Kittatinny Ridge/A.T. Tower Issue in the "Living Landscape Observer"

View from The Pinnacle vista along the A.T., Berks County

Editor of the Living Landscape Observer and landscape conservation advocate, Brenda Barrett, poses some important questions that arose out of the Berks County EMS Tower construction plan, a tower site with a deed restriction and a subsequent lawsuit filed by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in its mission to protect the Appalachian Trail.  

Read Landscape of Loss: Defending the Appalachian Trail

The County ultimately filed an eminent domain action to take the property from Hamburg Borough for the purpose of extinguishing the deed restriction that protects the Trail.  What are the larger long-term implications of this outcome for the protection national recreational resources such as the Appalachian Trail and significant landscapes such as the Kittatinny Ridge?