On a trip to Westmoreland County’s Keystone State Park last week, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn continued her call for funds to tackle the infrastructure issues in Pennsylvania’s state park system.
With more than $1.4 billion required to finance infrastructure repair and upgrades, Dunn said using some of the pandemic recovery funds from the federal government might be a way to pay for the cost.
“The use of recovery funds is critical in addressing infrastructure needs of our state forests and state parks throughout Pennsylvania,” Dunn said.
In his budget plan for the fiscal year 2022-2023, Governor Tom Wolf has allocated $900,000 to “state parks infrastructure projects,” according to budget office records.
Wolf suggested an infusion of $450 million to conservation, recreation, and preservation programs, like The Growing Greener Initiative, with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
When he spoke before the Senate Appropriations Committee last month, Dunn called the proposed funds “a tremendous down payment,” noting that even if 100% of the money proposed is given to DCNR, it will still leave a hefty portion of the tab – and the projects – on the table.
Dunn said that the state parks of Pennsylvania recorded around 42.2 million visits in 2021 which is the second-highest total ever, and a more than 11.3% increase compared to the average of the three years leading up to the pandemic.
Despite the increasing number of visitors to the 121 state parks in Pennsylvania, the department says that the last significant investment in funds for outdoor recreation and conservation was 17 years ago with the Growing Greener II initiative.
This article originally appeared on Levittown Now.