Allen Kerkeslager reports…
The North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission, has drafted plans for integrating Potter County into a state-wide program for developing greenways in all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. Included in their ranking is about 40 miles of rail-trails to connect the famous Pine Creek Trail to trail systems along the Genesee River south to the NY/PA state line. This will bring a fresh infusion of PA state, regional, and local resources to the completion of the Rochester-Williamsport Greenway.
Most notably, regional planning commission officials have identified the number one priority for trail development in Potter County as the completion a new westward extension of the famous Pine Creek Trail to the sources of Pine Creek (west of Galeton, PA). At its western terminus, this new Pine Creek Trail extension will connect with another new rail-trail (“the North Border Trail”) that will extend southward from the NY/PA border near Genesee, PA, to the source of the east branch of the Genesee River between Ulysses and Gold, PA.
These two trails will connect near a special site marking the triple divide that embraces the sources of the Genesee River, the Allegheny River, and the Susquehanna River (West Branch and Pine Creek). Together these two trails will link the current trailhead of the Pine Creek Trail at Ansonia, PA, with a rail-trail in NY that follows the Genesee River south from Wellsville, NY, to the NY/PA state line (the WAG Trail, which was recently acquired by NYSDEC).
The North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission will hold a public meeting to collect final comments on its draft of the trail systems in Potter County, PA, in the Gunsberger Building in Coudersport, PA, at 1:00 pm on April 15.
For additional details about developments in the Rochester-Williamsport greenway on the PA side and updates on the Genesee River Wilds Project (www.geneseeriverwilds.org), contact Allen Kerkeslager, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, at akerkesl@sju.edu or (610) 660-1121.
