If you're having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS
Our Mission: Inspire Stewardship of Pennsylvania's State Parks and Forests

Ready for Some Camping - Trough Creek State Park
Photo by Friends of Trough Creek & Warriors Path

Somebody didn't get the memo. March winds are howling outside my window. Isn't it "IN like a lion and OUT like a lamb?"

The masthead this week is quite unusual, I'll grant you. But there is something artistic in the stacking of firewood by the Friends of Trough Creek & Warriors Path. They and many of our friends sell firewood in the campgrounds as fundraisers for important projects. This group is saving for a playground.

I think they should conduct some kind of lottery to guess on what date that stack will be depleted. After getting the appropriate license from the county, of course!

Pam Metzger
Membership Coordinator
Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation

News of Note

Monday is Mom & Pop Shop Day (read more about it here) and we thought it would be fun if you printed out a couple of these post card size things and left them behind on your park and forest visits this weekend. Give a click for a full size version you can print and cut.

Mark your calendars for April 5th at noon when our Lunch & Learn series makes a return with a very special presentation by Samuel Black of the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. The presentation features the museum's From Slavery to Freedom exhibit. View the stream live on our Facebook page and YouTube channel on the 5th.

Speaking of YouTube, the newest addition to the channel is a tour of Colonel Denning State Park. Check it and subscribe!

Kudos to Philadelphia magazine for this excellent article on reserving state park cabins.

The natural state of our public lands adds unmeasurable value to our health and economy. What does the preservation of natural value mean to you?

Share your thoughts in a haiku poem (3 lines following the syllable pattern 5,7,5) and submit it to PAEnviroRights50@paparksandforests.org.

Pictures of the Week

Here is one of a series of photos of tundra swans at Black Moshannon State Park captured by Leah Simcisko of Exceptional Eye Photography. Give a click and watch him swirl his feathered "cape."

There is something very "March" about this little tree island at Little Pine State Park. Photographer Jim St. Andrews says to look closely. Eagle nest in there. Also a jigsaw puzzle!

I stumbled upon a new (to me) Facebook group called Pennsylvania Peaceful Outdoors, the source for Jim St. Andrews shot above and this one by Bill Hamilton from Hyner View State Park. Bill says it was taken a few years ago. No view that day!

Curt Weinhold paid a visit to Sinnemahoning State Park earlier in the month. High water, beautiful spring day, especially here at Forty Maples.

Where Are We?

Click for a larger view.

Take Five for Trivia

Good job, trivia players. Two forest habitats that benefit from a prescribed/controlled burn are serpentine barrens and scrub oak pitch pine. And of course you already knew that the Friends of the State Line Serpentine Barrens steward a set of these special places in the southeastern part of the state.

We had our first meeting for a potential new Friends group this week and learned an interesting piece of trivia. What was the first masonry dam constructed by the CCC in Pennsylvania?

Enter each week to increase your chances of a fabulous prize at the end of the month when I'll draw one entry from all correct answers received during the month.

In Closing

SUPPORT PPFF

Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation (PPFF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization - contributions to which are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. The official registration and financial information of PPFF may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling, toll-free within Pennsylvania, to 800.732.0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.

To unsubscribe from future mailings please click here.