Three Appalachian Trail maintaining clubs recently participated in a friendly competition to raise money for the South Mountain Partnership. This Partnership is a cooperative effort by several conservation organizations to preserve from development land along South Mountain in Southcentral Pennsylvania. Both the Appalachian Trail and the White Rocks Trail pass near the land that the parnership seeks to preserve. The money raised will be used for expenditures that need to occur before certain proposed government grants will become available. In addition, the fundraising effort showed governmental officials and political leaders how important this acquisition is to their constituents in the conservation community.
The competition was
(1) Most money raised per member, and
(2) Highest percentage of members who contributed. SATC sent letters to 360 of its members, MCM 446 and CVATC 149.
As stakes for the competition, it was agreed that the third place Club would have two of its members work on the winner’s section for a day, and the second place Club will have one of its members work on the winner’s section for a day.
Here are the final results.
CLUB PERCENTAGE OF MEMBERS CONTRIBUTING
MONEY PER MEMBER
CVATC 47/149 =.3154 $4,380/149 =$29.40
SATC 77/360 = .2139 $6,058/360 = $16.83
MCM 75/446 = .1682 $3,167/446 = $7.10
An additional 18 people made contributions totalling $2835 and did not designate one of the Clubs for credit. That makes a grand total of $16,440 raised as of late September, 2009. Of course, the real winners are the trail community and the South Mountain project. Thanks to each club member who contributed to this important project!!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Congress Approves $1.82 Million for White Rocks!! Still needs to be signed by the President.
Congress approves thousands of acres of added protection for the Appalachian Trail
Public agencies and private conservancies soon will be able to add thousands of acres of buffer lands around the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Tennessee, thanks to $9.8 million in appropriations approved by Congress late Thursday and sent to President Obama for signature before Sunday.
All of the projects funded as part of the fiscal 2010 appropriations bill for the Interior Department involve sensitive habitat for a variety of threatened plants and animals, key local watersheds and fisheries, and nonmotorized outdoor recreation benefitting local economies. The private Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), which coordinates management of the trail, led testimony before appropriations subcommittees in support of all the projects and is working on most with wide-ranging coalitions of local, state, and other national nonprofit organizations, with bipartisan support in Congress.
The funded projects include $1.82 million for about half the cost of National Park Service purchase of five tracts totaling about 1,000 acres around White Rocks area in south-central Pennsylvania. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, founded in 1925 by volunteers and federal officials who were working to build a continuous footpath on the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to Georgia, is focused solely on the protection, management, and promotion of the Appalachian Trail.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Major White Rocks Update- We are one step closer!
CONSERVATION ALLIANCE GRANT WILL HELP PROTECT A.T. NEAR WHITE ROCKS IN PENNSYLVANIA
HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. (October 14, 2009)—A just-announced $30,000 grant from The Conservation Alliance is a major step forward for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) in its drive to protect from development 1,050 acres along the legendary footpath in south-central Pennsylvania’s White Rocks area.
Located just north of the Maryland state line, White Rocks is part of a 260-square-mile region designated the “South Mountain Conservation Landscape Initiative” by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), because of its spectacular views and unbroken habitat of mixed eastern forest and productive agricultural lands.
ATC has been engaged from the beginning in this effort to conserve the natural and cultural resources of the forest while preserving Cumberland County’s quality of life and outdoor-recreation opportunities.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the National Park Service acquired four parcels to protect the Appalachian Trail and the popular White Rocks access trail. Planned development then would have jeopardized the outstanding view from the rocks, the remote visitor experience, and the sensitive ecology of the area.
Today, five additional parcels in the area have been identified as DCNR’s highest priority for acquisition within the South Mountain Conservation Landscape because of the possibility of further development that would adversely affect the values crucial to the concept of a national scenic trail.
Slightly more than 10 percent of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail is located in Pennsylvania. It enters the state at the Delaware Water Gap and swings west and south in an arc that follows the ridges of Blue Mountain to Cumberland Valley and then down South Mountain to the Maryland border.
The quartzite ridge of which White Rocks is a part provides critical winter habitat for several threatened species listed by DCNR as “of state concern” and is crucial to the protection of Cumberland County drinking-water sources as well as the renowned cold-water fishery of Yellow Breeches Creek. Popular with hikers, bird-watchers, and rock climbers, White Rocks marks the northern terminus of the Blue Ridge physiographic province, the southern terminus of which is in Georgia.
Trail neighbors who would be negatively affected by White Rocks development include the Boy Scouts of America’s Camp Tuckahoe, Diakon’s TresslerCare Wilderness Center, and state gamelands 305. The five parcels of private land this project seeks to acquire are interspersed within Monroe and South Middleton townships among the trail lands, Camp Tuckahoe, the gamelands, and the Lutheran wilderness camp.
ATC’s partners in the White Rocks initiative include the Cumberland Valley Appalachian Trail Club (local volunteers who maintain the footpath and facilities), the National Park Service, DCNR’s Bureau of Recreation and Conservation and Bureau of Forestry, the Cumberland County Planning Department, and the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy. This project is among the topics to be discussed the evening of October 26 at a special ATC community forum at the Carlisle Theater.
State visitation statistics are not available, but an estimated 4 million people set foot somewhere along the 2,178-mile, 14-state Appalachian Trail during a year, and Pennsylvania is known for its extraordinarily active hiking population. Most users are not long-distance hikers, but local or in-state residents enjoying the Trail’s woodland surroundings and pastoral views.
The Conservation Alliance is a national organization of a diverse group of outdoor businesses that support grassroots environmental organizations and their efforts to protect wild places where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. Its funds have played a key role in protecting rivers, trails, wildlands, and climbing areas. Since its inception in 1989, The Conservation Alliance has contributed more than $7.9 million to grassroots groups and helped save more than 49 million acres of wildlands, helped block or remove 27 dams, and helped preserve public access to more than 17,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas. Further information on The Conservation Alliance is available at http://www.conservationalliance.com/.
ATC’s national headquarters is in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., with its mid-Atlantic regional office in Boiling Springs, Pa. ATC is a volunteer-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and management of the natural, scenic, historic, and cultural resources associated with the Appalachian Trail, in order to provide primitive outdoor-recreation and educational opportunities for the public. Information about the trail, this private organization, membership in it, volunteer opportunities, and much more can be found at www.appalachiantrail.org.
HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. (October 14, 2009)—A just-announced $30,000 grant from The Conservation Alliance is a major step forward for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) in its drive to protect from development 1,050 acres along the legendary footpath in south-central Pennsylvania’s White Rocks area.
Located just north of the Maryland state line, White Rocks is part of a 260-square-mile region designated the “South Mountain Conservation Landscape Initiative” by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), because of its spectacular views and unbroken habitat of mixed eastern forest and productive agricultural lands.
ATC has been engaged from the beginning in this effort to conserve the natural and cultural resources of the forest while preserving Cumberland County’s quality of life and outdoor-recreation opportunities.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the National Park Service acquired four parcels to protect the Appalachian Trail and the popular White Rocks access trail. Planned development then would have jeopardized the outstanding view from the rocks, the remote visitor experience, and the sensitive ecology of the area.
Today, five additional parcels in the area have been identified as DCNR’s highest priority for acquisition within the South Mountain Conservation Landscape because of the possibility of further development that would adversely affect the values crucial to the concept of a national scenic trail.
Slightly more than 10 percent of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail is located in Pennsylvania. It enters the state at the Delaware Water Gap and swings west and south in an arc that follows the ridges of Blue Mountain to Cumberland Valley and then down South Mountain to the Maryland border.
The quartzite ridge of which White Rocks is a part provides critical winter habitat for several threatened species listed by DCNR as “of state concern” and is crucial to the protection of Cumberland County drinking-water sources as well as the renowned cold-water fishery of Yellow Breeches Creek. Popular with hikers, bird-watchers, and rock climbers, White Rocks marks the northern terminus of the Blue Ridge physiographic province, the southern terminus of which is in Georgia.
Trail neighbors who would be negatively affected by White Rocks development include the Boy Scouts of America’s Camp Tuckahoe, Diakon’s TresslerCare Wilderness Center, and state gamelands 305. The five parcels of private land this project seeks to acquire are interspersed within Monroe and South Middleton townships among the trail lands, Camp Tuckahoe, the gamelands, and the Lutheran wilderness camp.
ATC’s partners in the White Rocks initiative include the Cumberland Valley Appalachian Trail Club (local volunteers who maintain the footpath and facilities), the National Park Service, DCNR’s Bureau of Recreation and Conservation and Bureau of Forestry, the Cumberland County Planning Department, and the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy. This project is among the topics to be discussed the evening of October 26 at a special ATC community forum at the Carlisle Theater.
State visitation statistics are not available, but an estimated 4 million people set foot somewhere along the 2,178-mile, 14-state Appalachian Trail during a year, and Pennsylvania is known for its extraordinarily active hiking population. Most users are not long-distance hikers, but local or in-state residents enjoying the Trail’s woodland surroundings and pastoral views.
The Conservation Alliance is a national organization of a diverse group of outdoor businesses that support grassroots environmental organizations and their efforts to protect wild places where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. Its funds have played a key role in protecting rivers, trails, wildlands, and climbing areas. Since its inception in 1989, The Conservation Alliance has contributed more than $7.9 million to grassroots groups and helped save more than 49 million acres of wildlands, helped block or remove 27 dams, and helped preserve public access to more than 17,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas. Further information on The Conservation Alliance is available at http://www.conservationalliance.com/.
ATC’s national headquarters is in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., with its mid-Atlantic regional office in Boiling Springs, Pa. ATC is a volunteer-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and management of the natural, scenic, historic, and cultural resources associated with the Appalachian Trail, in order to provide primitive outdoor-recreation and educational opportunities for the public. Information about the trail, this private organization, membership in it, volunteer opportunities, and much more can be found at www.appalachiantrail.org.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Article About White Rocks On the Patriot News
News article on the White Rocks Project from the Patriot News in Harrisburg, PA: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/06/appalachian_trail_in_cv_slated.html
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Hike The White Rocks- July 3rd, 2009
A White Rocks hike will be led by Cumberland Valley Trail Club's President, Jim Foster. See and get a better understanding of the White Rocks Project.
July 3, Friday 8:00 AMAT-White Rocks Loop (Cumberland County)
The hike will start on the AT in Boiling Springs, going south up the mountain to Center Point Knob. Taking the White Rocks Trail, across South Mountain with a short rock scramble, coming down along a creek and into farmlands to rejoin with the present AT.MEET at Sovereign Bank at the Camp Hill Mall. Alternate meeting place 8:30 AM, Fisherman's Parking Lot, Bucher Hill Rd. Boiling Springs.Leader: Jim Foster 649-5505, jimfoster@yahoo.com
For more information: www.satc-hike.org/hikes.html
July 3, Friday 8:00 AMAT-White Rocks Loop (Cumberland County)
The hike will start on the AT in Boiling Springs, going south up the mountain to Center Point Knob. Taking the White Rocks Trail, across South Mountain with a short rock scramble, coming down along a creek and into farmlands to rejoin with the present AT.MEET at Sovereign Bank at the Camp Hill Mall. Alternate meeting place 8:30 AM, Fisherman's Parking Lot, Bucher Hill Rd. Boiling Springs.Leader: Jim Foster 649-5505, jimfoster@yahoo.com
For more information: www.satc-hike.org/hikes.html
About the White Rocks Project
BACKGROUND The partners actively involved with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources - led South Mountain Conservation Landscape Initiative have identified the privately owned Penn Products tracts as the highest priority unprotected lands within the landscape.A BRIEF HISTORY: The National Park Service acquired four
parcels from the owner in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s for protection of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and the popular White Rocks Trail.
TRACT INFO: There are 5 parcels which are each contiguous to lands acquired by the National Park Service for the protection of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. One is contiguous with State Gamelands #305, and other neighbors include Diakon Luthern Ministries (Diakon Youth Center formerly TresslerCare Wilderness Center) and the BSA Camp Tuckahoe. The parcels are located in Cumberland County, some in Monroe Township, with the remainder in South Middleton Township.
PARTNERS: Public partners include The National Park Service, DCNR’s Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, and Bureau of Forestry, and the Cumberland County Planning Department. The primary non-governmental partners (NGO’s) have been the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy, with others offering significant input.
RESOURCE VALUES Perhaps the most significant value isthe spectacular viewshed and habitat of unbroken mixed eastern forest on the south side and limestone rich productive agricultural lands to the north.
GROUND OF PARAMOUNT VALUE: While the natural and cultural resources may be difficult to quantify, the consensus opinion is that it is significant. The area hosts hibernacula for state identified species of concern. There are important vernal ponds on adjacent parcels. The White Rocks quartzite ridge has been identified by DCNR as a geologic heritage site. These lands also serves to protect the community’s drinking water recharge area and the high
quality cold water fishery of the Yellow Breeches Creek. The White Rocks Trail provides a very popular outdoor recreational resource for hikers, birders, and rock climbers. White Rocks is the northern terminus of the Blue Ridge physiographic province, the southern terminus of which is in Georgia.
THREATS The most pressing threat to this landscape is the potential for additional development by the landowner.
PLANS FOR DEVELOPMENT: Over the past several years parcels IV and V have been under contract with a developer. However, the partners believe that those contracts have been contingent on the owner’s ability to
secure sewage processing services from the neighboring township (S. Middleton). A preliminary plan (seen to the left) for 274 lots on 277 acres (parcel V) was submitted to Monroe Township in 2006, with the intent of phased additional development on the remaining tracts. The acreage in question is zoned "conservation", and represented 9% of the municipality’s conservation zone at the time of the proposal. The original conservation zoning ordinance allowed for residential units to be constructed on ½ acre lots. Following several well attended public meetings, the proposal was denied by the board of supervisors, in part because deficiencies in the plan were not adequately addressed. Since that time, the township has adopted a new zoning ordinance, requiring a minimum of 2 acre lot size for residential development. That ordinance is currently being appealed by the owners of Penn Products.This video shows the White Rock parcels (in red) that the partners are hoping to preserve as a valuable resource for recreators, wildlife, local residents, and the state of Pennsylvania. Views were taken from places on and along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, From the town on Boiling Springs, and the White Rocks Trail.
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The White Rocks Parcels
