Stories From Tinicum: New Conservancy Brochure tells the inspiring ...

Our land. Our future. Our choice.

Table of Contents
Celebrating Tinicum’s Places and People ....... Pg. 1
A family tree that keeps growing ................ Pg. 2
Land conservation is contagious ................. Pg. 3
Little steps make big footprints .................... Pg. 5
Supporting conservation in their own way .... Pg. 6
Giving back to the community ...................... Pg. 7
Our reciprocal relationship with nature ......... Pg. 8
Nature’s temporary caretakers .................... Pg. 9

Celebrating Tinicum’s Places and People
Dear Friends of Tinicum,
I don’t have to tell you that Tinicum is a very special place. Covering just 19,723 acres and home to fewer
than 5,000 people, the township is a rich but fragile landscape of cascading streams, scenic vistas, wide-open
meadows, contiguous forest and deep, dark hollows.
During the past two decades, the Tinicum Conservancy, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, has partnered with
conservation-minded landowners, concerned citizens and local government to preserve almost 90 properties
and 3,700 acres—or 5½ square miles of the township. With the addition of properties preserved through other
conservation and government programs, more than a third of the township is now protected for the benefit of
current and future generations. This is a remarkable achievement, not only in Bucks County but also in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Conservancy’s success has been as much a story of people as it has been about the land. The Conservancy
has been blessed with a group of landowners, volunteers, scientists and donors who share our common vision
and have contributed to our accomplishments. Our supporters include farmers and weekend visitors; newcomers
and lifelong residents; owners of small and large parcels; and others who are concerned that the special nature
and irreplaceable resources of Tinicum could be lost forever to become just another suburb.
This brochure celebrates our success through residents’ heartfelt stories and reflections on why they think it is
vital to protect Tinicum’s remaining open space. I am sure your reason for loving Tinicum will be reflected in
one or two of these stories that highlight your neighbors.
If you haven’t already become involved with the Conservancy, I hope this brochure inspires you to do so. We all
have a stake in protecting Tinicum’s future.
Enjoy!
Jim Engel
Executive Director
Tinicum Conservancy
[ 1 ]

A family tree that keeps growing
The Quinbys have had roots deep in Tinicum
for six generations, stretching back to the mid-
1800s. The family has run a building restoration
and construction firm, collected taxes, raised
cattle, and served on the board of supervisors.
Preserving their land for generations to come
seemed only natural. “It was always the intention
never to develop the land,” says Todd Quinby,
who has lived on or near the farm his entire
life. “We never had a
conversation about
developing it.”
That, says Todd’s
older daughter, Patti Lynn, suits her just fine:
“I would like to raise my kids in the same
environment that I had.”
The farm’s expansive acreage of fields and
woods, which went under conservation
easement in 2006, for years has been the
perfect nature center, campground, fishing
spot, and driver’s ed course for young
Quinbys. “The fields were our playground,”
remembers James Quinby, Todd’s son.
“I would like to raise my kids in
the same environment that I had.”
Todd’s great-great-greatgrandfather
Aaron Kohl,
who ran a bakery in
Upper Black Eddy, bought
the original parcel on
Upper Tinicum Church
Road in 1855. The family
gradually added to the acreage as it expanded
its farming operation—and became involved
in the local community.
An uncle helped with
the 1930 census. Todd’s
grandfather, John L.
Quinby, was a Civil
Defense volunteer during World War II. Todd’s
father, John, served as township supervisor in
the 1960s and 1970s, and his mother, Joan,
has been tax collector, auditor, and school
board member.
Even with their busy lives, John and Joan
always had time for their family. “It was nice
knowing their door was always open,” says
Patti Lynn. Echoes Todd: “It was the same
when my grandfather was here.”
[ ] 2
The Quinbys
For the Quinby children—the sixth generation—
the farm’s future as open space is secure. As
they launch into their own careers, they know
the family homestead is something they can
depend on, whether it’s watching bald eagles
soar above the Delaware River or building a
campfire for the annual family campout.

Land conservation is contagious
Lisa BerkLey and david PhiLLips
The strong sense of community drew Lisa Berkley
and David Phillips to Tinicum Township—and
that like-mindedness sustains them.
One by one, this former urban couple and their
neighbors have put their land under easement
through the Conservancy, so that today, a wide
patchwork of fields, meadows and woods at
Hollow Horn and Ervin Roads is protected
from development.
When Lisa and David first moved to Tinicum
in the late 1980s, they plunged right into a
“green” lifestyle. David volunteered with the
monthly recycling effort at the
township building and discovered
a group of other environmentally
sensitive people.
“It was a great network,” he says.
“That’s where we met people,
people who were really concerned
about the look and feel of the
land.” And having once lived in
a densely populated area, the
couple understood the importance of
preserving open space and the need for
smart development.
“This is one of the most beautiful areas of
Bucks County,” Lisa says with unabashed
pride. So when their neighbors, Diane and
David Allison, preserved their land, they were
impressed. Diane’s brother, John Cole, who
lives across the road from Lisa and David,
followed suit. When Conservancy officials
[ 3 ]
showed up next at David and Lisa’s, to ask if
they would preserve their 30 acres, the answer
was a resounding yes. “It was a complete
no-brainer,” David recalls.
“We have friends ...
in other townships,
and they don’t have the
same sense of one-ness
with the land.”
Since then, neighbors on
either side of David and
Lisa have also said yes.
Their section of Hollow
Horn Road serves as one
of the primary routes into
the township, David points
out. It gives visitors an
important first impression.
“Now,” he says, “people drive in and see a 70-
acre farm field that’s mostly protected.”
As actors, Lisa and David often travel to New
York—and run into city folk who know exactly
where Tinicum Township is. “People know this
place,” Lisa says. “We have friends who live in
other townships, and they don’t have the same
sense of one-ness with the land.”

[ 2 ]

Little steps make big footprints
Stu and Sally Horn support a handful of local
environmental causes, but it’s the Tinicum
Conservancy and its work that give them the
greatest satisfaction.
“The Conservancy is doing things that we feel
are meaningful,” Stu says. “They are tuned
into what needs to be done—they spend their
money well.”
The Horns’ generosity started with putting
their seven acres along the Tohickon Creek
under conservation easement—and donating
a portion of the money they received for that
back to the Conservancy. “It was the right
thing to do,” Stu says. They followed
that up with other monetary donations,
including a generous grant that funded
this brochure.
“Stu and Sally are an example of what makes
supporters so critical to our organization,”
says TC Executive Director Jim Engel. “Their
contributions and the donations of other likeminded
people in our community make it
possible for us to achieve our goal—to protect
our rural character and natural resources.”
The Horns have been long-time residents of
the township, although in the beginning, that
residency was part time. They owned a weekend
house on Bridge 5 along the Delaware
River and commuted there from Stu’s job with
“The Conservancy is tuned into
what needs to be done—they spend
their money well.”
sTu and saLLy Horn
Mobil Oil in Princeton, N.J. When he retired in
the early 1990s, they looked for a more
permanent place and found it adjacent to Ralph
Stover Park in the southern part of the township.
The Lenape camped there long ago, and artist
Wolfgang Roth, a previous owner who also
loved the creek, had his ashes scattered there.
Stu and Sally delight in standing on the creek
bank, savoring the sound of the ever-rushing
water. The fact that their land is protected from
development is critical to the Horns.
[ 5 ]

andy Apgar and aLan BLack
Supporting conservation in their own way
A pooling of local resources. That’s the
intrinsic value of the Tinicum Conservancy,
according to Alan Black and Randy Apgar,
longtime donors.
Because their single acre of property along
River Road in Point Pleasant is too small for
a conservation easement, Alan and Randy
chose to support the Conservancy through
generous yearly donations.
“Maybe you would like the farm across
the road from you to stay a farm,”
says Alan. The way to do that,
he says, is to come together as
a community to ensure that the
land remains open space.
That’s why the Conservancy’s work
is so vital, he says. It allows residents
to have a stake in the future of their
neighborhood. “We are fortunate to
have them in Tinicum,” Alan says.
Alan, a Center City lawyer, and
Randy, a consultant in the field of health care
administration, first heard about the Conservancy
from Mitch and Sue Bunkin, both active in the
community, and jumped on board. “We could
see what was happening down the road in
Plumstead and Buckingham,” Alan says.
Avid cyclists, they witnessed the changing
landscape, as rural roads turned into
congested byways—except in Tinicum.
“We love the beauty of it,” Alan says, then
chuckles. “We like to help out of a selfish interest.”
“The Conservancy does a good job of keeping
the issue of preservation in the public eye.”
“It’s like it was 100 years ago,” Randy says of
the township’s picturesque vistas. “That says
a lot about the area. It’s important historically
and artistically—artists come here to paint
what we enjoy seeing.”
“The Conservancy does a good job of keeping
the issue of preservation in the public eye,”
Randy says. “We certainly promote what they
are doing.”
[ 6 ]

Giving back to the community
Ask around Tinicum Township to find out what
Kris Becker does and the list keeps growing:
• She designs and lays out the biannual
Tinicum Conservancy newsletter.
• She designs and helps with various
mailings for the Conservancy effort.
• She monitors more than 400 acres for
the Conservancy, usually on horseback.
And that’s just for the Conservancy.
Kris and her husband, Jerome, also clean up a
two-mile section of local roadway, a volunteer
effort through the state’s Adopt-a-Highway
program. Kris serves on one of the township’s
committees and is “placemat queen” for the
Tinicum Civic Association’s annual Art Festival,
while Jerry, after serving two years on the
Conservancy Board, now volunteers with the area
Fire Police, responding to local emergencies.
Their reason for such involvement is simple,
Kris says: “Until I moved here, I didn’t realize
how much a small community depends on
volunteers.”
Once upon a time, the Beckers were highoctane
New Yorkers, living on the 34th floor of
a Manhattan apartment building, but, after
“We felt embraced by the community
and wanted to know what we could do
to help protect it.”
20 years, city life was wearing thin. “I reached
the point where I was losing perspective,”
Kris says. “It was literally, find a weekend
place or move out of the city.”
They moved to Tinicum in 1994 and put their
5.5 acres under conservation easement five
years later. The switch to rural life was like
coming home, she says. She grew up in
Indiana farm country and missed the open
spaces and elbow room of her childhood.
In Tinicum, the Beckers quickly found a circle
of friends and a neighborhood vibrant with
kris and Jerome Becker
energy. “We felt embraced by the community
and wanted to know what we could do to help
protect it,” she says.
One volunteer project led to another—and
another. But she and Jerry don’t resent the
time they spend helping out. “This is our
home. I’m doing this for me as much as for
the community,” Kris says.
[ 7 ]

ann Rhoads, ph.d.
Our reciprocal relationship with nature
Tinicum Township is full of hidden treasures, a
quiet glen here, a moss-covered outcropping
there. But one treasure is hidden in plain
sight—the 2,053-acre Roaring Rocks-Swamp
Creek watershed.
Although the other major watersheds in the
township had long been studied and surveyed,
RR-SC remained a
“forgotten” area until
2005, when a team of
area scientists, led by
Tinicum Conservancy
Pretty scenery offers a bonus that
goes beyond aesthetics: It helps
keep the air and water clean.
researcher and
conservationist
Marion Kyde, Ph.D.,
took an in-depth look
at it. The team, which included environmental
experts from the Morris Arboretum, Churchville
Nature Center, and Natural Lands Trust, spent
nearly two years painstakingly taking an inventory
of the watershed. They counted mammals
and birds, amphibians and reptiles, trees and
plants, and even fungi. They studied the varied
habitats scattered across the watershed.
What they found in that sparsely populated area
were unbroken forests, rich meadows and
pristine water. The watershed is home to 327
species of plants—two of them rare, 17 species
of mammals, 15
species of amphibians,
10 species of reptiles
and 111 species
of birds.
The wealth of plant
and animal life in the
watershed was no surprise to at least one of
the team members—Morris Arboretum senior
botanist Ann Rhoads, Ph.D. That’s because
she’s been studying the township off and on
for years.
Although Dr. Rhoads has done research across
Pennsylvania, she finds Tinicum especially
fascinating. The diabase geology that’s
prevalent throughout the area has helped
preserve the land’s natural beauty. The rocky
ground, she says, “prevented the clearing of
forests for large-scale agricultural use.”
When Dr. Rhoads begins an environmental
study of an area, she looks at what she calls
the “ecological services”—those processes the
habitat carries out that we depend on—the
sequestering of carbon dioxide in the trees,
their release of oxygen and the filtering of water.
The nature lover has birds to watch, plants to
see and fish to catch, she says, but the pretty
scenery offers a bonus that goes beyond
aesthetics: It helps keep the air and water
clean. “The Tinicum Conservancy’s work helps
to preserve that ... in the lands around us.”
[ 8 ]

Nature’s temporary caretakers
norman MacarThur
and biLL Novak
When Norman MacArthur and Bill Novak first
moved to Tinicum, the area seemed like “the
end of the world.” But they soon understood
that the pristine countryside was what the
township was all about.
“We bought 50 acres in Tinicum Township
and realized what a huge responsibility this
represented,” Norm says. “We considered
ourselves the temporary caretakers of this
beautiful piece of land. We had to do something
to make sure it would be
permanently protected.”
Soon after they moved into
Jugtown Hill Farm with its
200-year-old house and barn,
they became aware of the
work being done by the
Tinicum Conservancy. Here was a way to work
toward their goal. The presence of a local
land trust was an indication that people in
Tinicum were committed and willing to work to
conserve land. There was still time to really
make a difference!
Their love of preservation had its beginnings
in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where they lived
for almost 30 years. Both had professional
careers, but each also did volunteer work to
“We had to do something
to make sure it would be
permanently protected.”
improve Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Norm
and Bill brought to Tinicum their spirit of
volunteerism and community involvement.
Bill helps to run the Tinicum Arts Festival,
the Stover Mill Gallery and the juried exhibit
at Phillips’ Mill. Norm
chairs the Tinicum
Open Space Commission
and is a former Trustee of
the Conservancy.
The Conservancy helped
Norm and Bill through the
process of donating a conservation easement
on their property. “Even if everything else got
developed, at least these 50 acres would be
saved,” Norm says. Norm and Bill were also
able to take a charitable tax deduction for the
contribution of their development rights—a
very nice bonus.
“We drive down these beautiful roads, and we
can’t believe how lucky we are to live here,”
Norm says. “It’s a privilege!”
[ 9 ]

P.O. Box 206, Erwinna, PA 18920
• • •
Office Location: 965 River Road, Upper Black Eddy, PA 18972
610-294-1077 • www.tinicumconservancy.org
This brochure is made possible by generous support from Stu and Sally Horn • Written by Dianna Sinovic • Photos by Maureen Santina