Upper Twin Puts the Ahhh in Cahnservation!



Fall at the UTCA

 Yesterday I walked the Upper Twin Conservation Area (UTCA).  This 470-acre area lies in Jackson and German Townships along Twin Creek (upstream from Germantown MetroPark).  The UTCA is the closest thing you can find to wilderness in Montgomery County (at least).  There are no traffic noises, very few homes around it, and no developed facilities.  It contains the finest stand of mature upland forest I know of in the county (Markey Woods), large areas of bottomland hardwoods, young forest, meadows, recently abandoned farm fields, and beautiful Twin Creek flowing throught he middle of it.



Three Valley Conseration Trust Executive Director Larry Frimmerman at a private forest tract in the UTCA protected by MetroParks and TVCT

 The UTCA is greatly enhanced by the presence of 1711 acres of surrounding private land that is in permanent conservation easement.  These easements were purchased from the current owners and require that the land be kept in its current conservation or agricultural condition.  These easments have been completed in partnership with the Three Valley Conservation Trust (TVCT), a land trust based in Oxford, OH  http://www.3vct.org/home_20.aspx.  TVCT is great at obtaining federal and state grants to cover most of the costs of these easements.

Protection efforts in the UTCA started in 1999 with a 92-acre conservation easement along Twin Creek donated by the Schaeffer family.  The first purchase was a 172-acre buy the next year.  The land and easements were acquired steadily through 2009.

It is hoped that MetroParks can extend the Twin Valley backpack trail north from Germantown before too long.  If done this would be a great addition to the TVT.