LtoR: Phil Wenger, Lori Yeich (DCNR Regional Supervisor), and Cindy Adams Dunn (DCNR Secretary) announce the agency’s largest single investment in Pennsylvania recreation and conservation in the agency’s history.
On September 6, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced that the agency was awarding over $90 million of investment in 330 projects across Pennsylvania. The Lancaster Conservancy is grateful and thrilled to be the recipient of nearly $1.5 million that will allow us to continue to protect natural lands and provide public access to nature for all members of our community.
$318,000 of the funds will be used to transform the one mile Lloyd Clark Trail on Clark Nature Preserve into a universally accessible trail with an accessible parking lot and trailhead making it welcoming to people of all mobilities. The trail, expected to be completed by early 2024, is named in memory of Lloyd Clark, an avid hunter and the founder of Clark Associates, which made a major gift to the Conservancy’s Protect & Restore campaign in 2021.
The Conservancy was also awarded $300,000 for our work to protect and steward natural lands and conduct environmental education in the Susquehanna Riverlands, a state conservation landscape for which the Conservancy serves as the external lead, and $838,000, or about half of the funding needed, to help acquire and protect a 90 acre nature preserve at Speedwell Forge.
Our gratitude for this funding goes out to Governor Tom Wolf, DCNR Secretary Cindy Dunn, and to members of the local legislature who support conservation, especially Senator Scott Martin and Representative Bryan Cutler.
Our gratitude also goes out to the Conservancy’s members, like you! It is thanks to your support and your generous donations that the Conservancy is able to provide a private match for these state grants. Thank you for your hand in building momentum for this important work to save nature for our community, forever.
