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Dear Friends, August 2008 We are circulating this appeal by Dean Kendall, a Payday brother, because we support his fight to protect the family farm from “development” which would destroy yet another piece of the Earth. He is working to establish a conservation easement which will protect it from development in perpetuity. The farm includes both fields and wild areas that support many kinds of birds and other wildlife. In order to protect the land and its wild inhabitants, he needs our help in locating people who will invest in caring for the land as spelled out in the attached appeal. Dean grew up on this land and is only part inheritor of it from his mother. He is struggling to maintain the lovingly cared-for condition of this natural resource that is her legacy. In doing this work, Dean joins people everywhere on the planet, often those with least and therefore most often women, who are coming together against a global market that is devastating both the earth and the creatures who live on it, including we humans. We knew Dean’s mother, Anna Kendall, who supported our organizing work over many years, not least by sharing her son with us. Saving Anna’s farm and sanctuary will be a fitting tribute to her and to all who nurture and care for the land and for each other – and an example of investing in caring not killing that must become the standard rather than the exception, and quickly if our Mother Earth, and we with her, are to survive and thrive.
Eric
Gjertsen |
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Save
the land for wildlife and |
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For Sale and At Risk 25 acres of farmland & forest in Berks County, PA – the bird sanctuary of the late Anna Kendall – is for sale and at risk of destruction, i.e. “development”. |
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What’s at stake
Centuries-old White Pines crowned with nests of Red-tailed Hawk and Great Horned Owl … Oak woods shading Lopseed and May Apple, Ring-necked Snake and Red-backed Salamander … hayfields livened by Red Fox and skimming Swallows, and – where flooded in Spring – by a chorus of American Toad and Spring Peeper … thickets with Giant Solomon Seal and Jumping Mouse, Wood Sage and White-tailed Deer … huge Black Locusts and the throng of Woodpeckers housed by them… half a hundred species of nesting birds, and another hundred that winter or dally in migration to rest and refuel … organic vegetable gardens enriched over decades and bumper crops of wild Raspberry, Walnut and Hickory… |
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Who is concerned
Birders, naturalists and other lovers of wild plants and animals. Neighbors, friends, family. People concerned about preserving farmland, open space and places where wildlife can thrive. Supporters of organic farming and people who just want to eat unpoisoned food. People concerned with global warming and parents who want to leave a livable planet for their children. In other words, ALL OF US! |
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Wanted
Donors… Organic Farmers… Community groups… Private Benefactors… Partners…
to purchase the
land and protect it forever for wildlife and organic farming. |
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Buy or help find buyers who care about the land
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Volunteer to help with this campaign
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Donate to the Anna Kendall Farm & Wildlife Fund.
Proceeds to cover the difference between what a family farmer and/or
community group can afford & what the creditors could get by selling
for development. |
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To view interactive
map: |
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If you would like
to discuss purchase or partnership, make a donation of any amount,
have ideas or want to get involved in this effort, please phone or
email: Dean Kendall deankendall@paydaynet.org 610-926-5883 Leave message at 215-848-1120 |
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Appeal from a naturalist/humanist’s son
As many
know, my mother Anna Kendall – a much loved resident of Berks Co.,
PA who passed away in May of 2006 – was a true friend of birds and
other wildlife, and of humankind as well. Devoted to inspiring in
others, especially children, the love & responsibility she felt
toward the natural world, she was a grassroots pioneer of the
environmental movement long before it had that name.
On the
family farm near Leesport where she lived from 1952 until her death,
she put her ‘money’ (so to speak, as her family had little) where
her heart and mouth were, working hard to make her home as inviting
to wildlife – birds in particular, a special life-long love – as for
her family. As a result the Kendall farm, with the loving support
of Anna’s husband Vernon until his death in 1990 (and then of her
son Dean – myself), has been a refuge for birds and other wildlife
for the last half century. But now that farm and refuge – and its
actual and potential benefits to all of us – is threatened with
destruction by “development”.
Already
there are subdivisions in process and planned on nearby land – which
many people oppose but nonetheless have gone ahead. Over the last
years of her life, Anna watched in anguish and outrage as such
neighboring land was put to the blade by developers. Had she known
of a way to ensure that her homemade sanctuary would never meet such
a fate, it would have happened while she lived. But aside from
trusting in her heirs, she knew of none. It was only after her
death that the family learned, from the estate lawyer, that the farm
– though not eligible for any publicly funded conservation program –
could indeed be protected from development, by way of donating a
Conservation Easement to a Land Trust. Lehigh Valley Wildlands
Conservancy, despite the farm being outside their core area, has
agreed to accept such a donation and thereby become legally bound to
protecting the farm in perpetuity. But
to proceed with that,
enough money must be raised through sale of the farm and
donations to pay off
the creditors.
The farm consists of 25
acres, of which 8 acres are tillable fields (now mostly in hay) and
the rest mostly woods, a 1930s-vintage Sears and Roebuck wood-frame
house, organic vegetable gardens and some outbuildings. I am
looking for a family farmer or community group to purchase the
easement-protected farm and continue the principles
and practice of my mother’s stewardship – ideally in partnership
with me; and for a
foundation and/or other benefactors to bring that within reach by
donating the difference between the price such buyers
can afford, and the price that the creditors could get by selling
for development.
If you believe that it’s
not right that the work of those who care for and nurture the land
should be thrown away… And that it’s not right that the myriad
creatures whose lives depend on that land should count as nothing…
And that so much of what humankind needs for survival and well-being
has already been lost, that saving even the least bits of what
remains is crucial… Then please
help save this farm. Though not large, it is very rich
in life, particularly birdlife, and in ability to sustain life for
both humankind and our fellow creatures. It’s eminently worth
saving.
Please contact me if you can help in
any way.
Dean
Kendall, |
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