ATV riders damage land, torch hay at Earth Conservancy site

Elizabeth Skrapits

HANOVER TWP. - All-terrain vehicle riders shredded through newly planted grass, ripped down about 150 feet of fencing and torched a bale of hay that continued to smolder into Monday evening at an Earth Conservancy-owned former mine-waste dump.

"There are ATV tracks throughout the 10-acre area that have just torn up the grass," Earth Conservancy Director of Public Affairs and Development Jacqueline Dickman said. "It's very, very disappointing, after putting so much effort into the reclamation, then having it just beat up that way over the weekend."

The Silt Pond reclamation project involved cleaning up culm and mine waste at a former dump site on the Hanover Township-Nanticoke border, with a view to making it a public green space or possibly a park. A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields grant supplemented with Earth Conservancy funding financed the project, which Dickman said has cost more than $300,000 so far.

Earth Conservancy Executive Director Mike Dziak said the damage will cost thousands of dollars to fix. Parts of the site now need extensive work, he said.

The nonprofit organization was putting the final touches on restoring about 10 acres when the vandals hit. They cut the lock on the entrance gate off Middle Road, broke down large sections of the fence that was erected Thursday, and demolished an approximately 10-foot-by-10-foot cube of hay used for seeding grass. The tracks of the vandals' ATVs, which zigzag around the property, have killed the grass in spots.

"This used to be all open green space. Now it's like a superhighway for ATVs," Dickman said, surveying the damage.

She said police in Nanticoke and Newport Township were notified of the vandalism and are investigating. Earth Conservancy is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the destruction.

The Earth Conservancy, which has reclaimed hundreds of acres of mine-scarred land, has always had problems with ATV riders tearing up project areas - but not to the extent they did the Silt Pond site, Dickman believes.

"It's willful and it's bad. People should respect other's property, but this is above and beyond," Dziak said.

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Source: http://www.citizensvoice.com/news/1.220248

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