The Honey Hollow Watershed is a watershed on the south side of the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

a few miles north of

New Hope, Pennsylvania New Hope is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,612 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. New Hope is located approximately north of Philadelphia, and lies on the west bank of the Delaw ...

. It is the site of the first privately owned soil

conservation district Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

in the United States. Created by five landowners in 1933, it was successful in mitigating the effects of erosion caused by the introduction of modern agricultural methods in the early 20th century. The area was designated a

National Historic Landmark District National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

in 1969. and

The project

The Honey Hollow Watershed is located in Solebury Township, in a rural area west of the town of New Hope. It is bounded on the northeast by Sugan Road, and is roughly bisected by Creamery Road, with its western and southern bounds defined by the ridgeline that separates Honey Hollow from an adjacent watershed. To the northwest it is also bounded by a ridge that runs parallel to and northwest of Upper York Road. The area historically consisted of five farms totaling about 650 acres. The landscape of the farmland in this area retains features established in the 1930s, including contour-plowed fields, terracing, and water runoff diversion ditches. The watershed area has a long history of agricultural use, dating to the mid-18th century. Mechanized methods of cultivation and field management were widely introduced in the years after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, here and elsewhere in the country, which resulted in a significant amount of soil loss due to erosion, and siltation of water bodies downstream. Although the federal government was aware of the problem in the late 1920s, and began applying conservation methods to government-owned lands in 1933, the legality of imposing such methods on the (in aggregate) much larger private landholdings in the nation was still a subject of debate. The five farmers who owned the properties in Honey Hollow, whose lands were suffering from these problems, decided to band together to address what was a shared problem. Established with the help of the

Soil Conservation Service Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and ...

Upper Darby, Pennsylvania Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The township borders Philadelphia, the nation's sixth most populous city as of 2020 with 1.6 million residents. As of the 2020 ce ...

, the project became a model of cooperative conservation efforts. By 1941 terraces and diversion ditches were built to control runoff on steep slopes and hedges were planted to control erosion. The project attracted national attention when Vice President Henry Wallace visited the first time in 1944. Conservationist

Louis Bromfield Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 – March 18, 1956) was an American writer and conservationist. A bestselling novelist in the 1920s, he reinvented himself as a farmer in the late 1930s and became one of the earliest proponents of sustainab ...

also became associated with the project. P. Alton Waring, one of six farmers involved in the project, wrote about the project in the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

publication "Team Work to Save Soil and Increase Production." and in the magazine "The Land." The watershed was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1969.

Gallery

File:HONEY HOLLOW WATERSHED, BUCKS COUNTY, PA.jpg File:Honey Hollow Watershed 02.JPG File:Honey Hollow Watershed 03.JPG

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania Landforms of Bucks County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania state historical marker significations Watersheds of the United States Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Bucks County, Pennsylvania

The project

Gallery

See also

References