Camp Laughing Waters, a 458-acre property run by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, is now safe from future development, writes Frank Kummer for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Girl Scout camp was the last unprotected land in Montgomery County. But now thanks to the nonprofit Natural Lands, not only will the land be preserved, a part of it will become open to the public.

Camp Laughing Waters has been around since the 1950s and includes a gaga ball court, archery range, two nine-hole disc golf courses, ropes courses, indoor rock climbing, and 16 campsites.

Under the $3.9 million conservation easement, the Girl Scouts will continue as owners of the tract which is mostly woods with about 30 acres of ponds and wetlands.

The open landscape will remain protected from development and now a part of it will be open to the public. Two miles of trail will become a part of the existing Sunrise Trail and Swamp Creek Greenway.

The publicly funded conservation easement was paid for with $2.7 million from Montgomery County, $500,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, $480,733 from New Hanover, and $79,768 from Upper Frederick.

Read more about the protection of Camp Laughing Waters in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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