HARRISBURG (TNS) — Pennsylvanians are outdoor people whether it’s to bike, hike, swim, kayak, hunt, fish, camp or simply enjoy nature.
But the state parks and state forests where millions participate in those activities annually are in dire need of some work if they are going to continue being places future generations want to visit.
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has documented more than $1.4 billion in needed infrastructure repairs and improvements to the 121 state parks and 2.2 million acres of state forest land.
That includes eliminating pit latrines, ensuring all facilities are American Disabilities Act accessible, maintaining water and sewer systems, bracing the infrastructure to handle extreme weather events, and fixing poorly rated bridges, among a long list of projects.
“We know we can’t fix it all at once,” said DCNR Deputy Secretary John Norbeck, at a Monday news conference at Gifford Pinchot State Park in Lewisberry. “But we think we have to set in place a plan that will start to fix our facilities for visitors coming to our state parks.”
The last time Pennsylvania made a significant investment in addressing the state parks and forests’ infrastructure needs as well as those at local parks was 16 years ago, he said.
That hasn’t gone unnoticed by politicians who work in the state Capitol.
Along with proposing $135 million in his 2022-23 budget, Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this month proposed designating $450 million of the unspent federal American Rescue Plan Act money the state received for conservation, recreation and preservation.
At the same time, legislation offered in the House and Senate that has bipartisan backing calls for designating $500 million of those same federal funds for a Growing Greener III initiative.
“So we’re seeing a convergence of understanding of the needs of our infrastructure in our parks and forests and the value that they bring to assist Pennsylvania,” Norbeck said.
The news conference took place inside Pinchot’s Environmental Learning Center. Assistant park manager Gavin Smith hopes to see the center reopen to the public in a year or two. It has been closed for several years due to some structural and other issues in the near 60-year-old structure.
The Friends of Gifford Pinchot Park have set aside nearly $30,000 for interior displays and educational materials that will go into the center once its upgrades are complete, said John Hugar, one of that group’s board members.
Having met two educators whose interest in conservation was inspired by the nature center at Pinchot, Hugar said, “That really goes to show how important these kind of facilities are for the community and for our next generation that is going to be having to take care of the park.”
Marci Mowery, president of Pennsylvania Parks and Forests, added her voice to the call for investment in these state assets. The years of underfunding and understaffing are taking their toll on them and the cost to address them is rising, she said. In 2019, the parks and forests’ infrastructure needs amounted to $1 billion. In two years, that bill grew by $400 million.
Another reason for investing in high-quality outdoor assets is the businesses that it can attract to an area, said Silas Chamberlain, vice president of the York County Economic Alliance and member of the Conservation and Natural Resource Advisor Council.
“Site selectors and corporate executives who are making business location decisions increasingly consider quality of life amenities like parks, open space and trails when they’re deciding where to invest tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in their new business or their business expansion,” Chamberlain said. “So this is not just about quality of life. It’s about all the great things that qualify of life can bring including the economic impacts.”
During the summer of 2020 when concerns about COVID-19 kept most Pennsylvanians from traveling outside the state, visitation to the state parks skyrocketed to 47 million visitors from what it had been averaging about 35 million a year, Norbeck said. In 2021, that remained strong at 45 million.
“Pennsylvania is the sixth in the nation when it comes to consumer spending on recreation and outdoor activities. That’s pretty good for an eastern state the size of Pennsylvania,” he said. “That equates to almost $17 billion that comes back into our economy because of outdoor recreation.”
Further, he said a Penn State economic impact study found that for every dollar invested in the park, it generates $12 in the economic impact in the community that surrounds it.
Given that return, Norbeck said, “We believe that a strong investment in state parks and state parks infrastructure truly is an investment in our future.”
