Palmerton progress

Prairie Grasses Appear To Be Working On Blue Mountain Last year the Wildlife Information Center purchased approximately 756 acre parcel of land between the Appalachian Trail and the soon-to-be-constructed Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Trail along a portion of the Blue Mountain between Washington Township and the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Because approximately 400 acres of the land was denuded by historic zinc smelting operations in Palmerton, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered that Viacom, Inc., one of the parties responsible for the damage, pay for the mountain's revegetation. This past spring, Frank & West Environmental Engineers, Inc., an engineering firm hired by Viacom, seeded 54 test plots along a portion of the refuge's trails with equal amounts of warm season prairie grasses and varying amounts of fertilizer and soil amendment.

Maybe someday I won't be able to tell people where I live by saying they should watch for the bare section of mountain as they drive along the Turnpike.