Hope at Hopewell
Outdoors Act expected to fund neglected projects in Berks, nation
The old wayside markers at Hopewell Furnace may seem insignificant among the $8 million in maintenance and upgrade needs of the 850-acre national park in Union Township.
But, the markers were installed more than 40 years ago and they leave out recent research on workers, including African Americans, who lived and worked in the 19th century iron forge, said Edie Shean-Hammond, superintendent emeritus and a board member of Friends of Hopewell Furnace.
“The African American community and their stories (at Hopewell), stories of colliers and blacksmiths (are not being represented),” Shean-Hammond said. “It’s important to understand those stories and make those connections so there is pride in your heritage. It’s critically important to the health of the community.”
Now, Shean-Hammond hopes more of the story of Hopewell can be shared with its 50,000 annual visitors and the new Great American Outdoors Act may help tell it.
Hailed as the most significant conservation legislation in a half century, the federal Great American Outdoors Act holds much promise for the backlog of repairs to national parks such as Hopewell Furnace and Valley Forge.
The law is expected to allocate $1.9 billion per year on improvements at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and range lands and about $900 million a year — double current spending — on the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
It will also open up funding for municipal parks and conservation, too, said experts.
“We (the Friends) have been talking about updating the waysides in the park for a while,” Shean-Hammond said. The group, which has support of the park service in its endeavors, has limited
resources.
Also needed: a new heating system for the Big House and Ironmaster’s house.
“We’ve never had proper climate control and we have objects that have suffered from that,” she said.
It’s not clear which projects will be funded with the new funds.
Big plans
The National Park Service is in the process of prioritizing projects through a system that takes into account the most pressing needs and the goals of each of the 419 national park units in the United States.
Projects listed in the current National Park Service funding stream for Hopewell include replacing critical systems at the museum storage facility, $459,000; rehabilitating the Cast House Complex, $380,000; rehabilitating Bethesda Church Complex, $112,000; and rehabilitating the Care House Barn, $83,000.
Meanwhile, at Valley Forge, the deferred maintenance tops $44 million.
The 3,500-acre park, which sees 2.3 million visitors
annually, has projects needed to replace infrastructure including rehabilitating lift stations, $1.23 million; rehabilitating Thomas House Natural Resources Office, $1.04 million; replace roofs and complete exterior maintenance on maintenance complex structures, $966,000; work on Outer Line Drive, $394,000; and establish a replacement tree screen along the Pennsylvania Turnpike for view control, $373,000.
Advocates like SheanHammond are excited about the new law, which was passed with bipartisan congressional support and signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this month.
“It’s an incredible tribute to the American public’s understanding the value of national and state parks,” Shean-Hammond said.
Distributing the money
The Act requires full, mandatory funding of the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund and addresses the maintenance backlog facing America’s national parks and public lands.
The fund was established by Congress in 1964 and authorized for $900 million but Congress usually allocated about half of that amount. The money comes from federal oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf.
Kim Murphy, president of Berks Nature, thanked the lawmakers who supported the measure. She said the fund has touched the lives of people for 50 years and most probably don’t know it.
“For example, in Pennsylvania things that have been funded by the land and water conservation act include the Flight 93 Memorial, Brandywine Battlefield and the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge,” Murphy said. “Almost every municipality has received land and water act funds for public parks.”
Also, she said, the increased funding through the Act will enable more grants from the Forest Legacy Program.
That program is the primary federal funding for private forest owners to voluntarily protect their forests through conservation easements. Those kind of grants have benefited Berks Countians, said Murphy, through land protection in the Oley hills and the Hay Creek watershed.
The funding comes through the state Department of Conservation & Natural Resources.
At work in Berks
Since 1965, the department
has awarded more than $179 million in fund grants for more than 1,700 unique projects.
“Every dollar has to be matched dollar for dollar — it doesn’t replace state dollars,” said Lauren S. Imgrund, deputy secretary of conservation & technical services for the department.
In 2015, the fund helped underwrite the rehabilitation of Pendora Park in Reading. The grant was for $250,000 and the total project cost $500,000.
In 2005, Hamburg’s pool was reconstructed and developed with a $300,000 match.
In 2003, Amity Community Park was developed using a $160,000 matching grant from the fund. The projects included provided better access for people with disabilities according to Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
Chester County has 35 fund sites, according to DCNR, including Black Rock Sanctuary, a 119-acre former coal desilting basin near Phoenixville consisting of wetlands, woodlands and meadows, dedicated to wildlife habitat and public use.
Montgomery County has 52 fund sites, most of which were funded before 1991.
Pottstown Memorial Park was first funded by the fund in 1985 and received further development funds in 2011 for $190,947.
Economic benefits
Outdoor recreation, and national parks in particular, are big economic drivers, said Rebecca Knuffke, officer, Restore America’s Parks of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
She noted the work funded by the Great American Outdoors Act will support 100,000 infrastructurerelated jobs across the country.
According to the National Park Service, in 2019 more than 10 million people visited national parks in Pennsylvania. From Gettysburg to the Upper Delaware River, the state saw $478.6 million spent in gateway communities.
That spending supported 7,557 jobs and provided a cumulative benefit of $711.3 million to the state economy — money that helps businesses, schools, and families, Knuffke said.
Hopewell, according to the park service 2019 study, fueled $3 million into the local economy while Valley Forge spurred $29.2 million in visitor spending.