A familiar face in the conservation world will help the newly formed Carbon County Open Space Advisory Board as it moves through the process to create a program that will benefit the county for generations to come.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners approved Dan Kunkle, as well as the Wildlands Conservancy, Natural Lands and Audubon Mid-Atlantic, to serve as technical advisers for the board.

“I would like to say that Carbon County did something here and the voters approved it,” Kunkle said, commending the board for the forward thinking to preserve Carbon’s natural beauty. “A lot of other counties have done this after they’re so crowded, after traffic congestion is so bad, and you know, they do it when it’s almost too late. You three did it when it really has a chance to really count. Thank you for your forward thinking.”

Dennis DeMara, who has been a driving force in the recent referendum to pursue a $10 million bond that will help in the preservation of farmlands and other natural resources, thanked the commissioners for bringing Kunkle on as an adviser to the advisory board.

“Dan has been a leader in conservation,” DeMara said, pointing out that one of Kunkle’s main projects was restoring the Blue Mountain in Palmerton.

He also thanked the board for making such an important move for the county.

“Those not in conservation and recreation don’t understand the importance of what you did last week,” DeMara said. “I’ve been involved with the county for 47 years and never thought something like this was possible. So for Carbon County, as a sixth class county, with 64,000 residents, seeing the need to protect the water and farms and land, we really appreciate what you’ve done. It’s a very monumental action.”

On June 1, the board of commissioners officially established the advisory board, which will consist of six board members and two alternates. The board will determine how the county should best utilize the funds to protect open space and agricultural land.

This past November, Carbon County voters overwhelmingly voted to support the 20-year, $10 million bond for land preservation purposes.

The referendum question came about nearly three years ago when the Carbon County Agricultural Land Preservation Board began looking at funding sources because of the need to help farmers who wanted to join the preservation list.

It passed 21,014 yes votes to 4,394 no votes.