Ken Hemphill taught high school English and broadcast journalism for twenty years and now manages the communications of three different land preservation advocacy groups, two of which he founded. Protecting open space is not just about scenery.  

Putting land under a conservation easement or buying it outright is a very cost-effective way to preserve our quality of life by limiting traffic congestion, keeping school taxes lower, and protecting property values. But anyone who lives in Concord Township knows that our local government's work in this area pales in comparison to what other townships have done.

Ken decided that instead of just complaining about the loss of open space in Delaware County he would try do something about it. Ken got involved in the effort to save the taxpayer-subsidized wildlife refuge in Beaver Valley in 2013 when he learned it was to be intensively developed by a major donor to the Concord Republican Party. He co-founded Save the Valley, Inc. and later started the Beaver Valley Preservation Alliance. Ken played a pivotal role in generating the massive grassroots support for saving Beaver Valley which was one of the reasons the Mount Cuba Foundation donated several million dollars to save the wildlife refuge that the Republican Concord Supervisors had marked for destruction.

In 2015, Ken helped organize Marple area residents to fight off a gigantic development proposal of Don Guanella’s would have destroyed the last large forest in eastern Delaware County. That effort continues as Ken and Save Marple Greenspace work to make that 180-acre patch of woods a county park. With the forest being threatened by yet another developer, Ken assembled a coalition consisting of Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Darby Creek Valley Association and Crum Creek Neighbors to work with Save Marple Greenspace to hire experts and attorneys to protect that taxpayer-subsidized forest.

As Delaware County is alone among nine Philadelphia area counties to not have an open space funding mechanism, Ken worked in 2016 to spearhead a coalition of 20 environmental advocacy groups to push for a county-wide open space bond referendum. The Republican-controlled county council refused to do so even after The Trust for Public Land conducted a well-regarded feasibility study of Delaware County's finances.

In 2016, Ken teamed up with a group of concerned residents in the Westtown Township area to protect historic Crebilly Farm from being destroyed by Toll Brothers. Ken manages communications for the group and has helped organize the legal campaign to save this farm which figured into the Battle of the Brandywine fought on September 11, 1777, America's first 9/11.

Ken has produced dozens of videos and documentaries in several different genres. His documentary, BLANK SPOT (which he wrote, edited, and produced) deals with the importance of protecting open space and was narrated by Peter Coyote (of Ken Burns fame). It won Best Documentary Short at the Oregon Film Awards in 2015.