People helping together to support the Struble Trail and its environment
What Makes This Property Important
THE ENTIRE SHRYOCK PROPERTY MUST BE PRESERVED AS PARKLAND
Reasons:
• Safety! With 535 acres of water behind the dam, it positively must be directly accessible for maintenance from each direction without development or barriers. At 43,560 cubic feet per acre foot, that is a lot of water upstream of Downingtown that must be properly stewarded. • Safety! Last summer, we had a storm where the 282/Hopewell/Corner Ketch/LittleWashington/ SpringtonManor entrances to the northwest communities of Upper Uwclan were trapped in felled trees and hot wires. Help would not be able to get to us: we ended up chainsawing our way out several hours after giving up on overburdened public services. We were accessible by ambulance before the fencing & felled trees via Dorlan Mill Rd and Reeds Rd. Now we rely entirely on 282 - almost dependably closed in emergencies! • Safety! Anyone who has medical trouble on the lake needs to be able to get help quickly. The ambulance route passing the formerly open Shryock property is an extra 8 to 9 miles – taking them well out of the 5-7 minute response window they strive for. (Sadly, this occurred October 4th, 2007 - ambulance response to an unconscious trail user .1 mile from the northern trailhead took 25 minutes because the fence and downed trees blocked EMTs from the most direct access to the trail. This could also happen to anyone in the state park near the blocked dam access.) • Water Quality and Safety! The intakes for Downingtown drinking water, as well as other regional water supplies, are downstream. Any development on this sloped property will impact Downingtown, from its drinking water to its legendary flooding. • Habitat Destruction! The Marsh Creek/ Struble Trail corridor is home to 70 nesting species of birds, with fifty more during migrations. Bisecting this acreage has already had the high price of destroying one of only three known Chester County nesting areas for the Cerrulean Warbler, a rare bird on Audubon’s “Watch List RED.” Our wildlife is depending on us to preserve these increasingly rare riparian habitats, and especially when they border a large protected area like Marsh Creek State Park. • Habitat Destruction! The East branch of the Brandywine Creek is extremely important to area fishermen. It is a delayed harvest stream, and part of receiving that honor was the Shryock Paper Mill allowance of open access to our fishing community. The fish depend on the water quality and temperature of the creek, and any development on the property would mean differential conditions that would impact the ecology of the creek. Allowing development means risking ecological changes in that sensitive area between the state and county park areas. • Recreation! Fish stocking for that stretch of Brandywine Creek was unable to happen this year because of blocked access! • Recreation! Chester County is fast losing natural settings to the press of development. The Shryock property, before the recent sale, had been used for recreational access for decades. With these ‘nature zones’ fast disappearing, the Shryock loss would be a serious blow to our quality of life. Obviously - over 1700 people care enough to support the petition. Connecting the Struble Trail to the Marsh Creek State Park trail system just makes sense. The Chester County Parks plan to have the Struble Trail continue northward. Without the Shryock property appended to the protected park system, we may fight this battle over and over again for decades.
NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT TO SAVE THE SHRYOCK PROPERTY – Permanently –