Tom Venesky Column

Monday, September 20, 2010

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Hoping Friends answer the call to help forest TOM VENESKY OUTDOORS

Thursday August 26, 2010 | 11:12 AM

Tom Venesky tvenesky@timesleader.com

In the wake of what seems like annual budget cuts, it’s no surprise that the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is relying more and more on revenue generated from Marcellus Shale drilling on state forests.

This year, DCNR’s budget was cut by $3.6 million, making the agency more reliant on gas drilling revenue to keep its 117 state parks and 2.1 million acres of state forests open.

But there’s a different resource – something other than gas, oil and timber – that the agency can tap into to help maintain the integrity and beauty of its parks and forests.

Volunteers.

They’re out there and they’re willing to help.

That’s what Laflin resident Joe Healey intends to do.

Healey, who is retired from Popple Construction and spends the bulk of his time either walking the Pinchot Trail or maintaining it, is starting a Friends of the Lackawanna State Forest group.

From Luzerne to Wayne counties, members of the group will volunteer a day or two each month picking up trash, maintaining hiking trails and picnic areas, installing signs and making sure some of the most beautiful areas of the state forest – such as the Pine Hill Vista – remain pristine.

With the state agency financially strapped and manpower stretched thin, having a group of “friends” could do wonders.

Healey has already proven that.

His work during the last six years to maintain the 23-mile Pinchot Trail, along with the 10 miles of side trails, has kept the resource usable for countless hikers.

It might have even kept the trails open.

“I like to give something back, that’s why I volunteer my time,” said Healey, who estimated he spends a couple hundred hours each year using or maintaining the trail.

“With the budget cuts and manpower being low, DCNR simply can’t do it all anymore.”

Healey’s eagerness to help, and his awareness of the urgency of such efforts, hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Last year the Pennsylvania Parks and Forest Foundation gave Healey the Cliff Jones Keystone Legacy Award – the foundation’s top honor given annually to an individual or group that goes above and beyond protecting or enhancing a state park or forest.

And it’s the same foundation that oversees the Friends’ groups throughout the state, connecting volunteers like Healey with state parks and forests in their area that can use a hand.

Currently there are 28 Friends’ groups in the state.

Healey is ready to make it 29.

He said a Friends group for the Lackawanna State Forest will help the area immensely. Without one, Healey said outdoor recreation would suffer.

“I am energized about this. If we can get it off the ground the group will be a big asset to the forest,” he said.

And once the group does get off the ground, it can get to work doing all kinds of good things on it.

A meeting will be held Sept. 1 at the Thornhurst Municipal Building at 6:30 p.m. to discuss forming the Friends group and allow anyone interested to sign up (for information call Healey at 655-4979).

Healey doesn’t have a minimum number of volunteers that he would like to see join the new group, simply stating “the more the merrier.”

Let’s hope the number who turn out to help on Sept. 1 is more rather than less. Considering the Lackawanna State Forest is comprised of an impressive 8,115 acres, I’m willing to bet it has a lot of “friends” willing to lend a helping hand.