About Us
The Tinicum Conservancy
965 River Road, PO Box 206, Erwinna, Pennsylvania 18920
Hours: Monday - Friday, 9:30-5:00 pm
Tel: 610-294-1077 | Fax: 610-294-2906
The Tinicum Conservancy is proud to be accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission,
an independent program of the national Land Trust Alliance. Learn more here.
Our History
The Tinicum Conservancy was formed in 1992 by a group of residents who were concerned that larger, regional land trusts were not paying enough attention to land protection in our township.
The Conservancy has purposely maintained a grass-roots approach to land preservation by extensive use of volunteers and local professionals, a full-time Executive Director and two part-time staff.
The Conservancy has maintained a consistent level of successful land protection over its two+ decades. The first thousand acres were conserved by 2000; the 2,000-acre milestone was reached four years later; the 3,000-acre milestone in 2007; and the 4,000-acre mark in 2011. Today, more than 5,000 acres in and around Tinicum are stewarded by the Tinicum Conservancy.
Tinicum Conservancy is an accredited land trust, a distinction first awarded in 2009 by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the the national Land Trust Alliance.
Board of Trustees
Neal Feigles
Neal Feigles (President) and his wife, Heidi moved to Erwinna from Doylestown in 2000. He has spent his whole life in Bucks County except for his four years at Wake Forest University. His mother’s family roots go back 250 plus years in Upper Makefield. Along with his wife, he lives here with his son Ethan and a cat. He owns a small business based in Doylestown, where he helps customers throughout the United States to build efficiency in their manufacturing operations. In good weather he is either planting trees and gardening or biking / walking along the along the towpath with Heidi or Ethan. In the winter I can be found in front of the fire with a good book. He joined the Conservancy because he believes that the natural beauty and farms of our area are worth preserving in perpetuity and living in Tinicum is further enhanced by the people, with talents and accomplishments of all kinds, who choose to live a normal life without a signpost, let alone a billboard, to announce their accomplishments.
Kelly Simcox
Kelly Simcox (Vice President), a resident of Bridgeton Township, was born in Tinicum Township, while living most of her formative years in Tinicum and Nockamixon townships. Kelly joined the working world with the objective to bring medicines to patients in need, which started a world-wind tour of work travel – some glamorous, some not so much. In the midst of all this travel, Kelly thought she might find another area of the world to call home, but ultimately each business trip and short-term assignment abroad resulted in her appreciating Bucks County more and more. Kelly describes her home town as one of the most beautiful places she has seen – on weekends she likes to walk the nearby tow path, bike the beautiful backroads, monitor a conserved property, or fund-raise for her favorite non-profit (aka Tinicum Conservancy). Kelly believes in protecting our natural resources for future generations and loves partnering with the community to achieve this goal.
Michael Kauffman
Michael Kauffman (Treasurer) and Amanda Bertele chose a protected Tinicum property after an extensive search in 2016. They share their secluded property with a myriad of wildlife and a collection of antique domestic animals. Originally from Berks County, PA, and a graduate of Millersville University, Mike is co-founder and CEO of the PennSouth group of companies, which are involved in the ownership, management, and maintenance of retail, commercial, and residential real estate in the mid-atlantic and northeast. In addition to serving with the conservancy, Mike is also a Trustee of the Tinicum Civic Association and a Tinicum Township Historical Commissioner. When not otherwise engaged, Mike can be found hiking, biking, perpetually repairing the driveway, or just enjoying the peace and tranquility.
Jeff Keller
Jeff Keller (Trustee) and his wife Lorraine have lived in Tinicum for the past 20 years. Jeff works as a restoration ecologist and also serves as environmental consultant to several New Jersey municipalities. He enjoys teaching and has guest lectured at Penn State, Temple and Thomas Jefferson University, and co-taught a one-week summer course in field natural history at Cornell for almost 30 years. He also recently published a book on habitat analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and has an upcoming book chapter on landscape ecology and wildlife management.
Jeff will be serving on the Board of Trustees for his 5th three-year term and also serves on the TC Stewardship Committee.
Wendy Ullman
Wendy Ullman (Trustee) taught for 30 years at Bucks County Community College before her election to the State General Assembly as the region’s State Representative from 2018-2020. She grew up spending lots of time at her family cabin in the Adirondacks in the summer, and she thinks her fond memories of those times have a lot to do with why she feels so at home here.
She looks forward to serving the community again through her work as a Conservancy trustee and spending her free time outdoors searching for chanterelles and exploring the woods near her new home.
Mark Manchester
Mark Manchester (Trustee) has been a contributing member of the Tinicum Conservancy since 2001 and has had a wide-ranging background in business. Early in his career he ran the news distribution department of a British advertising agency in Tokyo, then returned home to start several gourmet coffee businesses including a mobile espresso bar. For the past twenty years, Mark has been helping organizations in the public and private sector be more productive through technology training and solutions development. Having lived in the West, Northwest and overseas, Mark settled in Tinicum in 2000 with his wife Polly where they enjoy biking, kayaking, backpacking, cooking and enterta ining. Mark, Polly and their children, Miles and Jocelyn, make their home on part of the former Four Brooks Summer Camp.
Peggy Enoch
Peggy Enoch (Trustee) has lived in Tinicum since 1979. Peggy graduated from Chestnut Hill College and earned a Masters in Education from Lehigh University. She spent 30 years teaching at various levels, in both private and public schools. She and her husband, Tex, are happy to spend time with their three adult children and their spouses, and their four grandsons. She has volunteered for a number of church and community groups and especially looks forward to the resumption of singing with the Palisades Community Chorus.
Debra Wolf Goldstein
Debra Wolf Goldstein (Trustee) is founder of Conservation Matters, LLC, a law firm focusing on land conservation and policy. She also is co-founder and executive director of the Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival (www.philaenvirofilmfest.org), which “brings the planet to Philadelphia through the power of environmental film.” Previously she served as executive director of Delaware Canal 21; as general counsel to the Heritage and Tinicum Conservancy; and as regional advisor for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Bureau of Recreation and Conservation. Prior to that, she was an attorney with the law firm of Wolf Block in their litigation, real estate, and environmental departments. Debra chaired the Land Use Committee of the Philadelphia Park & Recreation Commission and served for over a decade as vice president of the Fairmount Park Commission. She has written numerous scholarly and popular publications on land conservation and has taught workshops on recreational liability, conservation easements, appraisals, and conflicts of interest. She holds a J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated with a B.A. from Brown University. Debra and her husband, Jay, greatly enjoy spending time at their weekend home along the Delaware River near Smithtown Creek
John Clement
John Clement (Trustee) moved to Tinicum in 1999 and spent the next seven years renovating the historic Uhlerstown Schoolhouse, which had fallen into disrepair. He is the author of the Dixie Hemingway Mysteries, published by Macmillan St. Martin’s press, and was a founding member of Novel Stages, a professional non-profit theater company in New York and Philadelphia, where he worked variously as a producer, director, writer, graphic designer and actor in thirty productions from 1989 to 1996. He has worked with the Tinicum Conservancy for more than a decade, most notably as designer of the website and manager of the Conservancy’s various social media platforms. He also serves as Secretary of the Tinicum Township Planning Commission and is a licensed realtor in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In his spare time he loves all things gardening, music, art and animals, and is the lucky steward of a preserved property near Tinicum Creek.
John Mark Courtney
John Mark Courtney (Trustee) is an avid native plantsman, professional grower, gardener and lover of all things wild. He is the founder and owner of Kind Earth Growers LLC. After completing his B.S. in Environmental Design from Delaware Valley University in 1998, John Mark pursued his passion for growing native plants and environmental stewardship first at Bowmans Hill Wildflower Preserve and then at Aquascapes Unlimited Inc., where he was the head grower and operations manager for 20 years. After moving to Nockamixon Township in 2007, John Mark joined and eventually chaired the Nockamixon Open Space Committee and was directly involved in the preservation of many key properties in the township. He was also a participating artist in the annual Artists of the Gallows Run, where proceeds were raised for land preservation in the Gallows Run watershed. John Mark’s free time is spent with his wife Erin, and their Australian Cattle Dog Jackson, home in 3 acres of mature oak, hickory, maple forest in the Beaver Creek watershed where they are actively rewilding and stewarding the native landscape for maximum ecological benefit.
Mark Petty
Mark Petty (Trustee) moved to Ottsville in Tinicum Township in 2006 from Los Angeles. He grew up in the Philippines and England and has lived throughout the United States and in France. He currently is an Operating Partner in an investment partnership and serves on six Boards, half non-profit and half for-profit. Past and present non-profit experience include: autism, free clinics, outdoor education, hepatitis B, biotechnology and divorce recovery. Past and present for-profit experience includes manufacturing of high tech industrial products. Mark joined the Conservancy because he believes in the mission and hopes that he can give back to his local community. Residing on and around protected properties, he has experienced the many benefits that the Conservancy provides. He enjoys living on a gravel road surrounded by beautiful forests and in close proximity to a pristine creek.
Dennis Lonergan
Dennis has been a political, policy and nonprofit writer and creative for more than 30 years, working in Congress, the Senate Judiciary Committee, election campaigns and leading non-profits through Eidolon Communications, the 12-person agency founded with his husband and partner, John Graves. The firm was based in New York City until COVID-19, which led Dennis and John to move full-time to their house on Municipal Road in Erwinna. (They learned during their closing that a strip of their property was given as an easement to Tinicum Conservancy, which was an unexpected but welcome surprise!) The move has only deepened their love and appreciation for Tinicum, Bucks County and the Delaware Valley as an ideal place to live, work and contribute to a very rare quality of life. He was born in Baltimore, grew up in the Boston suburbs, attended Syracuse University and began his professional life in Washington, DC before relocating to New York. He loves hiking, music, theater, reading, writing, film, cooking, baking, traveling, politics, dogs and making his very own cold-brew ice coffee.
Administrative Staff
Eric Anderson
Executive Director
While not quite born in a cave, Eric’s childhood experiences living on the grounds of a nature center in northwest Pennsylvania where his father worked made his lifelong commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability almost inevitable. He brings to the executive directorship of Tinicum Conservancy manifold applicable experiences and skill developed through eight years of transformational independent school leadership, along with a love of science and teaching that was cultivated during eight years of teaching science as process of discovery and innovation, and five years of scientific research. Outside his professional pursuits, Eric has served as a board member for organizations advancing ecological habitat restoration, urban agriculture, open space preservation, and sustainability in schools, and also volunteered time in service to immigrant communities, housing for neglected rural communities, and educational opportunities for underserved urban communities. An enthusiastic community-builder and insatiable learner, Eric connects and collaborates wherever he goes, and here in Tinicum is striving both to uphold and advance the conservancy’s incredibly successful and widely reputed legacy of land protection, and to synthesize diverse approaches to conservation in support of a healthy, resilient, and sustaining community. If you’re interested in exploring collaborative possibilities in any of these realms, Eric invites you to contact him at eanderson@tinicumconservancy.org
Scott Berman — Resource Protection Assistant
Scott has been in the land trust field for eight years and worked with Wissahickon Trails in Montgomery County before joining Tinicum Conservancy in 2020.
He completed a B.A. in History from American University in Washington D.C. in 2012 and was drawn toward open space conservation work because of his love for nature and passion for addressing environmental challenges like climate change.
Scott is a lifelong resident of the Wissahickon Valley outside of Philadelphia. He enjoys hiking, exploring parks & trails in the southeast Pennsylvania region, as well as spending summers at the New Jersey shore, visiting the beach & swimming in the ocean.
Maria Fell
Office Manager
Maria holds a BSc. in business from Delaware Valley College. Following more than 20 years in the computer industry, her love of nature and the outdoors led to a change of career. As administrative director and a teacher-naturalist with Bucks County Audubon Society she gained experience in the conservation and non-profit worlds that she brings to her position at the Tinicum Conservancy. Maria joined the Conservancy staff in 2011 and has lived in Tinicum since 1998. She enjoys exploring National Parks as well as backpacking, hiking, and kayaking closer to home.
Kelly Germann
Resource Protection Manager
Kelly Germann is a Quakertown native and brings 16 years of non-profit land and water conservation experience to her work at Tinicum Conservancy. She holds a degree in conservation biology and has worked for Berks County Conservancy, Heritage Conservancy, Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, Bedminster Regional Land Conservancy and multiple townships as a resource protection specialist. She joined Tinicum Conservancy in 2009 as a part-time staff member. In 2014 she fulfilled a life-long dream to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. When not working or backpacking, Kelly can be found in her garden or contra-dancing with her partner, Jon, and their girls, Sosie and Karis.
Governance Committee
Karen Budd
Eric Anderson
Peggy Enoch
Neal Feigles
Michael Kauffman
Kelly Simcox
Land Preservation Committee
Eric Anderson — Chair
Debra Goldstein
Peggy Enoch
Mark Manchester
Todd Quinby
Wendy Ullman
Stewardship Committee
Kelly Germann — Chair
Nancy Bousum
Karen Budd
Bill Cahill
Jeff Keller
Christine McCaffrey
Communications Committee
Patty Leonhardt — Chair
Eric Anderson
John Clement
Dennis Lonergan
Events Committee
Cindi Gasparre — Chair
Mindy Emerson
Peggy Enoch
Stana Lennox
Suzanne Longo
June Rothkopf
Finance Committee
Michael Kauffman — Chair
Tex Enoch
Robin Lochner
Charlie Lizza
Mark Petty
Jonathan Reiss
David Upmalis
Fundraising Committee
Eric Anderson — Chair
Boyce Budd
Neal Feigles
Kelly Simcox