Congress Approves $1.82 Million for White Rocks!! Still needs to be signed by the President.

Congress approves thousands of acres of added protection for the Appalachian Trail
Public agencies and private conservancies soon will be able to add thousands of acres of buffer lands around the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Tennessee, thanks to $9.8 million in appropriations approved by Congress late Thursday and sent to President Obama for signature before Sunday.

All of the projects funded as part of the fiscal 2010 appropriations bill for the Interior Department involve sensitive habitat for a variety of threatened plants and animals, key local watersheds and fisheries, and nonmotorized outdoor recreation benefitting local economies. The private Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), which coordinates management of the trail, led testimony before appropriations subcommittees in support of all the projects and is working on most with wide-ranging coalitions of local, state, and other national nonprofit organizations, with bipartisan support in Congress.

The funded projects include $1.82 million for about half the cost of National Park Service purchase of five tracts totaling about 1,000 acres around White Rocks area in south-central Pennsylvania. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, founded in 1925 by volunteers and federal officials who were working to build a continuous footpath on the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to Georgia, is focused solely on the protection, management, and promotion of the Appalachian Trail.