‘It’s reflecting Lebanon County’: Volunteers clean graffitied Dinosaur Rock

Around 25 sets of hands, some Elephant Snot, and personal protective equipment kept this group of volunteers running early Saturday morning for the annual Dinosaur Rock cleaning.

The natural rock formation in South Londonderry Township in State Game Lands 145 is a popular destination for families and young people to climb, explore, and, for some vandals, cover the exposed rock with spray paint.

Dinosaur Rock dates back to the early Jurassic period when it formed as a molten injection that cut through the Triassic sedimentary rocks that were there at the time. Those rocks have eroded away, but they left behind the diabase formation, now standing about 15 feet off the forest floor.

Pat Krebs, volunteer coordinator for this year’s effort, said this is a landmark in Lebanon County and a topic of discussion — sometimes in a bad way.

“You can also go to some of the hiking club groups and discover people saying, ‘You don’t want to go there because of all the stuff that’s on it. We were there recently and it was horrible,’” she said. “It’s reflecting Lebanon County. It’s reflecting what we accept or don’t accept. My thinking is we don’t accept this behavior, and it needs to be cleaned up.”

She said the yearly effort started about four years ago when she discovered how badly tagged Dinosaur Rock was. There were multiple layers of paint on the rock surfaces. Years later, and now with the help of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the rocks are becoming less colorful each visit, she said.

Krebs said she has been trying to spread the word for a while now about the cleanup efforts. She hopes future cleans can happen during the school year to get students involved.

“It’s all about trying to find men and women and young people who’d be willing to do this work, and so you make flyers, you plead, you beg,” she said.

She said she’d also like to lean more into educating the young folks who tend to do the graffiti. The Game Commission has also ramped up its enforcement in recent years.

Between June 2023 and January 2024, it issued 17 citations and approximately $5,000 in fines. Justin Clark, wildlife habitat manager with the Game Commission’s southeast region, said they’ve deployed cameras in the area with the hopes of catching anyone tagging the historic rocks.

Read More: Community rallies to clean up and protect historic Dinosaur Rock from graffiti

The commission provided supplies and some extra helpers. One of the specialized materials was Elephant Snot, a graffiti removal agent that breaks down paint. It can start to burn if left on the skin, so the commission also provided volunteers with thick gloves, eye protection, and full personal protective equipment if they could handle the extra heat.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for our volunteers to accomplish the work that they want to do,” Clark said. “We just want to support the volunteer efforts as much as we can. Our biggest thing that we’re short on is manpower to be able to accomplish these types of projects, and so whenever we get a bunch of passionate folks out here wanting to help, the least we can do is give them the materials to succeed.”

He said the small staff and the commission’s many other responsibilities mean Dinosaur Rock can fall to the wayside. Even so, he agreed with Krebs that the yearly cleanings and enforcement have led to seeing less paint than in the previous visits.

“I think our efforts are making a difference,” he said. “It shows would-be graffiti artists that there is a presence here, and the previous citations are making a big difference. That makes its way around the community whenever people get cited for illegal activities, so it makes folks less likely to want to tag the rocks.”

Clark applauded the volunteers, who applied Elephant Snot and scrubbed at the paint until their sweat seeped through their PPE.

Individuals interested in volunteering for a future cleanup or supporting the effort in other ways should contact the Lebanon Valley Conservancy.