Original Post from PA Conservation Heritage Project
Sourced from: usda.gov/research
Written by Martha Moon
The Susquehanna River has been a part of Pennsylvania’s landscape for over 300 million years. Spanning over 400 miles, it originates at Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York, passes through Pennsylvania, and reaches its terminus at Havre de Grace, Maryland, at the Chesapeake Bay.
The river has served as a significant regional transportation route for thousands of years, most of which was used by indigenous peoples. Furthermore, its floodplains have attracted human settlement, culminating in towns and cities along the river’s shores. The Susquehanna River also played a crucial role in the Underground Railroad for freedom seekers in the 18th and 19th centuries. See “The Underground Railroad and the Susquehanna.”
For this article, we explore a more recent use of the river as a recreation hub.
The Susquehanna River Trail: Conception to Fruition
The 50-mile stretch of the Susquehanna River Trail’s middle section, from Sunbury to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is filled with an estimated 500 river islands, most of which are in public ownership, making the river ideal for recreation and overnight camping. Other river sections have islands, but not in as great an abundance.
Most people involved with the Middle Section of the Susquehanna River Trail (SRT), past or present, will recommend talking to Brook Lenker, the now long-standing President and a founding member of the Susquehanna River Trail Association (SRTA). Many outdoor water sport enthusiasts, affectionately referred to as “River Rats,” enjoyed the scenic and recreational value of the Susquehanna River while providing stewardship of this significant natural resource decades before anyone made organizing efforts. Brook Lenker is considered the electrifying force and the catalyst for the creation of the Susquehanna River Trail as the first officially designated water trail in Pennsylvania.
Brook grew up in South Central Pennsylvania and has always had an affinity for the outdoors. He was introduced to the Susquehanna River through inner tube floating trips down the river while working summers at Camp Reily in Fishing Creek Valley. Starting in the early 1990s, figures such as Pat Reilly, a well-known environmentalist and Susquehanna expert, mentored Brook, and his passion for protecting and preserving the river grew.
In the summer of 1993, an opportunity to attend an Audubon educator’s program at a Camp in Maine introduced Brook to the Maine Island Trail. This 375-mile water trail connects 220 sites and 233 shoreside resources along the entire Maine coast, and he realized the real possibility of a water trail on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Working for Dauphin County Parks and Recreation, Brook became involved with the 1994 and 1995 River sojourn coordinated by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, where Cindy Dunn, now Secretary of DCNR, was a staff member. These sojourns displayed the public’s interest in paddling the river and taking advantage of expedition opportunities.
In 1995, Brook and Cindy attended a national conference held by the North American Water Trails Association, founded by David Getchell, in Sandestin, Florida. It was an organic moment when, with Cindy’s nudging and encouragement, Brook marked a 25-mile swath on a map from Halifax to Harrisburg as the proposed Susquehanna River Trail. Even though they were years away from an official river trail, Brook’s drawing of that line was the start of something great: the coming of Pennsylvania’s first of many water trails.
Also in that timeframe, a series of think tank meetings occurred with key local players in river stewardship, including Doug Gibson and Mary Liskow of Blue Mountain Outfitters, environmental activist Cliff Dillman, Bruce and Betty Bishoff, members of the Canoe Club of Greater Harrisburg, and members of the Sierra Club’s Governor Pinchot Group. Tapping into Harrisburg’s significant environmental advocacy presence, people and groups came together. From 1996 to 1997, public planning became an integral component of the Susquehanna River Trail’s trajectory.
The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay hired Brook in 1996, where his job entailed overseeing watershed stewardship in Pennsylvania. Almost immediately, there was a push to secure funding for the water trail idea. Later that same year, DCNR rewarded the Alliance with a grant to support the effort to create an official water trail.
Brook began coordinating with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Bureau of Forestry, which owned most of the river islands. The Bureau had invested numerous staff hours spearheading the mapping of the river and islands. According to retired forester and current river island steward Joe Frassetta, mapping of the middle section of the Susquehanna River mainly occurred under Governor Robert Casey’s administration in the early 1990s, with involvement from the Game Commission, Fish & Boat Commission, Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, specifically the Bureaus of Forestry and Recreation and Conservation.
Tom Ford, recently retired as the Director of the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation at DCNR, was an employee at the PA Fish & Boat Commission in the mid-1990s. He remembers himself involved in the origins of the Susquehanna River Trail, though assuredly, it bubbled more from Brook Lenker and the river rats. Tom also had a hand in mapping the river islands on the Susquehanna, which began well before the concept of a water trail. Over fifteen to twenty years, state agencies collected mapping data. Then, Joe Frassetta and others consolidated the information into a database, which DCNR currently oversees.
There were questions from agencies like the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and other partners on the SRT planning committee about how to move forward with the plans.
Even the outfitter, Patagonia, participated in the planning committee, albeit indirectly, by providing a fellowship to a local outfitter, allowing employee Ben Nebroski to work full-time on the SRT project. He did a lot of work, including island scouting. Planning activities and other work on the Susquehanna River Trail was made possible through the cooperation of agencies and an expansive, devoted group of volunteers. Key players like Bruce and Betty Bishoff, Cliff Dillman, and Brook Lenker, inside and outside of his official capacities, continued providing their time and energy to the river trail project.
Interstate agencies such as the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and the Chesapeake Bay Commission were also involved. These two agencies introduced the SRT planning committee to Russ Fairchild, a state representative from the Lewisburg area. He wanted the SRT extended to Sunbury. Fairchild helped find additional funding through the Chesapeake Bay Commission to facilitate the addition.
The National Park Service, out of its Chesapeake Bay Program office in Annapolis, energized the SRT project with additional expertise and funding through a cooperative agreement. The Bay Program’s Public Access Workgroup, focused on getting people on rivers and bays, also seemed enamored by the idea of the Susquehanna River Trail. These partners and their work on the Susquehanna River Trail would inspire and streamline the creation of water trails on three other sections of the Susquehanna River, as well as in different parts of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and across the country.
According to Brook, several things happened more or less at the same time. Implementation started on the SRT. First, the PA Fish and Boat Commission and DCNR began thinking about creating and expanding a state-wide water trail program and created tenets for what constituted a water trail. This was partly because water trails were becoming recognized as a key component of Pennsylvania’s growing Greenways Plan. In addition, the National Park Service (NPS) also became excited about the idea of regional water trails. This excitement further percolated into the NPS thinking, and they convinced lawmakers to create the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Water Trails Network.
Amid all the progress, in 1997, the SRT received a DuPont American Greenway Award of $10,000, supplying additional funding. When filling out the application, committee members stated that the proposed water trail was not as much a greenway but a “Blueway.” The SRT was the only water trail to receive the award. The ceremony to accept the award, held at the National Geographic building in Washington, D.C., left Brook Lenker in awe.
Finally, in 1998, after years of dreaming, coordinating, planning, meeting, writing, and laboring, a ceremony took place on City Island in Harrisburg, where long-time Mayor Stephen Reed cut the ribbon to “open” the Susquehanna River Trail. At this point in the trail’s evolution, there were ten island campsites between Halifax and Harrisburg, a first-edition water trail guide, and designated access point signage at strategic locations on the river.
Around 2000, the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission helped formalize the organization of an entity with bylaws to manage the Susquehanna River Trail. First called the Central Susquehanna River Trail Association and later renamed the Susquehanna River Trail Association (SRTA), that organization has acted as the preeminent steward for the middle section of the Susquehanna River Trail since then.
By 2003, SRTA released a new map and guide covering an expanded water trail between Sunbury and Harrisburg, with added island campsites. Brook Lenker and SRTA collaborated with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council on a signage project for different access points in the middle section and throughout the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
Island Mapping
Understanding the complexity of river island ownership on the Susquehanna River requires going back to the nineteenth century, when warrants, patents, and deeds were given or exchanged to own the islands. Any islands not warranted and patented by the late 1800s reverted to state ownership. Before the mapping effort in the 1990s and early 2000s, the river islands and structures built on them experienced little use. In Pennsylvania, there is no adverse possession against state land, meaning private residents couldn’t take legal ownership after a specific period of property use, unlike the case with private property.
Throughout the mid-to-late 2000s, the arduous task of determining and verifying claims of island ownership and continuing GPS mapping took place. Joe Frassetta and others facilitated posting Bureau of Forestry signs on certain islands. The Bureau of Forestry initially did not own boats, and DEP loaned them a boat to work on the river and the islands. Though the Game Commission owns some islands and access points on the Susquehanna River, the Bureau of Forestry has taken the lead, given the outdoor recreation aspects of island camping on the river.
Recognition and New Partnerships
The Susquehanna River Trail and SRTA have garnered feature stories in local, regional, and national publications, including National Geographic’s “Exploring the Great Rivers of North America”. Events – such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s “Expedition Susquehanna” event down the entire length of the Susquehanna, to the SRTA’s Pat Reilly Roaring Bull Race from the Mahantango Creek to Millersburg, PA – further amplified the water trail. The SRTA hosted an Island Hopper event for several years, featuring stations and activities that introduced families to the river trail and provided participants with positive experiences on the river. Beyond these activities, Brook Lenker says the SRTA has always focused on maintaining the river islands for camping and continues to facilitate close relationships with the Bureau of Forestry, including the Weiser State Forest District, to achieve this focus.
The river trail, which is over 50 miles long with 23 primitive campsites, requires maintenance and stewardship. Most of this is performed by river island stewards, volunteers who are passionate about the trail. Other allies include the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership and the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation, which helped with the most recent reprint of the SRT guide. The Shippensburg Center for Land Use & Sustainability was also involved in the most recent mapping of the Susquehanna River Trail. Annual spring floods require stewardship to clear dead trees and other debris on and around the islands. Most river islands are state forest land, so SRTA members collaborate with forestry personnel, who also help monitor the islands. Though primitive, many river island campsites have fire rings and picnic tables. SRTA provides logbooks so campers can document and share their experiences.
Bruce Bishoff, a founding and longtime SRTA member, was actively involved in its development and stewardship. He recalls river sojourns with 100 or more people from New York to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Local communities would help sponsor and feed sojourners. The sojourns reinforced his belief in the water trail. “If you use the river, you will love it; if you love it, you’ll want to take care of it,” says Bishoff.
The legacy of the Susquehanna River extends far beyond chronological events. There are now trails on all parts of the river, and Pennsylvania has 29 designated river trails across the state.
About PA Conservation Heritage Project
The Pennsylvania’s Conservation Heritage Project aims to build awareness of our commonwealth’s rich conservation heritage, to educate the next generation about the opportunities to make a difference, and to help citizens find inspiration in the accomplishments of past conservation leaders. Our hope is that our project resources will help you to LEARN, LEAD, and TAKE ACTION on your environmental stewardship journey!
Other Resources