Julie Ferringer, center, hands a crawfish to Grace Godfrey as Jordan Coulter walks across a stream at McKeever Environmental Learning Center, Lake Township, during a 2014 nature day camp.
LAKE TOWNSHIP – Reopening McKeever Environmental Learning Center isn’t about blazing new trails, said state Sen. Michele Brooks.
“It’s about cleaning up the ones already there,’’ Brooks, R-50, Jamestown, said.
Four years after the center closed due to a lack of funds for its operation, the learning center in Lake Township is being reopened once again to serve as a regional teaching center about nature.
The state plans to reopen the center, sitting on roughly 200 acres in northeastern Mercer County just outside Sandy Lake.
State authorities will hold a meeting to hear public input for the reopening at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 28, at Emmanuel Christian Church, 4495 Greenville Sandy Lake Road, Stoneboro.
Control of the center’s buildings and land is being transferred to the state’s Bureau of Forestry in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The state Department of General Services has held the property since closing in 2018 due to state budget cuts.
The McKeever Environmental Education Center in early autumn.
From 1986 until the closing, Slippery Rock University administered McKeever on behalf of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. SRU ended the arrangement, citing financial constraints and that McKeever’s functions didn’t align with the university’s core mission.
To reopen the learning center, the first goal is getting the trails into usable condition, Brooks said, she hopes by June or July.
“It’s really overrun by tall grass and downed trees,’’ she said.
There’s a commitment by the state to create an accessible trail, she added.
The DCNR has not set a date for reopening the buildings, including an information center and an auditorium, Brooks said. McKeever’s educational programs are geared toward children in kindergarten through 12th grade and it’s unknown if the center will be ready for the start of the 2022-23 school year in August.
The state is covering costs to reopen and operate McKeever, with final figures still being worked out, Brooks said.
“We’re trying to put an outdoor public restroom there and maybe a pavilion so people can use it on weekends and evenings,’’ she said. The site will also serve as western satellite office for the state Bureau of Forestry.
Brooks credited Fran Bires, the center’s retired manager, for helping to reopen the center.
Youngsters try to identify a tree as part of National Trails Day at McKeever Environmental Learning Center in 2014.
“Fran was instrumental in McKeever for years and is excited to be involved once again,’’ Brooks said.
Mercer County Commissioner Scott Boyd, former DCNR secretary John Oliver and Penn-Northwest Development Corp. Executive Director Rod Wilt also assisted in working out the deal, she added.
McKeever will become part of Clear Creek State Forest, which oversees property in Jefferson, Clarion, Venango and Forest counties, in addition to Mercer County.
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