PA Could Be Getting Its First National Park

PENNSYLVANIA — To the wanderer or woodsman who finds themselves standing atop a forested bluff, with a roaring waterfall tumbling down a cliffside into an immense wilderness, it may be stunning to learn that this environment has not earned our country's most prestigious conservation measures.

The Delaware Water Gap, a mountainous region which straddles the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is riddled with hundreds of miles of trails, islands, waterfalls, caves, and more, is not actually a National Park. It's a National Recreation Area.

In fact, while there are National Historical Parks and other designations, nowhere in the entire state of Pennsylvania is there a National Park. Nor is there one in neighboring New Jersey or New York. The closest to Philadelphia is Shenandoah National Park, which is four hours south in Virginia.

That could soon change. The Sierra Club and other leading conservation advocates are hard at work to change the Water Gap's designation, and a change could be coming soon with a conservation-friendly administration helming the Department of the Interior.

While the Delaware Water Gap is currently overseen by the National Park Service, National Recreation Areas are not privy to quite the same level of protection. For one, more intensive land use and consumptive activities like hunting are allowed in a National Recreation Area. National Parks more aggressively enforce the protection of the natural environment from other uses. They also typically prohibit hunting, although the Sierra Club's proposal for the Delaware Water Gap is unusual in that it would still allow hunting at the same level as is currently permitted. It would create a preserve within the park and continue protections where they exist now.

“No one will lose what they are able to do now,” Donald Miles, Vice Chair of the Pennsylvania Sierra Club, told the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Most Recreation Areas are located adjacent to large public reservoirs, and the area's chief management objectives are to facilitate water-based recreation activities. That's opposed to National Parks, whose management objectives begin with natural and historical resource conservation.

Changing of the designation will require approval from U.S. Congress. To get the attention of lawmakers, the Sierra Club's chapters in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are working closely with local nonprofits, businesses, and groups like the Appalachian Mountain Club to drum up support.

In addition to towering waterfalls like Raymondskill, Pennsylvania's largest, and sweeping views of two states and much of the watershed, the Water Gap is also home to one of the most spectacular stretches of the Appalachian Trail, the 2,200 mile foot path from Georgia to Maine.