{"id":19163,"date":"2016-04-21T09:24:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T13:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=19163"},"modified":"2016-04-21T17:06:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T21:06:04","slug":"national-lands-trust-add-key-parcel-to-french-creek-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=19163","title":{"rendered":"Natural Lands Trust add key parcel to French Creek Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-74\" src=\"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/BigWoodsTrail_PressRelease-300x295.jpg\" alt=\"BigWoodsTrail_PressRelease\" width=\"300\" height=\"295\" \/>On March 25th, 2016, Natural Lands Trust purchased a small but significant parcel of land that will be transferred to French Creek State Park. The 2.3 acres of woodlands are a critical link needed to connect the soon-to-be-completed two-mile section of the Big Woods Trail running through French Creek State Park to the Thun Trail (pronounced \u201ctune\u201d) section of the Schuylkill River Trail.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis key purchase proves that even two acres of forest can make a big difference,\u201d said Molly Morrison, Natural Lands Trust\u2019s president. \u201cThis land is an important link in the Schuylkill River Trail System which has the potential to connect communities from Philadelphia through Pottsville.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2.3-acre property lies within a region known as the Hopewell Big Woods\u2014the largest block of contiguous forest between New York and Washington, D.C.\u2014which has been a focus of conservation efforts by Natural Lands Trust and more than 50 private and public partners over the past decade. It\u2019s also a part of the Schuylkill Highlands Conservation Landscape, an area at the intersection of the PA Highlands and the Schuylkill River Watershed that has been designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PA DCNR) as a priority for conservation, recreational access, and compatible economic development. Seventy-one percent of Pennsylvania\u2019s forests are privately owned, which puts them at risk for development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis property is the critical link needed for DCNR to connect French Creek, a very popular state park with almost a million visitors annually, to the Schuylkill River Trail,\u201d PA DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said. \u201cThe trail link will expand outdoor recreation opportunities at the park and provide an alternate transportation route for visitor access.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This land purchase marks the eighth that Natural Lands Trust has facilitated for French Creek State Park; to date, the organization has worked with DCNR to add 386 acres to the park. On June 30th, 2015, Natural Lands Trust purchased and transferred a 54-acre parcel of land to the park, allowing officials to reroute a portion of the 140-mile Horseshoe Trail from land owned by the South Birdsboro Gun Club to land owned by the park.<\/p>\n<p>Support for this conservation success was provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Virginia Cretella Mars Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 25th, 2016, Natural Lands Trust purchased a small but significant parcel of land that will be transferred to French Creek State Park. The 2.3 acres of woodlands are a critical link needed to connect the soon-to-be-completed two-mile section of the Big Woods Trail running through French Creek State Park to the Thun Trail [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7364,5346],"class_list":["post-19163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-french-creek-park","tag-national-lands-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19163"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19201,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19163\/revisions\/19201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}