KANE — Ned Karger, certified forester for Kane Hardwood and member of the Roach-Bauer Steering Committee, was recognized for his years of service and commitment by new committee chair Cecile M. Stelter, district forester, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources at the Roach-Bauer Forestry Forum held Thursday night at the Kane Country Club.
With a packed room, Karger thanked all those in attendance for their years of “putting up with” him and making the forum what it was today. Karger has served as the committee’s chair for 14 years and has been on the committee since 1985 which is a year after the forum first began.
Karger explained how he first got involved in the forum, stating, “Paul Higley, my boss at Kane Hardwood, came to me one day and said, ‘You know there’s this new thing called the Ben Roach forum and they’re trying to expand their steering committee and they want some new people on the steering committee. How about you represent the company?'”
“I was like, ‘Wow he really thinks highly of me’ you know.” Karger went on. “I mean it’s either that or he figures this Ben Roach forum thing was going to go away pretty fast and he figured I couldn’t do any damage there if it was going to go off the deep end.”
The room filled with laughter as Karger finished, saying “I don’t think Paul or anybody had the vision that when we started that 33 years later we’d still be doing it.”
Voice cracking, Karger closed his thank you saying, “And you know, It’s just sort of become part of my life and my career. I’d like to thank you all for putting up with me for 14 years up here. I’m sure that the forum will go forward under Cecile’s leadership and the great steering committee that they have, so get involved and collaborate with people across boundaries and disciplines.”
Following Karger’s speech, John Papalia Jr., director, chamber operations and tourism, Warren County Chamber of Businesses and Industry, presented steps that the chamber has taken to increase tourism and draw into the local area.
Papalia outlined the Chamber’s steps with a focus on three goals that included improving the collaboration, communication and marketing of events happening in the county, designing and planning multi-day events that supplement and complement existing events and developing and supporting the development of additional tourism-related infrastructure and assets.
Papalia stressed the second goal of aligning multi-day events with existing ones stating, “Our goal is to not drive out the existing events we have, but to enhance the experience of those engaging in them.”
Elaborating on the first goal of improving communications, Papalia reviewed the importance of aligning the communication structure and creating an avenue where interested parties can focus their attention in a single access point versus jumping from location to location seeking information.
Moving more into the second goal of creating activities and complementing existing ones, Papalia discussed the approach of reviewing the available assets within Warren county to develop their plan of events focused on outdoor recreation. He also added that enhancing these large-scale and multi-day events could be accomplished by coupling them with smaller events focused more on relaxation, the arts, entertainment and social activities.
Papalia then provided a glimpse of the various activities that Warren county has to offer and added some figures to outline the economic impact of newly recently added trails. According to the table presented, annual trail visits from a low of 10,000 to a high of 40,000 could generate an economic impact of $1.05M to $4.20M respectively in a year.
The second presenter, Dr. Donald B. K. English, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Services Division, went into a more analytical review of national and state forests and how they are used for recreational purposes in comparison.
In English’s review, he first outlined the supports and obstacles in ascertaining the data needed to conduct a thorough analysis. Supporting conditions include whether a site is developed and managed, has high volume or the site has business amenities on location. These factors make measurement easier and more accurate.
English went into his analysis citing that since 2005 the number of wilderness, or non-developed area, visits had increased by about 1.5 million while visitations to developed, overnight sites had also increased 1 million. The troubling trend outlined was that although these are both increasing steadily by about 1 million visits per year collectively, the duration of visit has been steadily declining.
Diving deeper into his analysis, English then went into a comparative analysis of federal and state forests and specifically compared the Allegheny National forest. In his summary, English outlined the following similarities between the three focal points including an aging customer base with fewer children, the localization of customers visiting the forests, the decline in visit duration, the impact of frequently visiting groups of those greater than 50 years old and the fact that hiking and scenery were among the top reasons for visiting.
English outlined that the only difference in the comparison was that wildlife-related activities such as hunting and fishing are declining in many places but remain stable in Pennsylvania. With this in mind, English closed out his presentation, saying his analysis shows that environmental quality and aesthetics and perception of safety appear to matter to a large number of users, time appears to be at a premium in user’s lives reflective of the decreasing visit duration and that customers are more likely to visit in easy access areas over remote access.
After English’s presentation, the Roach-Bauer forum came to a close as Stelter announced that the next forum would be held on Oct. 5th at the Kane Country Club.
