10/2/19 — In the heart of the PA Highlands, citizens celebrated National Public Lands Day at Valley Forge National Historical Park by engaging in voluntary trail work on Saturday, September 28th.
Three projects were completed at a heavily impacted section of the popular Mount Joy trail.
- One project created a stone water bar and de-bermed down-slope edges to divert rain water away from the trail.
- For the second project volunteers used stone aggregate to rebuild the trail’s tread and fill erosion ruts.
- The third project rebuilt a water bar volunteers created a few months ago and cleared another water bar that was no longer effective.
A total of 13 volunteers (3 leaders, 10 volunteers) applied over four loads of gravel and worked for two hours to complete these projects. Jenn McMenamin, Chief of Facilities at the park, coordinated the event. Appalachian Mountain Club members Jose Ibarra, Bill Lotz, and Phil Mulligan led the project.
Partnerships like this one bring people together to serve and celebrate public lands in the PA Highlands.
The Pennsylvania Highlands is home to critical treasures and extraordinary organizations. Highlight the Highlands is a blog series that features outstanding places and projects in the PA Highlands. Find past and future installments on pahighlands.org/category/news.
The Pennsylvania Highlands is part of the four-state Highlands region, a nationally recognized high-value natural resource conservation landscape stretching from Pennsylvania to Connecticut. Funding for conservation projects in the Highlands is provided by the federal Highlands Conservation Act. For more information on federal funding, click here.
