02/01/2026
A big thank you to everyone who came together to make our winter potluck such a good time! Being a part of a warm and welcoming community is a beautiful thing.
I wanted to share the text of last night's remarks updating on progress of our friends group and it's relationship with our park for those of you who were unable to attend:
The Friends of Governor Dick was organized into an officially recognized 501c3 nonprofit to give community members greater standing in a conflict with the Board of Directors of Clarence Schock Memorial Park at Gov. Dick over forest stewardship practices that employed large scale timber harvests and heavy use of herbicides in the park. By engaging with the media, taking our case directly to our County Commissioners and holding public events, our cause gained broad public support and to date many of our initial objectives have been met. There is greater oversight from the county with a Commissioner now sitting as a non-voting member on the Park’s Board, the Park’s Board has changed membership to include active park users and forest stewardship activities have become less heavy-handed without large timber harvests.
In light of these successes, the Friends of Governor Dick has transitioned into the role of a traditional friends group organization to support the Park, forest and community that we love. We will continue to hold community events in the name of fellowship, while raising awareness, funds and volunteers in support of the Park. Where once funds were set aside for potential legal action, we now use what we’ve been given for things like the junior naturalist backpacks we put together that include quality binoculars, the establishment of a scholarship for a youth contributing to the betterment of nature, helping fund the planting of a pollinator garden, treatment of beech trees against disease and the purchase of oak trees to be planted in areas recently cleared. We help organize volunteers for Park events, work days, projects and litter collection along the roads of our community. We are building up an Education Committee to spread nature education and support children’s programing at the Park. For the purpose of closer cooperation, a member of the Park’s Board now sits as a non-voting member on our friend’s group Board. As time passes, we seek to see that cooperation grow as our efforts integrate with those of the Park as we generate community engagement in support of the forest and Park given as a gift to the community by Clarence Schock.
How can you help support our efforts and support the park?- besides making financial contributions to our friends group or directly to the park,there are volunteer opportunities- join our education committee to help with nature education and programing at the park, park work days are the 2nd Saturday’s every month when its warm, there will be a big spring tree planting in the areas cleared by the army corps of engineers, a hearth and Hut will be built in commemoration of mt. Gretna's contribution to the revolution (charcoal that fueled the ironworks), and lastly- theres an opening on our friends group board- let us know if you'd like to be included as a candidate for the position.
