To the editor:

Several dozen acres of mature healthy forest in Hickory Run State Park have been cleared for the construction of a 13,000-square-foot visitor center with “expanded environmental education facilities,” and “the latest in energy efficient heating, cooling and lighting.”

Hickory Run is the crown jewel of state parks in the Poconos. One of its main attractions is the relative absence of intrusive development to spoil the remote natural setting of the park. Most park visitors spend only a few minutes at the park office to pick up brochures and a trail map. What is the need for an elaborate new facility with geothermal hot water radiant floor heating, timbered lobby trusses made from reclaimed timber and siding, interpretive displays, indoor classrooms, museum exhibits, and water treatment equipment including water softeners, chlorine injection, pH control and iron removal?

These overblown “interpretive centers” are a growing trend in our state parks, using up land that should be protecting rare habitats in the park. With our forests shrinking daily with new home construction, expanding resorts, infrastructure and logging, the last thing we need is the deforestation of parkland for a huge “sustainable” building with a maze of access roads and a parking lot.

Park officials claim these facilities “help people to appreciate the natural world around them.” I disagree. Many park visitors still prefer to explore Pennsylvania’s magnificent state parks with nothing more than a brochure and a trail map, which is easier on the environment, and a lot more fun.

Juliet Perrin

Albrightsville