by Amy Bruckner

The Highlands are part of the great green sweep of the Appalachians that shadows the East Coast from Georgia to Maine. The Highlands region stretches from eastern Pennsylvania through New Jersey and New York to northwestern Connecticut. From the Housatonics to the Reading Prong, the Highlands region of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut forms a critical forested greenbelt around the sprawling metropolitan region.

In 1993, Congress accepted a report from the United States Forest Service that recognized the Highlands as "a landscape of national significance," because of the diversity and quality of its natural resources. Highlands forests supply clean drinking water for over half of New Jersey's population, and protect major water supply watersheds for New York City. Located within two hours travel of over 20 million Americans, the Highlands form a "greenbelt" of forests and farmland adjacent to the spreading Philadelphia-New York-Hartford urban corridor.

Unfortunately, the Highlands' critical resources are severely threatened by suburban sprawl and industrial development. Rampant suburban sprawl is destroying farmland and forests, threatening drinking water, fragmenting critical habitats, and diminishing recreational opportunities. Air pollution is reducing visibility from scenic vistas and endangering the health of hikers and the public.

The Highlands Coalition, established in 1988, leads a grassroots movement that seeks to protect this irreplaceable region of water, beauty and life. The association is comprised of more than 90 local, state, regional and national citizens' organizations. The Coalition works to influence governmental policy to protect the region. At the federal level, Coalition leaders in CT, NY, NJ and PA are spearheading efforts to urge Congress to provide more federal funding to acquire lands for preservation in the region. In New Jersey, the Coalition has proposed that the State Planning Commission recognize the Highlands as a special area, a region in need of special planning efforts.

In Pennsylvania, 25 Critical Treasures have been identified in the Highlands. These are the primary focus for preservation, primarily because of proximity to other protected lands, or because of special ecological value. One of these treasures is the Unami Hills region, located in northern Montgomery County, just east of Green Lane Reservoir and Park. These rocky wooded ridges form a band of forest two to three miles wide from the Schuylkill River to central Montgomery County. This is the largest contiguous tract of forest in Montgomery and Bucks Counties and provides important habitat for forest interior birds such as the pileated woodpecker.

The Highlands Coalition sometimes sponsers hikes through the forests it is working to preserve. For more information go to www.highlandscoalition.org.

Wish List Looking to get rid of any of the following items? Maysie's Farm will put them to good use! Garden hoses Straw bale chopper Picnic table Manure spreader Stackable, sealable, Tupperware-like containers for storing seed packets Cordless, electric lawn mower Rechargeable AAA batteries Air compressor Solar-powered walkway lights to provide light from the parking area to the barn Please contact Sam at (610) 458-8129 or sam@maysiesfarm.org if you can donate any of these items.

By Colleen Cranney

It's that time of year when many of the Maysie's Farm interns will be leaving us to continue their education or pursue other interests. While Kevin, Jacob, Michael, Stacie, and Amber will be with us into the fall, we're saying good-bye to Jeanine, Christy, Anna, Zeb, Matthew, and Sarah.

We are thankful for the hard-working interns, not only when we see them on our pick-up days working in the beds and bringing in the harvest, but daily when we eat and enjoy the wonderful vegetables they help provide. Hopefully you've had an opportunity to get to know one or more of these young men and women — they are an interesting and diverse group of people!

After six months at Maysie's, Jeannine Connolly is off to New York, where she'll be closer to friends and family. She plans to be working at a farm upstate, gaining different farming experience. She enjoyed seeing the seasonal progression of the farm, from barren winter fields to spring planting to summer harvest.

Members who normally come to pick up their vegetables later in the day will miss Christy Laudadio — the intern who always stayed late! Christy spent the early part of her summer days taking classes in Spanish at West Chester University. She is returning to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where she will be a sophomore.

Anna Santini is returning to Penn State for her junior year majoring in environmental engineering. We appreciated her engineer's thoroughness and attention to detail. Although Anna had no previous farming experience, she enjoyed working with the other interns and learning about sustainable agriculture. As a result of working at Maysie's, she knows that she will always have a garden wherever she is!

Also returning to Penn State is Zeb Bartels, who plans on graduating next spring with a degree in Agroecosystems Science. Zeb learned a lot from the SAITA workshops, and in the future plans on farming organically on his dad's land near DuBois, PA, perhaps forming a religious community and including social outreach aspects to the farm.

Matthew Fagan is returning to the University of Maryland where he's majoring in Environmental Science with a focus in agroecology. He enjoyed learning how to plant and harvest such a large array of vegetables, working with amazing people, and eating healthy, sustainably grown produce. Matthew will utilize what he learned here in managing the organic garden he helped start this spring at the University of Maryland (with Nicole Georges-Abeyie, who interned here last year). He'd like his future career to involve building a sustainable world.

Sarah Kasten will be starting her junior year at Bard College, majoring in Community, Regional and Environmental Studies and Economics. Sarah's hometown is Ledyard, CT, and she had no previous farming or gardening experience before coming to Maysie's. She feels that sustainable agriculture will be an integral part of her future.

To all of the interns who have put in such effort to provide us with great food, we say THANK YOU and best wishes in all of your future endeavors!

CSA Annual Member's Picnic As anyone who's attended before can tell you, you don't want to miss the Annual Member's Picnic at Maysie's Farm on Saturday, September 7 beginning at 3:00pm. This yearly event includes swimming, volleyball, live entertainment, and of course wonderful food! The entertainment this year will include Conjunto 23, an Afro-Cuban pre-salsa band, described as being the "roots of salsa" and playing music from the 1920s. We're excited about hosting this different kind of music! Also, this year we'll be celebrating Maysie's 80th birthday at the picnic! All you need to do is sign up in the barn and bring a potluck dish to share. We hope to see you there!