Apr 18 2014

Report: Pennsylvania Forests Impacted By Drilling

English: Cropped portion of image from USGS report showing extent of Marcellus Formation shale (in gray shading). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A small portion of Pennsylvania state forest land has been impacted by shale gas drilling, but many questions remain about how to manage the politically sensitive issue that is opposed by many residents, according to a new report.

The 268-page Department of Conservation and Natural Resources report issued this week concluded that “shale-gas production on state forest lands is neither benign nor catastrophic” and that there are clearly impacts and trade-offs.

“The question is what trade-offs are acceptable,” the report said.

The report found that about 1,486 acres of forest have been converted to various types of drilling-related development since 2008, including roads, well pads, and pipelines, out of about 2.2 million acres in the state forest system. That gas development resulted in 191 infrastructure pads and 104 miles of pipelines.

Dec 23 2013

Schuylkill Leads River Of Year Balloting With 5 Days Remaining. So Vote!

English: This is my own work, Public Domain Photograph, not copyrighted Ed Yakovich http://www.flickr.com/photos/10396190@N04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Our favorite recreational river last year lost the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources annual (20 years running we might add) River of the Year competition to the Steel City’s (ugh!) Monongahela. Out of more than 24,000 ballots that were cast last year the Schuylkill fell short by just 146 votes.

This time around, the Schuykill leads the balloting for 2014 River of the Year honors with a hefty 40 percent of popular votes cast. The voting period runs from November 25th to December 27th, so we have a fews days left to make sure the the Kiskiminetas-Conemaugh Rivers, in second place with 21%, don’t close the gap.

So vote!

May 25 2013

Pottstown Regional Planners Offer Park Improvement Grants

A mini-grant program for park improvements in the eight municipalities that comprise the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee is now accepting applications.

Eight grants of up to $25,000 each will be awarded to towns which participate in the regional planning effort to help fund park improvements that promote recreation.

Funding for the grants comes from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and is being facilitated by the PottstownArea Health and Wellness Foundation.

At this point, the “Request-for-Proposals” phase, the regional planning committee and the foundation are inviting the region’s eight member municipalities to apply for funding for the planning or development of park improvements.

Apr 28 2013

Philadelphia’s Washington Avenue Green

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Formerly known as Pier 53, Washington Avenue Green is located at Washington Avenue, just south of the Coast Guard station and behind the Sheet Metal Workers’ Union Hall, 1301 South Columbus Boulevard. The one-acre site on the long-abandoned pier is one of the few tracts along the Delaware riverfront that is owned by the City of Philadelphia. It is the first of the public parks to be created by the Action Plan for the Central Delaware. Because there has been no commercial activity at that location for decades, the pier that originally had welcomed ships and freight carriers has deteriorated, and both native and non-native trees and plants took hold and flourished.

The rotted piers and eroded shoreline have become a nursery for migrating fish and a permanent home for several species of mussels.

This newly discovered habitat is being exploited and informs the park’s unique spirit. Delaware Avenue Green has been redesigned and reconstructed as a public space on the interim trail that is planned for the southern section of the Central Delaware.

Apr 22 2013

Hazleton Area Rail-Trail Bridge To Get Historic Support

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A 117-foot bridge that will take the Greater Hazleton rail-trail over an active Norfolk Southern railroad line will be held by supports built more than 120 years ago by the Coxe coal barons.

The bridge will be delivered to the site on May 23.

Tom Ogorzalek, a trail volunteer and local history buff, said the abutments were built by the Coxe family when they owned and operated a railroad near the turn of the last century.

“They were built in 1890 by the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna (DS&S) Railroad, which was run by the Coxe family to haul their coal,” Ogorzalek said. “Other railroads also hauled their coal. They made a deal with Lehigh Valley Railroad to haul all of their coal. Lehigh Valley acquired DS&S, and almost immediately abandoned that track sometime between 1900 and 1905.”

Apr 5 2013

Regional Recreation Coordinator Pitched To Pottstown Council

Editor’s note: We are all for regional planning and cooperation. This approach will help unite the Greater Pottstown area and that would be a good thing!

POTTSTOWN — Borough council may vote Monday on endorsing a proposal that could, at very little cost, provide support and technical services to regional recreation efforts and perhaps draw more financial support for large events like the Fourth of July and Volleyball Rumble.

The proposal has been discussed for several months by the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee and would be jointly funded by the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation and a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The idea is to use the funding to hire what the state calls “a circuit rider” and what David Kraybill, executive director of the foundation, calls a “regional recreation coordinator” to help organize, provide technical and marketing support and write grants for the eight municipalities which comprise the regional planning area.

To benefit, each municipality would have to sign on and pay what the foundation’s Anna Brendle-Kennedy called “an escalating” fee which begins with several hundred dollars and ends, after five years at $5,000, so long as all municipalities participate.

Mar 4 2013

Pottstown Regional Recreation Post Could Wear Many Hats

POTTSTOWN — Sometimes things just fall into your lap just when you need them.

Just one day after members of the Pottstown School Board and borough council brainstormed about ways they can work together to cut costs and market Pottstown to a broader region, an opportunity to do just that for free was again presenting itself.

During their first joint meeting of the year on Feb. 25, members of both Pottstown boards echoed a common lament, the need to market what Pottstown has to offer to a wider audience, to better coordinate and add to major events and the need for additional funding help from outside sources and the surrounding townships.

On Tuesday, the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee heard about an opportunity being developed over the last year with the help of the Pottstown Health and Wellness Foundation to do many of those things at a ridiculously low cost.

Dec 31 2012

Nolde Forest Thins Ranks To Make Way For Growth

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Boulevard Trail is Carl Knutsen’s favorite path to walk at Nolde Forest State Park in Cumru Township. The steep hike gives him the best workout.

But when Knutsen arrived at the trail a few weeks ago, he was shocked to find a muddy path covered with downed trees due to a logging project.

“Boy, it was quite a sight,” Knutsen, 68, a Cumru resident, said recently. “I just hope it’s being done for the right reasons.”

Linda Ingram, manager of Nolde’s Environmental Education Center, said other visitors to the park along Route 625 have had similar reactions after seeing the messy trail. But when Ingram looks at the path, she sees progress.

Dec 27 2012

Schuylkill Among Rivers Nominated For State’s 2013 ‘Best’ List

Six rivers have been nominated for Pennsylvania’s 30th annual “River of the Year” award, which the public can vote on through Jan. 18.

English: This is my own work, Public Domain Photograph, not copyrighted Ed Yakovich http://www.flickr.com/photos/10396190@N04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Philadelphia region’s very own Schuylkill River is among the nominees this year, with the award’s state and non-profit sponsors touting the 128-mile Schuylkill’s resurrection from a “dead river in the mid-1900s” to one that “touches countryside and urban life” alike.

But the votes aren’t flowing as quickly for the Schuylkill in the first week of voting as some of its competitors. The other nominees are: the Juniata River and Swatara Creek in southcentral Pennsylvania; the Kiskiminetas River and Monongahela River in the southwest and Lackawanna River in the northeast. The contest’s first week of voting, Dec. 18 through Dec. 24, put the Schuylkill in third place with 19 percent. The Lackawanna has 31 percent and the Monongahela has 22 percent.

“We still have three weeks to go, so we’re hoping for a push,” Schuylkill River Development Corp. President and CEO Joe Syrnick said today.

Dec 20 2012

Fountain At Point State Park To Resume June 7

The fountain in Pittsburgh’s Point State Park, which has been shut off since April 2009, will resume operation in a ceremony set for June 7.

The announcement was made today in a statement released by the Riverlife organization, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

“The transformation of Point State Park is almost complete, and with the reconstructed fountain it will once again be a jewel in our award-winning state park system,” said DCNR secretary Richard J. Allan in a statement. “After hard work and collaboration across the region, we’re happy to celebrate this major reconstruction with a public event that will showcase the renovations and the park in a stunning waterfront gathering spot.”

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