Organizations Focus on Making Pennsylvania Hiking Trails Accessible to All | Outdoor Sports, Hunting and DIY Crafts | lancasterfarming.com

Universally Accessible Lloyd Clark Trail at Clark Nature Preserve.

More than 60 million hikers use the nearly 200,000 miles of hiking trails in the United States annually on federal, state and local land as well as on private reserves.

Maintaining accessibility for everyone from young trail runners to seniors and those with mobility challenges is critical and often a shared responsibility.

In Pennsylvania — where the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reports 12,000 miles of hiking trails — building and maintaining them is done by state government and local communities as well as volunteers from hiking clubs and non-profits including the Keystone Trail Association headquartered in Mechanicsburg and the Lancaster Conservancy.

The association’s executive director, Brook Lenker, has been in this role for four years. Brandon Tennis, the conservancy’s senior vice president of stewardship, who coordinates trail construction and maintenance for the conservancy has worked there for 16 years, spending the last nine in his stewardship role.

Both groups are 501(c)(3) non-profits with professional staff and dedicated volunteers working together to preserve natural lands and affording access through trail building and trail maintenance. Their funding comes from grants, communities, and individual donors with some state support.

Volunteer crew working on Thunder Swamp Creek trail.

Outdoor activities, especially hiking, continue to grow in popularity over wide demographics from families with young children to seniors.

“Opportunities to hike include trails in communities, in state forest lands and universal access trails that are a focus of the Lancaster Conservancy,” said Lenker. “They accommodate wheelchairs, walkers and motorized equipment for hikers with mobility challenges.”

Keystone Trail Association runs more than a dozen three-day trail maintenance programs during the year for volunteers to work with two trail maintenance dedicated staff members.

“Our volunteers logged more than 2,500 hours in trail work last year on more than 100 miles of trails,” Lenker said. “And we hope to exceed that in 2025.”

One of association’s partners in maintaining public access to the outdoors is the Lancaster Conservancy. It has worked for years to save thousands of acres of natural environment in Central Pennsylvania, while increasing access through building and maintaining hiking trails.

Lancaster Conservancy Stewardship team finishing work on a box bridge in the Clark Nature Preserve.

The conservancy owns 50 nature preserves totaling more than 7,700 acres in Lancaster and York Counties with more than 60 miles of trails to maintain.

Three of the preserves have Universal Access (UA) trails and three more preserves have UA projects in different stages of planning and construction that will allow hikers with mobility challenges to enjoy the outdoors.

“UA trails are designed and built smoother and flatter than typical nature trails, and can be used by any hikers,” Tennis said. “They are very user-friendly to hikers with strollers, wheelchairs, walkers and motorized scooters.”

Founded in 1969, the conservancy has ongoing projects — from the Susquehanna Riverlands Conservation Landscape to the Pennsylvania Highlands — in its own nature preserve properties in Lancaster and York counties.

The conservancy also protects natural land through conservation easements in which landowners maintain property ownership but give up development rights so the land remains in its natural state.

Keystone Trail Association’s legacy since its founding in 1956 has been to provide, protect, preserve and promote recreational hiking trails and opportunities in Pennsylvania.

Trail work at Michaux State Park.

It also sells maps and guides to many of the state’s hiking trails and runs programs to support hiking year round. The conservancy’s mission remains to work to preserve natural lands and provide public access it.

The work of the conservancy and association is ongoing, Tennis and Lenker stressed.

“Protecting the natural environment doesn’t have an end date,” Tennis said. “And we are constantly making access improvements to the properties we own, as well as maintaining existing hiking trails and building new ones.”

For Lenker, supporting hiking groups and safe hiking for everyone in Pennsylvania includes more than maintenance. Keystone Trail Association does training in outdoor skills, leads outings for members and guests promoting hiking trails, and advocates for conservation issues.

Both the association and conservancy have raised concerns — along with farmers, communities and conservation groups — over the proposed Cuffs Run pumped storage hydroelectric power dam for the lower Susquehanna River and the resulting loss of both farmland and access to nature for the public.

Work on a Lancaster Conservancy UA Trail.

To learn more about the work of the Keystone Trail Association and the Lancaster Conservancy, visit their websites, kta-hike.org and lancasterconservancy.org.

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