Penn State Moving Forward with Musser Gap Conservation Plans

Plans for Penn State’s conservation of 355 acres of land in the Musser Gap area for environmental protection and natural recreation are moving forward with design elements now identified, university President Eric Barron said on Wednesday night.

The announcement comes a year after Penn State first announced its intention to conserve the university-owned land — called Musser Gap to Valleylands — between Whitehall Road in Ferguson Township and Rothrock Forest at Musser Gap. Since then the university and its partner ClearWater Conservancy have received input from community members and environmental groups about the best ways to approach conservation project.

Seven design elements — including trails, buffers and other protective measures — have been identified and the university will now work with a design consultant to explore their implementation.

“I’m thrilled at the amount of progress the Musser Gap to Valleylands team has made in such a short span of time,” Barron said in a news release. “The strong interest in this project from our local community shows the tremendous impact and importance that our natural surroundings can have on how we live, learn and enjoy ourselves. I’ve been so inspired and gratified by this effort, and I can see the immense potential of this for future generations.”

ClearWater Conservancy worked with local community members and sought input from residents through meetings and a survey. The design elements were identified by landscape architecture faculty and students with input from the public, environmental groups, local officials and consideration by university leadership.

They include, according to the university:

• Create a sequential trail experience that will guide people from the built environment — campus and downtown — to a natural environment, allowing visitors to experience the transition from an urban landscape to meadows, woodlands and farm fields.;

• Add secondary “loop” trails, providing additional access to the land;

• Enhance the riparian buffer along Slab Cabin Run with additional plantings to help shade the run and protect it from erosion and pollutants;

• Enhance the safety of crossing Route 45 for visitors walking, running and biking from one section of the property to another;

• Establish a buffer between the Musser Gap property and planned Whitehall Regional Park;

• Manage approximately 90 acres of existing forest on land south of Route 45 by promoting native plants and trees and removing invasive flora; and

• Phase approximately 65 acres south of Route 45 out of agriculture into naturalized land cover.

“These seven design elements that received broad agreement from the community are a good start. This is a very large undertaking, and it may take a number of years before the project is fully implemented and realized. As we move forward, other elements proposed by the community may be further developed and new ideas may also emerge,” Barron said. “That being said, we’re as excited to move forward as the community is, so we may pursue a phased approach in order to maintain the momentum we’ve built up over the past 12 months.”

Deb Nardone, executive director of ClearWater Conservancy, said her organization is excited to work with the university and community to bring the project to life.

“This project will make an important impact by providing outdoor recreation opportunities, while conserving important lands vital to clean water — for our community and all those who live downstream,” Nardone said.

An interdisciplinary team of Penn State graduate and undergraduate students, under faculty guidance, spent the fall 2018 semester studying the site as part of an upper-level landscape architecture course. Using the information from that study and stakeholder input, a second class developed preliminary concepts for the site focusing on environmental and social benefits.

A team of faculty members and students conducted research this past summer and fall to identify ‘the seven design priorities that spanned both town and gown interests,’ according to the university. They then undertook a study of things to consider about those design priorities to inform the next phase of the project, which will culminate with a report this coming spring.

The property to be conserved includes the Musser Gap Greenway recreational trail, developed earlier this decade by Penn State and ClearWater to connect Rothrock to the planned Whitehall Road Regional Park. The future site of the park, which is expected to begin development next year, and the forest border the site.

The tract is part of a larger original parcel from Whitehall Road to south of Route 45 that was acquired by Penn State in 1999 from the Mellon Family Trust and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

Since then, in addition to developing the Musser Gap Greenway, the university has sold 59 acres near Whitehall Road to State College Borough Water Authority (SCBWA) for restricted conservation; and 100 acres to Ferguson Township and the Centre Region Council of Governments for development of Whitehall Road Regional Park.

After years of legal battles over use of the land, Penn State also completed the sale of 45 acres to developer Toll Brothers, which is now building the luxury student housing The Yards at Old State near Whitehall Road and Blue Course Drive. As a condition of the land sale, Toll Brothers is required provide necessary infrastructure for Whitehall Road Regional Park.

The conservation project fits in with ClearWater’s ongoing efforts to conserve land along the Tussey Ridge and in the Spring Creek watershed. That has included acquiring the 423-acre Musser Gap and 280-acre Hale property, both of which were then conveyed to Rothrock State Forest.

ClearWater also completed a major fundraising effort in 2017 for the Slab Cabin Run initiative to acquire conservation easements on the Meyer and Everhart farms in College and Harris townships, which also sit nearby in a critical part of the Spring Creek watershed, adjacent to the Harter and Thomas wells.