Andrews Bridge Honored with the 2021 MFHA Hunting Habitat Conservation Award
When people come together and focus on helping each other, good things happen. Andrews Bridge Foxhounds was awarded the 2021 MFHA Hunting Habitat Conservation Award for their club-wide efforts. The club’s focus on building relationships within the unique character of their communities and getting involved hands-on expanded their tradition of conservation and took it to a higher level.
Andrews Bridge Foxhounds is a Pennsylvania hunt recognized by the MFHA since 1918. The club keeps about 45 couples of Penn-Marydel hounds and recently built a state-of-the-art kennel. They are a subscription hunt with about 40 members, three field riders and hunt three days per week from August to March.
“We are proud of the role that we play in our community,” said Joint Master Betsy Harris. “We are a family of members, landowners, neighbors and friends. We have developed a genuine rapport and relationship between our Amish and ‘English’ neighbors.”
Through the years, Andrews Bridge has been active with numerous agencies involved in protecting and preserving the environment. Their home country is in the heart of Amish farmlands in southern Lancaster and Chester counties. A second country in Fair Hill is in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, bordering the MasonDixon line into Maryland. Their countries offer both woodlands and open terrain with rolling hills.
The Conservation Vision
Through the years, Andrews Bridge has been active with numerous agencies involved in protecting and preserving the environment. Their home country is in the heart of Amish farmlands in southern Lancaster and Chester counties. A second country in Fair Hill is in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, bordering the MasonDixon line into Maryland. Their countries offer both woodlands and open terrain with rolling hills.
Pennsylvania side of Fair Hill. “Now, our Joint Master Bill Kimmel, many of our members and ourselves have put our properties into conservation,” Harris said. “We have a very nice contiguous piece of ground to hunt over.” The Andrews Bridge country is farmed predominantly by the Amish. Amish families typically plant 50-70 acres because they are limited by working the land with horses and mules.
Getting to Know the Neighbors
“The Amish are absolutely critical to hunting here,” Harris said. “It has taken years to develop relationships with them. About ten years ago, we started holding a biennial picnic primarily for the Amish landowners. It’s something that they look forward to. A lot of the children that came ten years ago still remember it to this day. Now, they’re coming with their children. So, it’s a great circle of life.” Harris said that the Amish were always good about permitting hunting on their lands, but they wanted to go deeper and get to know their neighbors. “I look out over the attendees of the picnic and more than half are kids,” Harris said. “I’m actually looking at our future landowners. It’s very special. For each picnic, we bring in Jim, the balloon man. Every kid comes anticipating they’re going to go home with a fancy balloon animal. The expressions on their faces are priceless.”
Sean Cully, who was their district rep at the time, encouraged the leadership of Andrews Bridge to submit a proposal for the MFHA Hunting Habitat Conservation Award. They told their story about how what began with Strawbridge’s vision has evolved into maintaining and conserving by getting involved with multiple organizations – but in a more hands-on capacity. For instance, the relationships they’ve developed with the Amish families have helped them work together to help clean the water and work on measures to help improve the environment.
“It almost looks like a very ornate family tree,” Harris said. “George started it. Then a lot of the members got involved with the Brandywine Conservancy working with their properties. We work with the Lancaster Farmland Trust. They are very active in this area with the Amish. The Octoraro Watershed Association is a very hands-on group in this area because we’re right at the head of the Octoraro Creek watershed and all the streams and water tributaries that go into the Octoraro run through our township and part hunting area.” The Octoraro Creek flows into the Susquehanna River downstream and empties into the Chesapeake Bay.
Andrews Bridge does outreach with the Amish families with barnyards in disrepair where debris may be running into the watershed. Unfortunately, these families may not have the funds to address the issues.
The Andrews Bridge team puts those families in touch with organizations like the Octoraro Watershed Association and the Alliance for Chesapeake Bay to help find the funds to support them, plan and rehab their farms. “It’s just beginning to take off,” Harris said. “The Amish that we’re working with now, in another five, ten years, are just going to be that much easier to work with because they’re much more environmentally conscious and aware. They’re trying to do things the right way.”
Walking the Walk and Getting to Work
The Andrews Bridge members have developed personal relationships with the conservation organizations by rolling up their sleeves and getting to work. For instance, the Octoraro Watershed Association does monthly stream monitoring. Members go out in teams and measure the streams’ depth, cloudiness, and chemical analysis and submit the gathered information to the association. It helps to provide a snapshot of the health of the water system. They also do an annual trash cleanup. The hunt club members spend the day cleaning up the roads and the reservoir. In addition, the members plant trees and shrubs as stream buffers to prevent erosion. “I can send out an email to our membership and they’ll show up to help,” Harris said.
Last year Andrews Bridge was approached for assistance by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. They asked if Andrews Bridge would become involved in an American Kestrel Program. First, the members make the birdhouses. go out and install them. Then, they monitor them for a Game Commission study.
‘It’s amazing how many of our landowners love the birds,” Harris said. ‘It’s something I would have never thought of, but it’s great public relations for the hunt because it’s for a good cause. It’s interesting and it’s real community involvement.”
The members are enthusiastic about the work because they understand the relationship mounted hunting with hounds plays in the bigger picture. Of course, you need landowners and permission, but finding ways to take care of the land and its wildlife creates a greater good for everyone.
Harris encourages other hunts to find active conservation organizations in their areas and begin working with them. She says that it just takes off and one thing leads to another as positive relationships develop. The family tree begins to grow into multiple branches and everything connects.
Do Your Part for Conservation:
Build a Kestrel Nest Box