Reading giving parkland to Berks Nature

Reading will give 12 acres close to Angelica Creek Park to Berks Nature.

City Council lately licensed the switch of the undeveloped parcel to the nonprofit, previously referred to as the Berks County Conservancy.

The roughly triangular parcel is south of Route 724 on the intersection of New Holland and Mountain View roads in Cumru Township.

Council’s resolution was handed unanimously at a gathering this month after a presentation by Lawrence E. Lloyd, senior ecologist for Berks Nature.

Lloyd stated the land is a part of the Angelica Creek watershed.

Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz stated the land switch is sensible since Berks Nature already manages the watershed and the wetlands in city-owned Angelica Creek Park, the place the nonprofit has its environmental schooling heart and headquarters, The Nature Place.

“This was a very strategic move since Berks Nature is in a position to really do more for environmental sustainability and stewardship,” Frank Denbowski, Mayor Eddie Moran’s chief of workers and interim metropolis supervisor, stated, calling the transfer a win-win.

Denbowski stated the switch will alleviate the town of the accountability of sustaining the parcel.

“A few years ago, we had illegal dumping there we had to clean,” he stated. “There were dozens of tires. So we want to reduce our holdings outside the city. That’s really key.”

Plans are to preserve the parcel in an undeveloped state that may profit the watershed setting, Tami J. Shimp, vice chairman of growth and neighborhood relations for the nonprofit, stated in a voicemail message.

Shimp supplied no additional data, noting representatives of Berks Nature can be blissful to talk about particulars later.

“We typically love to talk about our land projects,” she stated, “but not until they’re complete.”

Lloyd stated Berks Nature will cowl the price of any charges concerned within the land switch.

At the identical assembly, council additionally voted to settle for a 0.18-acre parcel at 2049 Hessian Blvd.

The land subsequent to Mineral Spring Park is being donated to the town by retired Berks County Judge Arthur E. Grim and his spouse, Louise C. Grim.

Berks Nature approached the mayor and council with a proposal for what Lloyd termed a land swap after the Grims first provided the lot to the nonprofit.

The metropolis has a superb partnership with Berks Nature, Goodman-Hinnershitz stated.

The conservancy has been preserving land, defending water, managing trails, offering academic packages and extra since 1974.

It manages 4 woodland preserves and trails, together with the Angelica Creek Trail, Bob’s Woods at Earl Poole Sanctuary, Neversink Mountain Preserve and the Gravity Trail.

The latter connects the Neversink Mountain Preserve to the county-owned Antietam Lake Park, touring by way of the town’s Pendora, Mineral Spring and Egelman parks.

“It is in our best interest to have as much holdings there as possible,” Denbowski stated of the town’s woodland park system, which follows the course of Rose Valley Stream and contains the three contiguous parks.

Although the parcel shouldn’t be giant, he stated, it’s vital due to its proximity to Mineral Spring Park and the city-owned Mount Penn Preserve.

“This is a natural fit,” Goodman-Hinnershitz stated of the land giveaway and acceptance.

The councilwoman stated she can not converse extra extremely of the work Berks Nature has achieved within the metropolis’s wooded areas.

“I think we should continue to dialog with them as we have so much woodland, and we need support as far as how to preserve and maintain it,” she stated.