The Quaker City Foundation Challenge for Rushton Woods Preserve In Honor of Bonnie Van Alen

ANSWER THE CALL The Quaker City Foundation Challenge for Rushton Woods Preserve: In Honor of Bonnie Van Alen

Longtime supporters, Quaker City Foundation, are generously presenting a challenge to the Willistown Conservation Trust community to recognize and honor Bonnie’s 40 years of dedication to the land, the environment and the furtherance of conservation goals within our community and beyond. For every gift of $5,000 or more, the foundation will match every $2 donated with a $1 gift, up to $250,000, in support of the Campaign for Rushton Woods Preserve. Meeting the Quaker City Foundation Challenge will enable the Trust to complete the $2 Million Campaign For Rushton Woods Preserve by December 2022.

Funds raised through the campaign will strengthen the Rushton Wood Preserve by inspiring in all who visit, a commitment to save the land and serve as stewards of the natural world for future generations. Over the years, we have developed a truly integrative approach to conservation, which marries land protection with sustainable farming, bird conservation, habitat restoration and watershed protection, all within a single organization.

Will you Answer the Call? Please help us meet this challenge by making a gift to the Campaign for Rushton Woods Preserve. For more information, contact Kate Etherington at kwe@wctrust.org.

The Campaign for Rushton Woods Preserve: A $2,000,000 campaign to strengthen the Rushton Woods Preserve, to inspire in all who visit a commitment to save the land and serve as stewards of the natural world for future generations.

• Work has almost concluded on the White Farmhouse, completing much needed structural and cosmetic repairs, while also creating dedicated space for staff, interns, and visiting conservationists, like

Holly Garrod.

• Guided by the Ecological Restoration and Stewardship Plan developed in partnership with Resource Environmental Solutions LLC and

Simone Collins Landscape Architecture, Stewardship staff and volunteers will begin trail restoration this fall and winter. • The Trust received a grant of up to $25,000 from the Chester County

Commissioners Preservation Partnership Program for a Universal

Access Path at Rushton Woods Preserve.

Campaign Updates

By The Numbers

Restore the White Farmhouse for Farmers, Interns, and Visiting Conservationists $400,000

Develop Preserve Access and Circulation Plan $175,000

Design and Implement Stewardship and Habitat Restoration Plan

$425,000 Campaign Goal: $2,000,000

Establish Rushton Woods Fund for Programming and Outreach $1,000,000

Campaign for Rushton Woods Preserve | Funds Raised To Date

Campaign Goal: Raised to Date:

Funds Needed to Complete Campaign:

$2,000,000 $1,200,000

$800,000 HOLLY GARROD |

Holly grew up birding in the Colorado Rockies where she banded her first bird (a mallard) at age 10. She pursued her undergraduate degree in Wildlife Biology and Zoology at Humboldt State University before assisting with bird banding and monitoring programs at various nonprofits, including National Audubon Society at Starr Ranch and Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. Her subsequent work in the neotropics inspired her to pursue a Master’s of Science at Villanova University where she studied behavioral and morphological differences between the two tody species. During her master’s research Holly began volunteering and helping with the banding project at Rushton Farm. After finishing her coursework for her master’s, Holly migrated south to run the Jama-Coaque Bird Observatory in Manabi, Ecuador for a year. Then she moved northward to manage the banding program at Costa Rica Bird Observatories. Holly has led multiple workshops for bird identification and bird banding training in Peru, Ecuador, Belize, and Dominican Republic. She is currently working with the Trust and BirdsCaribbean to create a bird banding network for the Caribbean. Rushton Farm is one of Holly’s favorite migratory stopovers and she is excited to continue to work with the dynamic bird team here.