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FOR TWENTY YEARS
Our Mission: Inspire Stewardship of Pennsylvania's State Parks and Forests

Halfway Dam - Raymond B. Winter State Park
Photo by Marci Mowery

A Note from Marci

The Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation operates under the following values:

* Integrity * Conservation * Excellence * Diversity * Innovation *
* Inclusion * Collaboration * Sustainability

We have as our motto, "A place and an experience for everyone in the outdoors."

Recent events lay heavy in our hearts. We cannot remain quiet on these events and the ingrained racism they have once again exposed, as quiet may be misconstrued as acceptance.

Racial injustice is wrong and in direct opposition to the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation’s values and principles. We believe that differences make us stronger, not weaker. When one remains open to differences, growth happens. We don’t fear growth.

We know that we have work to do to ensure a place and an experience for everyone and that difficult conversations lay ahead. We are committed to celebrating diversity and ensuring safety of users and visitors to our parks and forests.

During a week such as this, it felt really good to get out on Wednesday and scrub graffiti off some rocks. It was nice to redirect my frustration toward the wanton destruction of our shared resource and see a change as a result.

It's not always so easy to see transformation.

Thanks to Beth, Jenn, Kyle, and the always hard-working forest staff of the Bald Eagle State Forest who came out to help Marci, Sarah, and me with this project. We'll probably need to make a return trip because one of the problems with graffiti removal is that once you remove the top layer you invariably reveal a second, third, or even fourth coat below. Let me know if you'd like to be kept in the volunteer loop.

Marci and I stayed at R.B. Winter State Park the night before graffiti removal day. (Here we are practicing our physical distancing.) Since we got up there late afternoon and planned to leave first thing in the AM, we didn't bother to set up tents but slept in our vehicles. It was a wise decision; a wonderfully loud thunderstorm struck in the middle of the night. Rain on the van roof makes a pleasant lullaby though. Thanks to Marci for the masthead - the famous Halfway Dam of R.B. Winter. What a delightful park that is. I am ready to go back!

Pam Metzger
Membership Coordinator
Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation

News of Note

Today's Lunch & Learn is particularly poignant given how we spent our Wednesday. The subject is "leave no trace" ethics in the outdoors and graffiti certainly qualifies as a "trace" left by person or persons unknown. As we have said before, it is not "art." It is not "a memorial." It is not "historically significant." It is not anything other than vandalism of a jointly owned resource.

So Monika Baumgart and David Lemay of the national Leave No Trace organization will join Sarah and Rachael Mahony of the Forbes State Forest to talk a little bit more about what it means to "take only photographs and leave only footprints" in the outdoors. Join us on Facebook or YouTube at noon.

Pictures of the Week

Here's a sign of good things to come - a green drake mayfly at Poe Paddy State Park. The sign of a healthy body of water, fisherfolk love the annual mayfly hatch. Check out the post that accompanies this picture for more information about the life and times of a mayfly.

I found this photo from Gouldsboro State Park on a Facebook page called World Landscapes. In among the beaches of New Zealand, the mountains out west, and small towns of Italy was our own little piece of PA. Photographer unknown.

Stan Corley posted a series of sunrise at Shawnee State Park shots on Thursday. This one seems tailor-made for my new Pictures of the Week feature. Thanks to reader Peggy W for the tip on Jigsaw Explorer, a website that turns your photographs into digital jigsaw puzzles (and provides a bunch of ready-made images to play puzzle with.) I am going to do this to one of our four pictures every week. Give this week's a try.

Here's another one that's all about the sky. Big Pocono State Park from Danielle Reiss. That bench would be a perfectly lovely place to spend a long afternoon.

Take Five for Trivia

We closed out both Parks & Forests Week and the month of May with an inquiry as to the identity of the Mother and Father of Pennsylvania's forests. They are Mira Lloyd Dock and Joseph Trimble Rothrock. We truly do not exaggerate when we talk of their status as "heroes" of conservation and too many people have said they never heard of them, especially Mira. We need to do a better job in sharing her story as it is fascinating. The curated showing of the documentary linked in the story linked above (phew) that we did on Earth Day was merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her lasting influence. You really should check it out.

Congratulations to Valerie C., our random May winner of trivia.

June brings us National Great Outdoors Month and if you were listening to last week's Lunch & Learn, you heard Bureau of State Park Director John Hallas tell us that how many states in the US are, like Pennsylvania, free to use?

Send your answer to me and I'll enter you into the month's random drawing for a goodie from the prize closet if you answer correctly. Enter each week for more chances to win.

In Closing

SUPPORT PPFF

Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation (PPFF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization - contributions to which are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. The official registration and financial information of PPFF may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling, toll-free within Pennsylvania, to 800.732.0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.

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