Improvements to continue at nature preserve

By Anya Tikka
DINGMAN TOWNSHIP — Dingman Township supervisors are applying to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for a $3,000 grant, to be used to improve interpretative trails in the Cornelia and Florence Bridge Nature Preserve.

“This is for Bridge Preserve trail project, trails, rain garden, and so on," said Karen Kleist, the township's secretary/treasurer and the nature preserve's project director. "The grant itself is for signs.”

Supervisors' chair Tom Mincer said the town is partnering with the Boy Scouts and other groups to improve the preserve, which is getting more popular as the word gets out.

“On Sunday afternoon, there was no parking space," noted town solicitor John Klemeyer.

Mincer said the unusually warm weather so far this month was probably contributing to the numbers.

“The preserve has a lot of use," said Mincer. "The public has fallen in love with it. People comment a lot about it. I get a lot of email, all positive so far.”

He said many residents consider it a safe place for families to spend time.

"It’s a nature preserve," he said. "Hopefully there will be no reason to damage it."

He wondered if the preserve has a closing time.

“We’re kind of just going with it," said Kleist. "If we get a lot of snow, I don’t know about the parking lot then.”

In winter, Mincer said, many people are looking for places to cross-country ski.

“We’ll probably have to look at parking then," he said.

The preserve is located at Route 6 and Twin Lakes Road, and is within Pike County Conservation District.

The late Charles Bridge donated his family's 300-acre property to the township as a tribute to his wife and mother, who had wanted the land preserved for all of the public to enjoy.