By Andrew Dinniman

The Pennsylvania Department of Natural Resources (DCNR) has succeeded - that is, in uniting the community against their plans for the Big Elk Creek Preserve.

Municipalities, including Elk, Franklin, London Britain, East Nottingham, Oxford, Penn Township, Lower Oxford, and Upper Oxford have issued official statements against the DCNR plan and stated their support of the original state commitment for a preserve. Organizations such as the Chester County Association of Township Officials, the Oxford Regional Planning Committee, and S.A.V.E. have done the same. The Chester County Commissioners have joined them in opposition by sending letters to Governor Shapiro and DCNR Secretary Cindy Dunn. It appears many more statements are being drafted.

A bit of history is always of value. In the early 1980s, DuPont donated several thousand acres along the Pennsylvania-Delaware border to these two states with the clear goal of it being a wilderness preserve. In 1984, the Pennsylvania Legislature on a motion from the Chester County delegation voted to accept the land as a state preserve. Its protection was further strengthened when a young senator from Delaware named Joe Biden and our Chester County congressman, Joe Pitts, introduced and got passed in 2000 a bill designating the area as a Federal Wild and Scenic River. Chester County residents were jubilant. Many also believed that a large preserve would reduce our area’s impact on global warming.

So, starting in 2007, there was a joint effort of the State, county, and others to purchase the 1,700-acre Strawbridge tract. The understanding always was that the tract would be added to the White Clay Creek Preserve. By combining these areas with the adjacent Natural Resources Area in Maryland and land in Delaware, we would be creating the largest land preserve between Washington, D.C. and New York City.

Early promises

During this period (2006-2020), I was State Senator and DCNR directly communicated their commitment for the preserve concept to State Rep. John Lawrence and me. In fact, Drew Gilchrist of DCNR wrote to me in July 2018 that once the Strawbridge purchase is completed “the property in its entirety will be transferred to the Commonwealth as an addition to the White Clay Creek Preserve.” DCNR’s Gilchrist also says of the first phase of the Strawbridge purchase in 2009, “it is known as the Elk Creek section along the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. The White Clay Creek preserve is currently 2,136 acres. The addition makes it a total of 3,118 acres.”

Let me also note that DCNR made the case for the Strawbridge Tract as a preserve, when it pointed out that there are 690 plant species on the property, 15 of which are endangered or rare as well as threatened animal species such as Big Turtles, Short-Eared Owls and Regal Fritilary Butterflies.

Remember all that I mentioned is from DCNR and makes the case for a preserve. Both Rep. Lawrence and I were so confident that DCNR was working for a larger preserve, that in a December 4, 2018 news release after additional funds arrived, I wrote that Christmas has come early with funds “critical to acquire and permanently protect 1,718 acres owned by George Strawbridge by adding them to the White Clay Creek Preserve.”

Let me add that in 2015 and 2019 when Cindy Dunn came to see me as part of her Senate confirmation, she stated support for the Strawbridge tract being added to the White Creek Preserve. I believed her and voted for confirmation. This support was reiterated in an April 25, 2019 letter from Secretary Dunn, noting the Big Elk section trails and thanking me for my “interest and commitment to the White Clay Creek Preserve.” Also in 2019, DCNR entered into the Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Strawbridge purchase would provide passive recreation and no recreational facilities were proposed.

So all of us in Chester County were elated that DCNR was committed to our dream of an enlarged preserve becoming a reality.

Then came the bombshell.

In the waning days of the Wolf Administration, with the backing of DCNR Secretary Dunn, Governor Wolf designated the Elk Creek land as a state park, not as part of the White Clay Creek Preserve. There is only one preserve in the state park system and that's White Clay Creek. Making it a regular State Park means that they could put in any amenities and infrastructure for overnight camping on the purchased Strawbridge land.

About a year after the action, Secretary Dunn finally came to Chester County to announce the park overnight camping plan at a November 6, 2023 and January 10, 2024 meeting with residents. At the meetings, verbal outrage was expressed by residents and well it should be, since DCNR broke its promise and the commitment it had repeated since 2007 that the Strawbridge purchase would be added to the White Clay Creek Preserve.

Nefarious bait and switch

For those attending the meeting it became apparent that DCNR did a bait and switch and a nefarious one at that. I feel the same way. What else can you call a broken promise made over several decades and not using the 8 million in County funding for the promised preserve.

To counter the citizen resistance, DCNR decided to form a task force and offered another DCNR BAIT and SWITCH by promising (DCNR must like unfulfilled promises) that they would take camping, cabins, and RV parking off the table “indefinitely.” Does DCNR think we are all stupid? We realize that the word “indefinitely” means DCNR can, whenever it wants, put the camping, cabins, and RV’s back into what it now calls Big Elk Creek Park.

This took on an even greater backlash when John Hallas, the DCNR official assigned to the task force, recently told a USA Today reporter, “We are continuing to assess and study the overnight opportunities in the future.” In essence, he defined the word “indefinitely.”

I have been on dozens of task forces, but I have never been on or seen one with guards at the door to keep the public and press from entering or a task force that won’t release the names of its members to the public. It even gives each member a number, so when it put its minutes online, the public won’t know the names of who made the comment. It says it did this because of the strong and vociferous views of those at the November and January meetings. There wasn’t ever a hint of violence, and aren’t public meetings supposed to be the place where the public can express what’s on their mind, even with emotions? How a government agency gets away with such a lack of public transparency is beyond my understanding.

The lack of transparency and controlled public input actually sets the stage for a third potential bait and switch. DCNR can now say we gave citizens the opportunity to express their views, but we don’t agree, so we will do what we want. Believe me, in my years as a State Senator, I have seen public input ignored by state agencies again and again.

Local and county officials are quickly learning about another problem with the DCNR plan. DCNR has the power to ignore local zoning and ordinance as well as the County’s Open Space Plan. However, while ignoring these locally enacted rules, they can stick the community with

the increased cost of police, fire, ambulance, and road repairs resulting from their plan. As a result, local taxes can rise. Isn’t state government wonderful?

There are 123 state parks and only White Clay is a preserve with policies to protect that status. If they want to put overnight camping in the other 122 parks fine but leave us alone and keep your commitment to add the Big Elk land to White Clay Creek and enlarge the only state park preserve.

‘The task is clear, the cause is just’

So how can our community respond to a state agency that thinks it has all the answers and doesn’t keep its promises? I can tell you from decades of experience the only thing that works is public pressure and protest. I was glad to hear that conversations are already taking place to attend DCNR appropriation hearings, a rally in the capitol rotunda, increased press contacts and use of social media, as well as reaching out to allies. This brings the unfairness of BAIT and SWITCH and the justice of our cause to the public, legislature, and most importantly to the governor. We are fortunate that our Governor Josh Shapiro listens and cares about what citizens say and hope.

We all need to thank those who have spoken out, including State Rep. John Lawrence, the County Commissioners, local officials, and non-profits. We also thank State Sen. John Kane for his willingness to meet on this matter with his constituents in Franklin and London Britain. United we will prevail.

So the task is clear, the cause is just, and it’s up to us to make sure our dream of an expanded preserve now and in perpetuity becomes a reality.

Andrew Dinniman, D.Ed., served as Chester County Commissioner from 1992 to 2005, and as Pennsylvania State Senator from 2006-2020.