Excerpts: “Once infamous as Pennsylvania’s most polluted waterway, the 110-mile Clarion River has been cleaned up and designated the state’s 2019 River of the Year.”
“For us the Clarion is the western gateway to the Pennsylvania Wilds, an iconic river flowing through Clear Creek and Cook Forest state parks,” said Cindy Adams Dunn, DCNR secretary. “It has a remarkable story — the Clarion used to be too polluted for fishing and now the fishing is great, the water is clean. When I paddled it in July there were hemlock trees right down to the clean water and hundreds of people enjoying themselves, then you go around a curve and there’s no one. Solitude. You can have both experiences on the Clarion River.” Read the Article

MT. ALTON — The upcoming renovation of the terminal at the Bradford Regional Airport in Mt. Alton will make the building a “showcase” for the area. This is the opinion of Ryan Dach, the director of Southern Airways Express stations and the station manager at the Southern base at the local airport.  Read the Article

KANE — Three members of Gov. Tom Wolf’s cabinet were among the governmental officials who attended a progress reception Friday at the site of the Wilds Sonshine Factory, on U.S. Route 6 west of Kane. Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Dunn, Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin and Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, along with Kane Mayor Brandy Schimp and Wetmore Township Supervisor Chairman Steve Dyne visited the location, where construction has just begun. They met with Dave Conklin and Dan Shields, co-owners of Greendale Farms, and employees. Read the Article

U.S. Representative Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson today announced a federal grant that will help the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc. (PA Wilds Center) establish a business incubator/accelerator in McKean County that will serve businesses across the Pennsylvania Wilds region. USDA Rural Development has approved a grant of $98,000 for the business incubator/accelerator that will be located in Kane. Additional public and private-sector funding will bring the total project cost to $193,000. Read the Article

A vast swath of Penn’s Woods in Elk and McKean Counties will be conserved, thanks to a Virginia-based nonprofit. The Conservation Fund, in a news release, said the Clarion Junction Forest consists of 32,598 acres of “sustainable timberland” around the city of Johnsonburg, Elk County, in the “Pennsylvania Wilds,” just under 300 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It may be the largest conservation acquisition by a nonprofit in Pennsylvania history, a spokeswoman said. In a deal finalized Wednesday, the Conservation Fund said its purchase will bridge Pennsylvania Game Commission lands and the Allegheny National Forest, while also securing the confluence of the East and West Branches of the Clarion River. Read the Article