Dear Friends,

You did it!

This morning, Lower Merion School District announced that it is—at long last—taking Stoneleigh off the table!

That means that Stoneleigh: A Natural Garden will remain the place of beauty and joy that tens of thousands have fallen in love with since it opened to the public last spring.

And it’s all because of you and the vast community of concerned conservationists who stood with Natural Lands to defend Stoneleigh and the permanence of protected lands.

First, you joined the Save Stoneleigh campaign in unprecedented numbers. Nearly 40,000 of you—from Lower Merion, around the region, and across the country—signed the Save Stoneleigh petition. More than 3,000 of you put signs in your yard. Thousands sent emails to the Lower Merion School Board. Some 350 of you attended a School Board meeting, wearing your Save Stoneleigh t-shirts. You wrote compelling letters to your local paper and you encouraged your neighbors to get involved.

Then, you cheered as our state legislature passed, in unheard of time, a bill that provides additional protection from the exercise of eminent domain on lands protected by a conservation easement.

Over the past several weeks, the final pieces fell into place. Lower Merion Township’s Commissioners worked with the School District to ensure that, if the District is going to build a new middle school and ballfields, it could do so without taking Stoneleigh. Throughout, the Commissioners were steadfast in pressing the District to take Stoneleigh off the table. At a Township meeting last night, the District received approvals it had sought for the middle school site and announced that it had identified alternative space for ballfields.

So—with a sigh of relief!—I'm delighted to share with you that the threat to Stoneleigh is over.

These past few months have been trying. However, we have been heartened—and incredibly touched—by the remarkable public response to the Save Stoneleigh effort. If anyone had a doubt, it is now abundantly clear that our communities’ green spaces are beloved, and that there is a large and passionate constituency ready to stand in their defense.

Today, the iconic hares at Stoneleigh are decked in festive Thanksgiving attire. A banner at the base of the sculpture reads, “Happy Thanksgiving.” Very happy indeed.

Those of us at Natural Lands will give thanks this week—and forever—for you, for our friends in the state legislature, the Haas family, the Township Commissioners, Lower Merion Conservancy, and the many, many others who came together to Save Stoneleigh!