Friday, March 29, 2024
Home » News » Community » Friends of Rothrock Look for Community Support

Friends of Rothrock Look for Community Support

no description

Over the past year, trailheads at Rothrock State Forest have been teeming with people looking to get outside and into the woods. From hiking to biking and from running to horseback riding, people looking for something safe and healthy to do during the pandemic are realizing what many have known all along — that Rothrock is an excellent resource for outdoor adventure, and it is right in the backyard of the Centre Region.

Friends of Rothrock State Forest — a nonprofit group with a mission to pro mote and support responsible public access to, education about, and enjoyment and stewardship of Rothrock State Forest — is working to make this resource even better by bringing more trails to the area, but it needs the support of the community to keep moving forward.

The group’s efforts were slowed last year due to the pandemic, but in 2021 FoR is moving ahead with Phase 1 of a comprehensive plan for Rothrock State Forest. A trail assessment, which was completed in 2018, examined ways to better utilize the well-used forest with the addition of sustainable trails. Phase 1 includes the final design of 26 miles of trail and the construction of 12 of those miles in the under-utilized Musser Gap section of the forest.

DCNR District Manager Mark Potter discusses trail construction with volunteers during the annual DCNR Conservation Day program in 2019 at Rothrock State Forest. This year, Phase 1 of a comprehensive trail plan is being completed to bring new trails to the forest. Community support is needed to keep the project moving forward. Submitted photo

“The Musser Gap area is Rothrock State Forest’s most under-developed recreational area, despite its proximity to State College and the Pennsylvania State University populations. Lack of trails in this area limits its potential to serve the recreators of those communities,” said board member Jay Ziegler. “In an effort to better serve the local communities and disperse recreation throughout Rothrock State Forest, the Friends of Rothrock, with support from DCNR Bureau of Forestry, seek to develop the Musser Gap area. The focus of this development is to connect Musser Gap to Whipple Dam State Park with a professional built, natural- surface, sustainable, shared-use trail system that provides recreators of all types and abilities with multiple loop options. Ultimately resulting in a diverse sustainable trail system consisting of almost 70 miles of shared-use trail.”

The project is moving forward thanks to a $365,700 Recreational Trail Program grant through the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and $12,000 from the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, which was received in 2020.

Grants like the RTP funding require a 20-percent match, so in order to keep the project moving forward, the group needs help raising funds. The first grant was helped along with a match by DCNR.

“Now it is up to the community to help us secure grants by raising the match money needed. The work will not happen unless we find community supporting corporations and businesses and private individuals, who support our community recreating in Rothrock State Forest. Large and small donations will help us reach our goals,” Ziegler said.

Those looking to get involved can find more information at friendsofrothrock.org.

Rothrock and the opportunities it provides are a big part of what makes Happy Valley such a draw to young professionals looking for a place to live, as well as for tourists looking for an enjoyable place to visit for outdoor adventures.

“From a tourism standpoint, people understand what a great resource we have; from a recreation access standpoint, it is pretty unparalleled for being this close to a sizable town,” board vice chair Mike Bush said.

This closeness means that recreational tourists can come to the area to use the trail system and make it back to town for creature comforts when they feel so inclined. The new trails will only add to that appeal. They will also help with the congestion seen at the Shingletown Gap and Galbraith Gap trailheads by giving more viable access points.

“There was a lot of pressure this past summer with COVID at Shingletown and Galbraith Gap, so it is going to open another area for State College to access Rothrock,” Ziegler said. “And these trails are a single track, a natural surface and it is hard for hikers, bikers and horseback.”

Besides donations, people can get involved with Friends of Rothrock as volunteers. FoR can always use help with marketing and getting the word out about the project, said Bush.

Once the trail is designed, FoR also plans to have some volunteer trail days as long as pandemic restriction allow for it.

“The trails will be machine-built by professionals, but there will be a little bit of hand work to clean up and ongoing maintenance,” said Bush.

Zeigler said the group also will need volunteers to “go back to the existing trails that we are keeping and get them up to the same condition as the new trails, get them groomed back and get everything in the same condition throughout the whole forest.”

The design and construction of Phase 1 will start later this year and will tentatively be completed in 2022, but weather always plays a factor in the construction process. For Bush and Ziegler and the rest of the Friends of Rothrock, seeing the trails finally being built is like a dream come true.

“It has been a long time coming. … But it will be really nice for the community and everyone involved to see that there is better connection and there is more access, and things really happening on the recreation front. Because forestry doesn’t really get any money for trails and trail maintenance and that is what the majority of us go to the forest for,” Bush said.

“It is exciting and a proud feeling. We have had a lot of setbacks, but I am excited that we are finally going to see this happen,” Ziegler said. “But the final result is what I want to see. … It is going to give new exciting recreational opportunity in Rothrock. They are going to see the loop trail system, long and short runs and hikes. They can do bike rides. It is going to give them more options when they are out there. It is going to make the experience a lot more fun.”

Vincent Corso is the senior staff writer for The Centre County Gazette