species include cinnamon fern, New York fern and sensitive fern.
A very healthy hemlock palustrine forest shades the vernal pools and spring seeps and protects Snake Creek, whose cold waters drain into the Susquehanna River, the largest single source of fresh water for the Chesapeake Bay. As many as seven species of stream minnows were identified during studies, as well as three rare dragonflies.
Cecil/Wagner
Lenox Twp. • 84 Acres
The Cecil/Wagner Property, near the community of West Lenox in southern Susquehanna County, includes agricultural fields, meadows, deciduous and coniferous forests, a stream and a pond and wetlands. Collectively they host an astonishing diversity of high-quality flora and fauna species along with animals uncommon to this region. Nine animal species found here are classified as Species of Special Concern in Pennsylvania: osprey, northern harrier, great blue heron, Wilson’s snipe and blackpoll warbler; river otter; four-toed salamander; and slaty skimmer, lilypad clubtail and Halloween pennant dragonflies.
The property’s approximately 27 acres of meadows and fields provide the natural ecological requirements and breeding habitat for many nationally declining grassland-dependant bird species such as eastern meadowlark, savannah sparrow, field sparrow, bobolink, horned lark, American kestrel, northern harrier and Wilson’s snipe. The meadow area hosts impressive amounts of wildflowers and goldenrods and attracts as many as 26 species of butterflies.
The spring seeps found along the southeastern edge of the maple forest host beautiful springtime wildflowers, and an ephemeral pool here provides breeding habitat for wood frogs and spotted salamanders. A 12-acre pond hosts resident and migratory birds—osprey, great blue heron, green heron, common merganser, hooded merganser—as well as river otter, raccoon and mink. There are painted and snapping turtles and 31 species of dragonflies including the rare lilypad clubtail. Water from the property flows into the Tower Branch and Tunkhannock creeks which are both tributaries of the Susquehanna River.
The Tewksbury Wildlife & Butterfly Sanctuary
Brooklyn Township • 40 Acres
This property has been in the Tewksbury family for over one hundred years, having been purchased by Ross and Genevieve (Mackey) Tewksbury in 1908. Prior to 1908, Harman Canfield Fairchild owned this property and built the farm house in 1866. Herman Leroy Fairchild, Harman’s son and a boy at that time, went on to become a well-known geology professor at the University of Rochester, having gotten his start examining the Devonian sandstones on the property.
Marie Tewksbury, one of three children, lived on the property her entire life and maintained it after her parents died in the mid-1960s. Marie died there in 2006 at the age of 80. During the property’s hay day, the family had many farming endeavors, including extensive apple orchards (with heirloom varieties), dairy farming, horses, and raising hounds for hunting. The family had a love and appreciation of nature. They were quite particular about the old growth trees on the land, preserving almost all of them and using only fallen trees for firewood. The property boasts a documented co-state champion shag bark hickory tree along with other county record species. In the years since Marie’s death, the property has sat idle and in 2010 the family members decided to permanently protect 40 acres of the 105-acre farm.
The 40-acre Conservation Area is a mix of habitats: hardwood forest, hedgerows of mature hardwoods, successional fields and wooded areas, old apple orchards, an agricultural field, wetlands, intermittent and permanent streams, and a 1.5 acre pond created by a beaver dam. Numerous species of old growth trees, some of record size, are scattered throughout the property, including several species of hickory, Red Oak, American Beech, White Ash and maples. A number of stonewalls mark former edges of fields and property. Other than mowing of the hayfield (a small portion of which lies within the Conservation Area), there is currently no human activity occurring here. Outside the bounds of the Conservation Area, the rest of the Farm (65 acres) is comprised of mature and successional forests, an agricultural field and a pond of substantial size. Building structures include a historic home, barn and several old outbuildings.
This conservation easement project is the result of a wetland mitigation exchange with Williams Field Services Company LLC, and restitution for an equal acreage of wetlands that will be damaged or destroyed elsewhere in the county. The purpose of this conservation easement is to assure that the Conservation Area will be retained in its open space and natural condition in perpetuity. NBLT is grateful for the opportunity to be part of this historic conservation project and would like to thank the descendants of Ross and Genevieve Tewksbury for their commitment to this special conservation project.