Penn Soil RC & D Council

Penn Soil Resource Conservation and Development Council (Penn Soil) has served as the financial agent for the Allegheny Outdoor Club (AOC) since December 2006. As the club’s previousWheelWatchersClub@email.wheeloffortune.com president for 10 years and special projects coordinator since, I have interacted with this agency on many outdoor projects in Warren and McKean counties in Northwestern Pennsylvania. Executive Director Wes Ramsey has been the principle person of contact in that span of time.
Projects AOC and Penn Soil have collaborated on, most times with other organizations, companies, other outdoor clubs and local, state and federal agencies, include the wildlife observation platform on the bank of the Allegheny River at the Kinzua Dam project and upgrades to its adjacent boat launch, the construction of bridges and shelters along the National Scenic North Country Trail in the Allegheny National Forest, upgrade of the popular Morrison Trail in cooperation with the USDA Allegheny National Forest, and popular wintertime festivals: Winterfest at Chapman State Park and Eagle Watch Day at Kinzua Dam.
Penn Soil’s assistance, with Mr. Ramsey leading the way, has included fund-raising through various grants, engineering support, drawing in partners to bring projects to completion, publicity, etc. This 501-C3 agency continues to serve eight counties in Northwestern Pennsylvania, driving the resources, conservation and development of projects for several organizations, including the AOC.      

As a volunteer with Titusville Renaissance, Inc., I am involved with one of our organization's primary programs - facilitating the Titusville Farmers Market. Penn Soil RC&D assisted our market grow by helping us obtain funds for new signage to promote our program. Thanks to their assistance, our market now boasts over 20 vendor members and our market season runs longer each year. Penn Soil's support has helped us support our local agriculture and our entire community benefits from this! Thanks!

My organization works with PennSoil on two different projects. The first entails our volunteer work on both public and private lands in the area. We serve as trail volunteers through our Club, the Tionesta Valley Snowmobile Club, Inc. PennSoil RC& D's 501c3 serves as the Non-Profit overseeing a tractor acquired though a grant from PA DCNR. For the first time in the nearly thirty-five year history of our Club we have a four wheel-drive tractor capable of maintaining the trails in our area; most of which we originally developed. PennSoil worked with our volunteers to write the grant and then acted on our behalf with DCNR to obtain the grant used to purchase the tractor. Better trail conditions means more people coming to our area to snowmobile, stay in our motels and hotels, eat in our restaurants, and visit our businesses. We have a saying that, "Snowmobilers mean business". It has meant a great deal to our volunteers to have PennSoil's assistance. Karen L. Atwood, Secretary/Treasurer, TVSC, Inc., Warren, PA.

PennSoil's Charitable 501c3 also also handles the donations given to Warren County Winterfest held annually in January each year at Chapman State Park. Several local organizations work together to put on what is called the "largest annual Winter event in the Pennsylvania Wilds", which is an area of twelve counties in northwest and north central Pennsylvania. Winterfest brings in over ten thousand visitors to the Park to participate in skiing, snowshoeing, skating, ice fishing, sled dog racing, and much more. The sponsors are much more willing to donate through a Non-Profit,, like PennSoil. PennSoil is also helping to make Winterfest sustainable into the future. TVSC, Inc. manages and runs the three days of Sled Dog racing that serves as the "anchor event". Karen L. Atwood, Secretary/Treasurer, Tionesta Valley Snowmobile Club, Inc. Warren, PA.

I have worked with Penn Soil RC & D Council for five years, having been referred to them by a former Warren County (PA) county commissioner. As a 501 (c) - 3 organization, Penn Soil RC & D has acted as a financial agent for the Allegheny Outdoor Club (AOC) in more than one instance. Initially it helped in procuring county funds for trail tools ($2,000), acting as a finanical agent, and secondly it assisted immeasurably in bringing to fruition an $85,000 bird-viewing platform and wildlife trail project in partnership with the U.S. Corps of Engineers and the AOC. Penn Soil RC & D is currently assisting these partners in an add-on $40,000 boat launch upgrade project.





I also have experience with this regional non-profit agency working on other projects such as Warren County's Winterfest and Eagle Watch.





The written output of Penn Soil RC & D has been thorough and professional in all ways. Communications have been effective.

I belong to a group of volunteers from Warren, PA. Our project, the Pennsylvania Kinzua Pathways, originated as part of the Leadership program in 2009. Upon completion of the program, we continued with our mission to enhance the attractions surrounding the Allegheny Reservoir by improving connectivity and perpetuating the rich history of the area. For more information on the project, go to www.pennsylvaniakinzuapathways.com

Penn Soil RC & D has served as PKP's fiscal agent since our first grant award in October 2009 and continues to effectively manage funds for the project as we embark in a major capital campaign fund raiser to bring a state of the art mountain biking trail system to our area.

We are especially grateful to Wes Ramsey for his time and dedication and for all the wonderful advice and guidance he has provided the group with since day one. Without the support and backing of an organization such as Penn Soil, we would have never been able to accomplish what we have to date.

Penn Soil RC&D Council is acting as the fiscal agent for a project of which I am a volunteer participant. They have a wealth of information to share. Thus far, they have assisted us in obtaining a grant to start our website from a local foundation, worked with us in determining a course of action for a fundraising campaign and are again assisting us and another partner group on additional fund raising. Penn Soil RC&D Council has an acute understanding of the time constraints in working with volunteers who often have full time jobs and families. Our direct contact has been readily available to meet with us working from a very flexible schedule. Our contact has assisted us in planning events to bring attention and public interest to our completed phases and our proposed future endeavors. Penn Soil's broad network of contacts has proven useful when searching for grants and they have acted as facilitators bring like minded groups to the table. Our experience with Penn Soil RC&D Council has been nothing but positive and I would highly recommend their service to any group needing the advice of someone who has been there and done that.