Month: August 2022

A newly released map shows for the first time in detail the controversial proposal to create a national park around the Delaware River, from the Delaware Water Gap north nearly to the New York state border.

The plan to re-designate the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area as a full-fledged national park made a resurgence last year and has been met with resistance from residents, outdoors organizations and local governments who have said they need to know more about the proposal and its potential impacts. Any change in designation would require an act of Congress.

The map was provided to lehighvalleylive.com on Friday by the Alliance for the Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve, a committee of the Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania and New Jersey chapters and other interested groups. The proposed boundaries break what is now the 70,000-acre national recreation area into two main sections.

• MORE: See the map in full detail

The Delaware River National Park portion would cover 9,760 acres mostly along the riverbanks in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, starting a couple of miles north of the water gap and extending just south of Milford, Pennsylvania. There are two spurs totaling 1,330 acres to incorporate the Raymondskill and Dingmans creeks and waterfalls.

The outlying 56,000 acres would be the federal Lenape Preserve, where backers say hunting would still be allowed — addressing a major complaint from opponents.

The Delaware Water Gap itself, where I-80 and the Appalachian Trail wind through a pass cut by the river, would be split between the federal park and state lands, much as it is now.

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is within a couple of hours of New York City and Philadelphia. The federal parklands drew an estimated 4 million visitors in 2021, comparable to the Grand Canyon or…

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