The Stony Creek Valley lies just north of the Pennsylvania cities Harrisburg and Lebanon. The portion designated as a Pennsylvania Wild & Scenic River is an 18 mile long valley running roughly parallel to the Appalachian Trail. It is part of State Game Lands 211, a 44,000 acre wilderness.
Over the past few decades, there have been several real threats to Stony Creek Valley. In the 1970s, a power company was poised to create a pumped storage facility in the valley. This would have periodically flooded portions of the valley, which essentially would have gutted the valley and severely restricted its use. This galvanized strong opposition, and the Coalition to Save Stony Creek Valley was formed. After years of fighting this threat, the Coalition was successful in preventing this, and also fought to have Stony Creek designated as Pennsylvania’s first Wild and Scenic River.
The act was signed into law in 1979, and it was assumed the valley was protected forever. However, in 2004 another serious threat emerged. Fort Indiantown Gap attempted to either swap or lease up to 8,000 acres, which would have gutted the center of the valley. The dormant Coalition was re-energized, and after years of opposition, successfully prevented.
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