Glade Run Lake Conservancy to celebrate 10th anniversary
MIDDLESEX TWP — A decade of conservation work “flies when you're having a good time” said Siggy Pehel, president of the Glade Run Lake Conservancy, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary Aug. 29.
The event at the lake running from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. will include food trucks, a fishing competition, a car cruise from Rodfathers and more.
“We're going to be talking to people about what we've done in the past 10 years and what we're going to be doing, what our next goal is,” said board member and event coordinator Karlee Holmes.
Local conservation organizations such as Wildbird Recovery at Stormy Oaks Nature Conservancy and the Fish and Boat Commission will attend the event and host booths to teach visitors about the lake's ecosystem. The Middlesex Volunteer Fire Company will host a water safety demonstration.
Adults and young people age 12 and older will be able to participate in a catch-photo-release-style fishing derby, and will need the FishDonkey app on a smartphone to log their catches. The event is broken down in to two categories: shore fishing and watercraft fishing. Prizes will be awarded for the largest bass, largest stringer of five bluegill and a “grand slam” of the largest bass, bluegill and trout.
Freedom Farms will offer hay rides at the festival as well as host a Stick City Brewing station, where a commemorative pale ale decorated with photos of the lake will be unveiled for the first time.
“It's considered a PA-preferred beer, which is farm to consumer. All the ingredients were grown in Pa.,” said Holmes. “The first time anyone's ever tasted it will be at the event.”
The group will also dedicate a pavilion in honor of former board member Bonnie Chappel.
A legacy of conservation
The conservancy formed in August 2011 to support “the restoration, ongoing preservation and improvement of Glade Run Lake and its adjacent lands,” according to its mission statement. The group's early work upon founding was to help refill the lake after it was drained due to a structural problem with the dam that created the lake.
“Our group basically worked towards trying to get as many members and [as much] money as we could,” said Pehel, president. “Within two years, we got 2,000 members and close to $300,000, and that caught the eyes of state senators and, eventually, the governor.”
The conservancy worked with state representatives to secure funding, and eventually was able to reopen the lake in 2017.Pehel said the group hopes to involve and celebrate community members who have contributed to preserving the lake with the anniversary event.“We're pretty excited,” he said. “We want to have a nice community celebration and thank some of the businesses and people who have helped us over the years.””We're still here”Part of the purpose of celebrating the conservancy's anniversary, Pehel said, is to honor what the group has accomplished so far with getting the lake refilled, a new spillway built and the dam redone. But it also serves a second purpose: reminding the community that there is still work to be done.“The purpose is also to let people know we haven't sat on our laurels,” he said. “Our project right now is the watershed preservation and protection project, to preserve and protect those streams feeding in (to the lake).”Community members are still taking on projects at Glade Run: More than two dozen Eagle Scout projects are scattered across the lake grounds, and include benches, bat boxes, fish habitats, wood duck boxes and wooden bridges. The conservancy is also currently working with local landowners who may want to help protect the lake to create conservation easements on their land.“It's to get the community involved, tell them where we have been, what we've done and what our future looks like,” said board member Susan Salter. “We're really trying to get easements around the watershed, and on this 10th anniversary, it's a good thing for us to celebrate because originally people didn't even think we would get the lake filled. Well, now we got the lake filled, we need to save it.”“Not everybody has the same type of mentality that they want to develop their property and sell it to developers,” Pehel added. “We're trying to come up with different ways that they can preserve their property, and protect the lake, but still own their property.”Pehel is looking forward to getting visitors to gather at the lake before the end of the summer.“[We're] really trying to get it done and under the gun before the end of the month,” he said. “With the delta variant and masking popping up again, hopefully outside will still be a good place to meet and greet and mingle.”
