Throughout Centre County, hikers, mountain bikers, and runners have plenty of trails on which to pursue their hobbies and build their skills. Rothrock State Forest alone has roughly 320 miles to explore. And while stores, restaurants, and gyms were closed to keep people safe from COVID-19, popularity on the trails grew exponentially.
“Since Day One of the shutdown, local bike shops have been running out of bikes and I’ve seen more bikers and hikers on the trails than ever before,” says Donavan Neal, an avid mountain biker and member of the Nittany Mountain Biker Association (NMBA). “I saw more people this spring than ever before.”
But how are these trails maintained? Between the flourishing mountain laurels and the wind, snow, and rain of central Pennsylvania, how is it that the trails continue to be hike-able, bike-able, and otherwise in good shape?
Jonathan Snyder, a recreation forester for Rothrock State Park, says he relies heavily on individual volunteers, recreation clubs, friends groups, and trail clubs for assessments and trail maintenance. These club members are familiar with the trail system because they are often out on the trails. Snyder, who grew up camping, hiking, backpacking, hunting, and fishing with his family, focuses on the more popular trails and bigger issues.
“The most common type of trail maintenance is cutting back brush that grows onto the trail. Rarer maintenance would include larger projects like bridge construction or trail reroutes,” he says. “Volunteers accomplish almost all of the annual trail maintenance that includes cutting back brush, removing downed trees, and picking up trash. The clubs also complete larger projects, with the help of our staff, that include reroutes and installing water mitigation features to improve problem areas.”
Neal lives in Boalsburg, close to Rothrock, and bikes on nearby trails throughout the year. He has devoted a lot of his time to maintaining the trails along with other members of the NMBA. Because they cover a lot of ground on their rides, they can help folks like Snyder more easily find problem areas on the trails.
The association organizes weekends where members get out on the trails to work, and the association uses some of the dues its members pay on equipment for trail maintenance. The group has a shed with equipment such as weed-eaters, picks, shovels, and rakes for volunteers to use. They drive the equipment as close as they can to the trails and hike in the rest of the way with it, spending at least five hours at a time working.
The biggest culprits damaging trails, Neal says, are greenery growing quickly across the trails and wet weather eroding the paths. Volunteers spend time cutting back mountain laurel and using rocks to prevent de-sedimentation.
“We also work with DCNR. They don’t give money for trail maintenance, but they do put money aside for certain trails that need bridges or they come in and fix certain trails with their own people,” Neal says. “We’re always in contact with them about what we’re doing and we can’t build a new trail without permission, but want to build more trials that spread across the forest. We have a plan with them to build more in the next 20 years, but for now we are doing our best to keep the trails we use now cleared and available for anyone that wants to use them.”
Corey Dickman, the NMBA trail coordinator and a board member of the Friends of Rothrock, says the trails are an important part of the economy in State College; they attract tourists and employers can recruit more talent to the area with the promise of such great spaces for outdoor recreation.
Currently, Dickman is working with members of the NMBA and others to build more trails on privately-owned land, such as land owned by Calvary church. He hopes in the future more private landowners will open up their property for more people to enjoy.
Dickman also works hard to keep the trails in Rothrock healthy and stresses the importance of state forests and parks that everyone can enjoy.
“Trails are a way into the forest, for people to access natural resources and build an appreciation for them,” he says. “If we didn’t have the trails, people wouldn’t understand why we’re protecting state forests. We try to make the trails accessible to a variety of different users, from kids, to dog owners, people who fish, and people who hunt. With so many people utilizing our state forests, there’s a bigger pull for protecting our natural resources. We can all come together to protect these public lands.”
Volunteers are always needed to help maintain trails. To volunteer through the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, go to dcnr.pa.gov. The NMBA has a mailing list, a Facebook group, and an Instagram account that will notify anyone interested when their next trail maintenance event will take place. Mount Nittany Conservancy has a volunteer page for those interested in working on the mountain: mtnittany.org/support/volunteers/.
Rebekka Coakley is a freelance writer.
