Letter to the Editor:

Thank you for your continued, excellent coverage of proposed infrastructure at Big Elk Creek State Park.

It has been one year since a standing-room-only town hall was held at Avon Grove Charter School. Richard Gaw's account (01/18/2024) of that event well-captured the passion and logic with which residents and numerous officials opposed plans by the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) for RV campgrounds and other infrastructure. You subsequently published letters from Ciaran Weatherill and Jason Blom, members of local Boy Scout Troops, who advocated for a return of Big Elk Creek lands back to preserve status. Count me in with them. Furthermore, we have been joined by at least eleven municipalities and related organizations which have written letters opposing development to Governor Josh Shapiro and/or Secretary Cindy Dunn of DCNR.

This critical mass of written objection is not to omit the tireless work of Anteia Consorto and State Representative John Lawrence. She has effectively mobilized a grass-roots organization, Save Big Elk Creek www.savebigelkcreek.org. He has applied constant pressure to prevent unwanted development, including the filing of Right-to-Know requests which have been largely rebuffed by DCNR.

As a BIEL master plan task force is about to finish its work, you published last week a timely guest column from former State Sen. Andy Dinniman in which he took to task DCNR for reneging on the initial promise to keep those lands as a preserve. Senator Dinniman's column offered a great deal of historical background and insight. He was at the table when the lands were transferred from a private seller, and he is familiar with the funding and effort which Chester County has invested into acquiring these lands.

Thank you for adding his voice to those of other residents, officials, and organizations who are asking for BIEL to be re-designated as a preserve which is open to the public and to be enjoyed in its natural state.

George Hundt, Jr. 
Executive Director S.A.V.E.