Dear Editor: A 10-mile stretch of Pennsylvania State Route 534 in the western Poconos was originally named “Scenic Drive” in reference to the visual appeal of its mountainous terrain, hilltop views, bountiful trout streams, and historic remnants of an agricultural past that once bordered both sides of the highway.

With the exception of the Jonas Mountain Preserve and a number of working farms south of Jonas Road, this scenic corridor is fast becoming a free-for-all of deforestation and urbanization as development continues to expand — in some cases right up to the edge of the highway — replacing native Pocono habitats like scrub oak, pitch pine, silver birch, and highbush blueberry, with suburban lawns, asphalt paving, and exotic vegetation that is crowding out native plant and animal communities unique to the region.

In 2023, a gated community adjacent to the highway cleared an entire grove of mature healthy oak trees along Scenic Drive, replacing this valuable resource with five acres of blacktop for a parking lot that is empty most of the time.

A few miles further down the road, where Scenic Drive merges alongside Dotters Creek in Polk Township, new construction has occurred along the stream, with vehicles and machinery parked on the property with little or no regard for stream buffers, floodplain management, or the protection of aquatic life in a high-quality fishing stream.

Oddly enough, some intersections along Highway 534 still bear the name “Scenic Drive,” although this is something of a misnomer these days, given that unbridled “growth” continues to spoil the scenery on Scenic Drive.

Juliet Perrin

Albrightsville