The Preservationists

Continued from Page 11 strategy this way: “‘It is Winterthur’s policy to conserve this design for posterity while recognizing the elements of change inherent in living organisms.’ ”

Parks and other preserved public land, in light blue, include Brandywine Creek State Park (once a du Pont family dairy farm), Alapocas Run State Park and Rockford Park south of Hagley, Valley Garden Park (donated by Ellen du Pont Wheelwright) and Hoopes Reservoir west of Hagley and Flint Woods Preserve (sold to the state at a discount by Lucille du Pont Flint and north of Winterthur).

Country clubs with lots of plantings are tan, including the Wilmington Country Club (more of Henry’s land, with the club maintaining an orchard that dates to 1932) and the DuPont Country Club (for 98 years a club owned by the company and since 2018 now co-owned by Ben du Pont and Don Wirth) and the Brandywine Country Club (likely to be developed).

The future for Granogue

The biggest influence not named du Pont is William Poole Bancroft, who combined the money from his milling business and his caring for society from his Quaker values to create Woodlawn Trustees. Woodlawn once owned the Beaver Valley Tract that forms most of the national park.

Woodlawn also owned the 270-acre Beaver Valley property (in burgundy on the map), and Bancroft and Woodlawn donated land for Alapocas Run, Brandywine Creek and Rockford parks.

In the middle of all this preserved land is a label for Granogue, another du Pont estate, along Smith Bridge Road. In February, Longwood Gardens (founded by Pierre S. du Pont to preserve an arboretum) announced that it is purchasing and preserving Granogue.

“This acquisition ensures that its forests, meadows and agricultural lands forever remain a pastoral landscape,” Longwood said on Facebook when it announced the arrangement.

Irénée “Brip” du Pont Jr. (E.I.’s great-great-grandson) lived on the 505-acre Granogue with his wife, Barbie. Although Longwood and the du Ponts started talking in 2016 about the deal, the closure process could take up to a year from the announcement.

“We have no immediate plans to activate the property,” Longwood spokeswoman Patricia Evans said. “This acquisition, when finalized, is first and foremost an act of conservation.”

Granogue, besides the famed mansion, has lots of acreage actively farmed for corn, soy, hay and dairy production, with large sections of forest, pasture and meadow.

“Preserving an extraordinary property for enjoyment for all of us,” Ben du Pont wrote on Facebook.

Bigger is better

Land preservation is the antithesis of development, but preserved land is still used by humans in multiple, limited ways, such as farming and recreation. Land is preserved to benefit the flora and fauna that live there, and it also benefits the humans who drink and use the water that flows through it.

University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy came up with the concept of a “homegrown national park,” where united individual homeowners create large beneficial landscapes.

Larger tracts offer better benefits, experts agree. “Contiguous habitat – aka properties that touch each other – is essential to conservation because it creates safe passage for animals that live there,” Mt. Cuba writes on a page on its site titled “Protecting Natural Lands.” The page says that Mt. Cuba has protected 13,000 acres in the mid-Atlantic, via funding and partnerships.

Delaware started protecting public lands in 1927, with the creation of Redden State Forest. The 1990 Delaware Land Protection Act set up the Open Space Program to conserve lands “with the best natural resources, cultural resources and

Continued on Page 14

For several years, Winterthur has sicced goats on areas where invasive shrub-layer plants have taken over. “Although our goats can’t discern between native versus non-native plants, the act of defoliation and damage to the non-natives suppresses the populations’ reproductive success,” a 2017 Winterthur blog reported.