Every fall, an average of 20,000 hawks, eagles and falcons soar over Blue Mountain in northern Berks County during their annual, southerly migration. Before pioneering conservationists intervened, these magnificent birds of prey were shot by the hundreds for sport. In 1932, amateur ornithologist Richard Pough photographed the abandoned carcasses littering the rocky slopes of Kittatinny Ridge. The following year, Rosalie Edge, a New York City birder and crusading environmentalist, saw Pough’s photographs and persuaded contributors to her Emergency Conservation Committee to help her buy the land that ultimately became the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, the world’s first refuge for birds of prey. Maurice and Erma Broun, the initial wardens, faced loaded guns as they enforced the new rules of watching rather than killing the raptors. Today, the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary hosts over 60,000 bird watchers every year and trains visitors from around the world in raptor research and conservation techniques.

At Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, visitors can explore a restored “iron plantation” that produced cannons for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

Berks County has demonstrated similar commitment to preserving its highly-productive farmland. As of May 2008, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had funded over $61 million and Berks County had dedicated another $51 million for agricultural easement purchases within the County. In 2002, the County began offering matching funds for municipal land preservation programs. The first municipality to participate was Centre Township, which saved 13 farms with a combined total of 960 acres. In addition, the Berks County Conservancy, a private non-profit organization, has facilitated the preservation of 6,000 acres in conservation easements and manages another 500 acres of its own land in the Neversink Mountain Preserve south of the City of Reading. In 2007, the Farmland Preservation Report found that the combined efforts of the County, the Commonwealth, municipalities and the Conservancy had preserved 52,686 acres, making Berks County the third most successful locally-operated farmland preservation program in the country, trailing only Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and Montgomery County, Maryland.

Recreational land in Berks County often has historical as well as environmental significance. The Union Canal was a towpath that hauled mostly coal from the Susquehanna River to the City of Reading between 1828 and 1881. Berks County has preserved and restored segments of this canal in Tulpehocken Creek Valley Park which incorporates locks, mills and a covered bridge as well as other buildings and ruins from the 19th Century. The Union Canal Trail follows Tulpehocken Creek, letting bicyclists and walkers experience a peaceful natural setting along with a history lesson.

Pennsylvania operates 26 parks, forests and gamelands in Berks County with a total of almost 30,000 acres of land. French Creek State Park, the largest in Berks County, contains 35 miles of trails including a segment of the Horse-shoe trail, a 130-mile-long hiking and equestrian trail that links Valley Forge west of Philadelphia with the Appalachian Trail near Harrisburg.

The federal government maintains another 7,500 acres in Berks County. Most of this land is within Blue Marsh Lake, a recreational area surrounding a reservoir created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This complex incorporates a living history museum with a 19th century farm and an 18th century farm in the National Register of Historic Places. School children come here to learn about rural life in the 1700s and to try their hand at traditional farming tasks.

At Hopewell Furnace, the National Park Service has preserved and restored an “iron plantation” that produced cannons and shot for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and later fashioned the popular Hopewell Stove as well as other peacetime iron products. Visitors can walk from the main village to other historic sites on miles of trails and imagine themselves in the Pennsylvania countryside of the early 1820s.

In total, the County, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the federal government own 38,440 acres of parks, forests and gamelands in Berks County. That’s in addition to the impressive 52,686 acres of farmland under easement and the preserves created by private organizations like the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association and the Berks County Conservancy. Starting with Rosalie Edge and the other pioneering conservationists from the 1930s, Berks County continues to distinguish itself as a preservation leader.