Pennsylvania Parks And Forests Foundation

Programs: Promoting and supporting the natural and cultural resources of pennsylvania's state parks and forests through leadership in recreation, education, conservation and volunteerism. In 2017, ppff expanded the number of friends groups to include two new groups, with two more in the works. We hosted two friends group retreats to build group capacity and attract additional volunteers. We continue to build the resources section of our website and are working to friends utilizing tools available to build their networks. We hosted three stewardship days in summer/fall, with 37 students, of diverse backgrounds and ethnicity, coming out to restore buzzards rocks in the michaux state forest on national public lands day. Over the course of 2017, we tabled and spoke at 24 events, reaching over 5200 people. In conjunction with our friends groups, we hosted more than 204 services projects and 173 events we provide technical assistance to parks and forests, and are 85% complete with the shelter restoration on the laurel highland hiking trail. We acquired a fleet of kayaks to enable recreation programming at the bendigo park complex and ski equipment for recreation programming at susquehannock state forest. We installed an ada kayak at beltzville state park and are working to put one in at nockamixon. Our back to basics videos were popular over the summer, along with a video to promote volunteerism in parks and forests. We also did a short series on positions in parks and forests. . . Helping people to understand the roles it takes to manage and operate a park or forest. Our informational materials continue to expand, with three infographics designed to educate about tick awareness (also translated to spanish), impacts of single use plastic, and the economic impact of outdoor recreation. These infographics are found in our well-read newsletter, each reaching about 100,000 readers. This, in addition to our online communication, is part of our outreach methods to engage visitors and volunteers in our parks and forests. We hosted three corporate volunteer events in 2017 and have started to schedule 2018 events.