South Mountain Partnership is spotlighting the region’s importance in the conservation movement with a film festival and panel discussion.
The South Mountain Partnership is collaborating with the Pennsylvania Conservation Heritage Project and WITF to kick off the 2015 Speaker Series with a film and panel discussion to spotlight the Pennsylvania conservation movement on March 10 at the Carlisle Theatre, 44 West High Street. The free event begins at 7 PM with the screening of two documentaries about Pennsylvania’s conservation leaders–Ralph Abele, a past director of the Fish and Boat Commission, who championed water quality and conservation, and Maurice Goddard, whose life work create 45 state parks and served six PA governors. The theme of conservation leadership continues in a panel discussion, which includes Cindy Adams Dunn, Acting Secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; Marci Mowery, president of the PA Parks and Forests Foundation; Pete Duncan, former secretary of the Department of Environmental Resources and colleague of Abele; and Paul Zeph, director of conservation for Audubon Pennsylvania.
“Pennsylvania has been called the ‘Cradle of Conservation’ for the role the state and many of its leading citizens played in creating a popular conservation movement in America,” said Jon Peterson, South Mountain Partnership Co-Lead. “We invite everyone to join us to learn more about our state’s conservation and environmental heritage, and then to share ideas to inspire our current and future leaders.”
The annual South Mountain Speakers Series is inspired by the talks given by Joseph Rothrock, Pennsylvania’s “Father of Forestry, who founded the Pennsylvania State Forestry Academy in Mont Alto PA. Rothrock aspired to encourage preservation and restoration of Pennsylvania’s forests and natural resources. The remaining presentations in the 2015 South Mountain Speaker Series are:
- March 26 – The Mills of Cumberland Valley: A Cultural and Bio-Physical Legacy, Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle
- September 25 – The Ethnomusicology of Snow Hill Cloister: Place in Hymns, Franklin County
- October 8 – Summer in South Mountain: The Craighead Family Legacy, Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle
- November 12 – Living on the Wind: Tracking Northern Saw-whet Owls Migrating Along South Mountain, Shippensburg University.
The South Mountain Partnership is a public-private partnership between DCNR and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and has grown into a coalition of citizens, businesses, non-profit organizations and government representatives in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York counties, working together to protect and enhance the South Mountain landscape. The Franklin County Visitors Bureau partners with South Mountain to make the public aware of the significance of South Mountain, both historically and in the present. More information on the South Mountain Partnership is available at: http://www.southmountainpartnership.org. More information about Franklin County is available at http://www.ExploreFranklinCountyPA.com and https://www.dodinestayfranklincountypa.com .