This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.
The contracted forester for Clarence Schock Memorial Park at Governor Dick recently presented a new five-year stewardship plan to the board of directors.
In other news from the meeting on Oct. 17, board chairman Raymond Bender announced the resignation of member Harrison Diehl Jr., effective immediately. Since the board is governed by Lebanon County Commissioners, the resignation won’t become official until commissioners vote to accept it at a future meeting.
The proposed forestry plan involves four existing management areas located throughout the park, commonly known as Governor Dick Park, that will occur through the end of the new contract, which is Dec. 31, 2029.
Governor Dick is a 1,105-acre forested park in southern Lebanon County. The park has 16 miles of trails, a 66-foot-tall observation tower, and an environmental center.
On a sheet detailing all of the planned management projects that was provided at the meeting, the plan shows under a heading titled “Years” the dates as 2024-2028. However, that is when the projects will tentatively be funded by Congress. Actual project work could occur through the end of the contract year in 2029 and will begin once they are funded.
Park forester Barry Rose noted several times that what’s important is the sequence of events as noted on the 2024 National Resources Conservation Services’ Environmental Quality Incentive Practices chart.
Read More: Man with a plan: Governor Dick Park forester highlights regeneration efforts
“The chart is basically a matrix of everything that’s going to happen in the next five years. It’s listed by year in the first and the second column,” he said. “The location is in the third column. The location refers to what’s on the map. There’s four different locations that the practices will be conducted in, and there are a total of seven different practices that will be performed.”
Rose encouraged attendees to read the chart for project descriptions and said he wasn’t going to go into depth explaining the management practices, adding that he would field questions after the meeting. He did address some questions, including some about the use of herbicide and harvest activities.
The use of herbicide in Area 3 drew the most comments from an audience of about 15 local residents given its proximity to homes located in Gretna Heights and a nearby underground well.
Read More: Mount Gretna residents raise water quality concerns with Gov. Dick board
Rose said 20 of 40 acres within Area 3 will receive herbaceous weed treatment – chemical spot – to “remove or treat herbaceous weeds including invasive, noxious and prohibited plants to meet management objectives.”
The plan description notes this action will use “pre-emergent herbicide application within newly established fence to control an anticipated increase in mile-a-minute and stiltgrass competition.” This will be funded in 2026 with action occurring later within a new fenced area near Mount Gretna, the plan further states.
“We always have a problem with the stiltgrass and the mile-a-minute, any kind of plant. We have to make sure they’re gonna survive through the invasive plants competition,” said Rose. “So we have to go back and herbicide – selective herbicide – so that the stiltgrass, the mile-a-minute, is taken out so that the other vegetation can grow.”
Rose noted this work will include construction of a new 5,300-foot fence that will be put up near Mount Gretna and that various management practices that will occur over a period of up to 10 years inside that area.
“We’ll be tending inside the fence to make sure that we get some advanced regeneration on the ground of the species that are present, and we will do like in the other job areas where we augmented that with other species by planting,” he said.
He explained the progression of work within Area 3 beginning next year to encourage the grow of oak trees within that stand of forest.
“The process in No. 3 will be first we’re going to put the fence around it, we’re going to protect it. Keep the deer out of it. Then we will prep it with, there’s going to be some disturbance. We have to go in there and create conditions so that oak will regenerate,” he said. “By that what we mean is that oak has a threshold level of sunlight that it must have before the oak seedlings will germinate.”
Rose added that there is a very low threshold for oak to regenerate and that some understory vegetation will have to be cut to allow 15 percent of sunlight on the forest floor.
“From a management standpoint, it’s very difficult to get that threshold because if we put too much sunlight down, then we get invasive plants growing, and we get black birch growing, and other species we don’t want, we get them growing,” said Rose. “But see, oak can tolerate more shade than the others, but the way it is presently, there’s too much shade. So we’re gonna go in, it’ll probably be the first part of next year, after the calendar year starts, and we will thin that area out, the entire area within the fence.”
Rose was asked about the timetable for herbicide application.
He stated it’s necessary to apply herbicide anytime you disturb the soil since some invasive species get established once that happens, adding that application will reduce invasive species seeds from germinating by about 50 to 80 percent in year one.
“It’s done when all the perennial plants are dormant and you put this down and pretty much what it does is it prevents seed from germinating,” said Rose. “It can’t survive the next year without coming back to seed so if we break that cycle and that’s what we’ve done in these other areas – we break that cycle, and we just prevent the seed from germinating.”
Rose further explained the herbicide application schedule in subsequent years.
“If you spray a pre-emergent two seasons in a row, the likelihood of you getting anything back, as far as stilt grass or the mile-a-minute, third year, you probably won’t have any. The fourth year, you may not have any. The fifth year after the treatment, you’ll start seeing seed come back because it’s coming in from different locations,” said Rose. “So what we’re trying to do is create a two- to four-year window where we get tree seedlings to come back in.”
Other herbicide questions concerned possible leaching and how much of Area 3 would receive those applications, which Rose said was 20 of the 40 acres. Still another question for Area 3 focused on the proximity of the fencing near Oak Avenue, which is the closest street to the project, with the response being “550 feet.”
Someone asked how long the fence would remain, with Rose saying the answer to that question is up to Mother Nature. That’s because no two growing seasons are alike and other factors controlled by the weather will determine when the fence is removed once the trees have established the appropriate amount of growth, which was stated to be several feet.
LebTown asked Rose for a deeper explanation about herbicide and leaching. Residents who live there have expressed concerns over the years since their water supply comes from a nearby underground well.
“There’s no way that it (Glyphosate) leaches anywhere,” said Rose via phone. “Anything that it touches, it binds and bonds to, which includes soil.”
Ryan Fretz, president of Friends of Governor Dick, asked Rose about harvest activities over the next five years. The Friends of Governor Dick organization has been critical of past harvesting efforts at the park.
“That’s going to be beyond my time, okay?” said Rose in response to Fretz’s question. ”I won’t be here when somebody makes the decision and goes with that. What I’m trying to do, my job right now, for the next five years, is to put natural regeneration on the forest floor, protect it from deer, and make sure that it grows. What we’re looking for is advanced regeneration of two to three feet tall.”
Fretz told LebTown after the meeting that his organization could be supportive of this plan because it does not include any plans to harvest trees.
Read More: Environmental group airs concerns about Gov. Dick Park to county commissioners
Rose explained during the same call with LebTown that this 10-year Conservation Activity Plan (CAP 106) was already approved by the park board, NRCS and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry in 2016. That means no further action is required of the current board regarding the plan.
Concerning the vacant board seat, park manager Jedd Erdman provided LebTown a position description, which is being included with this article as a service for any individuals interested in serving on the board.
In his letter to the board, Diehl cited the meetings being held at night and safety concerns about driving to and from the meetings under those conditions.
Erdman wrote to LebTown via email that park management is “accepting applications for a seat on the Governor Dick Park Board. The current vacancy will be approx 1.5 year term (filling the vacancy created by Harrison Diehl, Jr. ‘s resignation).”
Erdman said interested candidates should submit a letter of interest to include park usage history and what individuals believe they can “bring to the table to enhance the park.” A letter of interest must include a resume and be submitted by the Nov. 15 deadline.
Erdman further states that this is a volunteer position, with 11 meetings plus a few additional events throughout the year. Any questions about the vacancy should be directed to Erdman at 717-964-3808.
The Clarence Schock Memorial Park at Governor Dick board meets at 7:15 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month except in December at the park’s environmental center at 3283 Pinch Road, Mount Gretna.
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