PA Environment Digest Blog: Land Trust Alliance Magazine Highlights Efforts Along PA's Kittatinny Ridge To Document The Economic Benefits Of Land Conservation

By Marina Shauffler

This article first appeared in the Fall 2022 Land Trust Alliance Magazine (page 24)--

From a hawk’s perspective, Kittatinny Ridge must appear as the “endless mountain” it was to the Indigenous Lenni-Lenape people who first named it. Part of the Appalachian Corridor, the ridge is nearly unbroken as it runs 185 miles through 12 counties in central and eastern Pennsylvania.

Hawks soar on thermals, riding a wind corridor that aids their migration. Kittatinny Ridge is recognized as a globally important bird area, and it stands out on maps that highlight lands rich in ecological value and climate resilience.

Conservation professionals have long recognized the importance of this corridor, the headwaters of countless tributaries flowing into the Susquehanna River, which empties into the Chesapeake Bay. But in neighboring communities, which range from agricultural small towns to fast-growing suburbs, it can be challenging to convey that ecological significance to local decision-makers.

But an effort to quantify the economic benefits of land conservation is gaining traction, helping people to recognize the cost savings that natural lands can provide—by purifying air, filtering water and reducing stormwater and erosion—as well as the economic boosts that unbroken woods and mountains provide to property values, public health, outdoor recreation and tourism.

“If you talk about the science of nature, you don’t get a lot of political support,” observes John Rogers, an environmental consultant who helped develop Return on Environment (ROE), a calculus of the untabulated values of natural lands in central and eastern Pennsylvania.

Greater understanding of the free services ecosystems provide, Rogers says, leads to the recognition that “it’s much cheaper to let the environment do that work” than it is to engineer solutions.

Many land trusts along Kittatinny Ridge can now estimate how much natural lands enhance economic well-being, thanks to a series of nine county-level ROE reports.

Each one confirmed that the annual economic contribution from natural lands in their counties was in the neighborhood of $1 billion, not counting tourism benefits, reports Jeanne Barrett Ortiz, a senior program manager with Audubon Mid-Atlantic, which helped coordinate many of the ROE studies.

The ROE process is empowering members of the Kittatinny Coalition, a long-standing network of conservation nonprofits, state agencies, county planning commissions and education partners, by offering a new tool for setting conservation priorities, influencing regional planning and advocating for open space.

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[To learn more, visit the Kittatinny Ridge website.]

Resource Links - Value Of Green Infrastructure:

-- PA Township News: The Economic Value Of Green Infrastructure: Calculating A Return On Investments In Parks, Watershed Restoration, Farmland BMPs, Open Spaces [PaEN]

-- PA Parks & Forests Foundation Blog: What Is The Economic Value Of Protected Open Space In Pennsylvania?

-- Kittatinny Ridge: Return On Environment Reports Along The Ridge

-- PA Environmental Council: $3.7 Billion - The Value Of Clean Water In Just 3 Watersheds Of The Laurel Highlands Conservation Landscape [PaEN]

-- Chester County Return On Environment Study Puts A Dollar Value On Benefits From Protecting Open Space [PaEN]

-- Jan. 12 Presentation On New Report Detailing $500 Million In Annual Economic Benefits From Services Provided By The Environment In Lebanon County [PaEN]

-- Carbon County Has $800 Million Return On Investment From Natural Resources [PaEN]

-- Estimated $939.2 Million Return On Investment In Protecting, Restoring Dauphin County’s Natural Resources [PaEN]

-- LancasterOnline: Lancaster Farmland Provides $676M In Annual Environmental Benefits [PaEN]