Deb Nardone, executive director of ClearWater Conservancy, says the Slab Cabin Run initiative is important for the community’s drinking water and the water quality of the Slab Cabin stream that runs through the land. It’s also an opportunity to preserve 300 acres of farmland.
“We have a community and decision-makers and the public who have come forward and have supported an initiative that helped help protect the place that we love,” Nardone says.
Over the past 10 months, ClearWater raised the money to put a conservation easement on well-known farmland. It’s across from the State College Friends School on University Drive.
Support came from municipalities, the State College Borough Water Authority and the Hamer Foundation. There were also more than 600 individual donors.
The land, now a dairy farm, will stay open space, says Kevin Abbey, land conservation manager with ClearWater.
“Part of the initiative is that there will never be any more intense land use than there is now,” said Abbey.
