On Tuesday, Sherry Acevedo, Resource Conservation Specialist for the D&L, announced that the Lehigh Valley Greenways Initiative (LVGI) would award approximately one dozen state conservation mini-grants to local municipalities and organizations. The money comes from a $300,000 Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Community Conservation Partnerships Program grant, intended to promote recreation and conservation activities.

[Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham]

Acevedo chose the Slate Heritage Trail, which links to the D&L Trail in Slatington, as the site to make the announcement, in part because Washington Township will receive the largest grant: $40,000 to complete surfacing and other improvements to the 3.3-mile rail-trail. Also high on the list were the City of Easton, which will receive $35,000 for work in the Sullivan Park wetlands, and the City of Bethlehem, which will apply its $33,000 grant towards an urban forestry program.

[Northampton County Executive John Stoffa]

LVGI is also promoting smaller projects with a grant of $2,500 to Tatamy for improvements to the borough’s rail-trail and $7,500 to the Northampton County Conservation District to develop a Cooperative Weed Management Area Plan for the Martins Jacoby Watershed.

The D&L Trail Tenders received a $5,000 grant for their native plant restoration project on Sand Island, and the D&L received $32,000 to continue its conservation and preservation assistance programs.

Other grant recipients included:

-City of Bethlehem Wastewater Treatment Plant ($20,000) for work on the Saucon Creek
-City of Easton ($33,000) to support an urban forestry program
-Pennsylvania Environmental Council ($13,850) for training Environmental Advisory Councils in GIS and natural resource conservation
-South Whitehall Township ($9,750) to conduct a feasibility study for a linkage to the Jordan Greenway

This grant announcement, which included both the Lehigh and Northmapton County Executives and representatives from DCNR, was a large event that earned quite a bit of press coverage. WFMZ 69 News, PennLive, and a number of local newspapers reported on LVGI’s work to foster greenway conservation and recreation activities in the Lehigh Valley.

The installation of the “recycled” bridge was a great success. Aside from some minor grinding, workmen installed the 71-foot, 32-ton section of bridge with little difficulty. The event was documented by local newspapers, TV stations, and even a helicopter flying overhead. The bridge will allow access to the 16-mile Black Diamond Trail between White Haven and Mountain Top and connect one of the final missing links in the 165-mile D&L Trail. 

Check out the pictures below: 

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In 1904, Mansfield Merriman, a civil engineering professor at Lehigh University and respected expert on hydraulics, delivered a report to Jay S. Moyer of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. In December 1903, Moyer had commissioned Merriman to conduct a detailed survey of the Lehigh Canal system and determine the feasibility of generating power from the channeled water. This was not a novel idea. The Lehigh Canal was primarily built for the transportation of coal, but other large canal systems, such as the Augusta Canal, were constructed solely for their hydraulic power, with transportation a convenient and lucrative secondary benefit.

Working in an office full of documents relating to river flow, flood stages, lock heights, land ownership issues, and turbine schematics, Merriman pieced together an estimate of the latent power of the river and its canals, as well as a tally of the power generated from existing plants. In his Report on the Water Power Obtainable from the Lehigh Canal, Merriman offered several specific conclusions:
1) The amount of power generated by the plants existing in 1904 was approximately 2300 horse power.
2) Twenty-nine additional locations could provide sites for power plants. These new plants could generate 10200 horse power, 80 percent of the time (when the river was high enough.)
3) The amount of power “wasted” by the Lehigh’s nine dams was approximately 8000 horse power.
He also noted, possibly with an eye towards the railroad-dominated future, “that the accounts of power above stated as obtainable from the canal may be very materially increased if boat navigation should ever become discontinued, since higher velocities [of water]…may be permitted,” therefore providing more “fuel” for the hydraulic turbines.

[One of the D&L's interpretive signs describes the nineteenth-century hydroelectric power industry in Slatington.]

Forgotten during the years of coal and oil abundance and energy security, the idea of harnessing the water power of canals is experiencing a renaissance. Innovated hydraulic technologies, such as the Gorlov Helical Turbine, make small-scale, aesthetically-pleasing power generation a real possibility. Constructed to power a specific building or tied into the grid, these projects could help ease our reliance on fossil fuels and even contribute funds to trail and preservation projects.

[Mansfield's 1904 report to Moyer is available from the Special Collections of Lehigh University Library, Bethlehem, PA.]

A major trail construction project is reaching a milestone this morning in Luzerne County. The D&L is bridging a gap in the trail caused by an active rail line, located in a deep cut with sheer, rock sides. Instead of fabricating a new bridge, the D&L has recycled an old, iron bridge that will be installed on freshly poured platforms. Old paint and rust were sandblasted from the bridge, prior to recoating. This was a tedious process but one that will save materials and maintain the historic character of the area.

Trail Manager Scott Everett reported Monday that “the move of the bridge from Hunlock Creek to the bridge site went extremely well today.” The bridge traveled by flat-bed tractor trailer from the work site to the installation point off of Middleburg Road, Luzerne County. Members of the press will be on hand, as the bridge is installed.

This is an important step in the construction project, but more work is necessary before pedestrians can use the bridge. Check back for pictures of the installation and updates on when the bridge will open!

The famous Appalachian Trail intersects the D&L Trail at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, in northern Lehigh County. AT thru-hikers can use the D&L Trail to access stores and accommodations in Slatington and Walnutport to the south or Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, and other towns to the north. Day hikers can use the D&L to access the AT and the ridge of the mountains, for a different perspective on the Gap.

This is a historically important section of the Appalachian Trail. The 102-mile section between the Lehigh River and the Susquehanna River was completed by the Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club of Reading in 1931. During the late-1920s, the 35-mile section of trail between the Lehigh River and the Delaware River was completed by the Blue Mountain Club of Easton, under the direction of early-AT proponent and Lafayette College chemistry professor, Eugene Bingham. This section was called the Skyline Trail until its incorporation into the AT. Currently, the Philadelphia Trail Club maintains the Trail between Smith Gap and Lehigh Furnace Gap. More recently, the historically beloved section earned the scorn of comedic travel writer Bill Bryson, who lamented the defoliation caused by Palmerton’s zinc plant and described his run-in with one of the plant’s guards.

The connection between the D&L and the Appalachian Trails creates truly impressive hiking opportunities reaching across a third of the state. The work of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, and various hiking clubs (under the direction of the Keystone Trails Association) to preserve open spaces and historical sites along their respective trails has also ensured that the scenic and cultural beauty of this region will be preserved.