Friends of the SLSB Activity Report
for Saturday 10 November 2012

In attendance: Henry Whitesel, Bob Gray, Lowell Hersh, Chris Hersh, and Richard Winner

Accomplishments:We started at 0900 and finished at 2 pm. We accessed The Rose Trail from Becky Murray's farm. and worked in the serpentine site labeled "g" on the top of the actual Goat Hill: Map. We cleared trees and green briar to create a serpentine savanna. Henry Whitesel was the sawyer; Bob Gray ran the brush whacker and cleared green briar around the base of the trees to be cut; Lowell Hersh, Chris Hersh, and Richard Winner served as "draggers" taking the fallen trees into the woods off the actual serpentine site. It was a great day for working outside in spite of a sprinkle of rain at the beginning of the day. We finished restoring this site in one day!!!

The above photo is of the 4 volunteers, excluding myself as I took the picture; you can see a vista in the background that we created, and enlarged later, to view the state forest looking east toward Red Pump Road about 1.5 miles from this site.

Two hikers passed while we were eating lunch. They were hiking The Rose Trail and were from Washington DC and another city whose name I've forgotten. This, and other hikers I have encountered on The Rose Trail, indicates that this part of the William Penn State Forest is being used more and more. I conclude that the hikers find the trails if we create them. Members of the Friends organization assisted in creating The Rose Trail.

I give a special thanks to several people involved with this workday:

Lowell Hersh, Chris Hersh, and Richard Winner of the Goat Hill Hunt & Fish Club joined us and moved a lot of wood off site; I thank them for giving their personal time and energy in helping us create a great looking serpentine barrens site.

Over the past few years, Becky Murray has allowed us to park at her farm and cross her property to access The Rose Trail, saving us at least 2 miles of hiking into and out of the work site.

Reporter: Henry Whitesel