Kenyon alumni share a common bond of having studied on a beautiful hilltop in rural Ohio surrounded by rolling hills and farmland with the scenic Kokosing River meandering at its base. For many of us, the memories of that beauty continue to call to us over the years and beckon us back to the Hill.
The College received a wake-up call in the late 1980s when land along the Kokosing River at the base of the Hill at the intersection of Route 229 and Route 308 was threatened by development. The Kenyon Board of Trustees realized that it could no longer take the College’s rural setting for granted. Since colleges cannot hold conservation easements, the trustees voted to create Kenyon’s own land trust — the first, and to this day only, college or university to do so. The Philander Chase Conservancy was created in 2000 with a mission “to protect the natural beauty of the farms, woodlands, waters and open spaces surrounding Kenyon College and to preserve the rural character of the region at large.”
Columbus is currently the fastest growing city in the Midwest. The Columbus Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission predicts the region will likely add another 1 million people by 2050 with the population reaching 3 million people. Knox County is projected to grow by another 16-17,000 which is the current population of Mount Vernon. Nationally, roughly a football field of green space disappears every 30 seconds, most of it in private ownership. The pressure on rural lands is clearly not relenting.
At Philander Chase Conservancy, we are committed to maintaining the healthy, productive lands we remember. We work with farmers and landowners who live within a five-mile radius of the College who share our vision of conserving their land in perpetuity. Together with conservation-minded landowners, we have conserved 66 properties totaling almost 5700 acres to date.
We look forward to sharing more about our work in future issues of this newsletter and encourage you to get in touch with us at 740-427-5902 to learn more about our work.
To support the work of the Philander Chase Conservancy, you can make a tax-deductible gift online.
"The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope." — Wendell Berry