05/27/2026
What a great day to spend the morning and early afternoon at our Pine Run roadside and mountainside cleanup in Hanover Township off SR 309 on the PA DCNR Crystal Lake Tract of the Pinchot State Forest with nearly 40 volunteers and our partner, the Luzerne Conservation District.
We had a surprise visit from Congressman Rob Bresnahan Jr. and Chelsea who signed off on a big $1500 check from their Greenlight Fund to continue to support our cleanup efforts and tire 🛞 recycling ♻️ in between having been to a parade in Scranton in the morning and going back up to Moosic Mountain to throw out a first pitch tonight at a Railriders game. We appreciate the support and the funding that came through The Luzerne Foundation, another amazing partner and financial supporter of EPCAMR over the years on many programs and projects.
Shout out to the volunteers for doing the dirty work in cleaning up the entire mountainside and roadside that was littered for too many years based on the types of tires we found and the litter. Keystone Job Corps came once again with some young men and women who worked hard in the heat and amongst the cat briars. Verdantas was present. PA American Water was present. Our AmeriCorps VISTA Mark Jones was a big help in organizing the event along with Maria Gereda. Michael Hewitt hailed our Polaris ETX for us which was a huge help. Chris Orourke was a big help today as usual too! Keith George also brought the Conservation District’s Polaris too! We made quick work of the piles and tires along the pole line. JD Ashford Arts took some photos that he will share with us as well that he was taking in between lending a hand himself. Putting on another few hats, Bobby and JD Ashford are members of the Stanley Cooper Chapter Trout Unlimited and the No. 61 F & AM.
Thanks to Hanover Township Police Department, the Hanover Township Road Department who will pick up the trash on Monday, and The tire guys that already picked up the approximate 120 car tires of all sizes before 3:30 as planned. The neighbors across the street came over and volunteered as well and sure appreciated the work.
The Utility Company gave us access to the right of way and we partnered with PA DCNR to help recruit even more Conservation volunteers for them in case they wanted to help in other cleanups in other State Parks. I’m sure there will be more pictures to follow! If I had to guess how many bags of trash were picked up there were over 60 and a bunch of rugs and carpets as well as metal. If anyone is a scrapper and wants to take the one pile that is separated have at it. If you wanted to donate some back to EPCAMR, we’d gladly accept it.
Pine Run now is clean and pristine again. The trout are happy and so are the salamanders like the Slimy spotted salamander that was found today in one of the rugs. The hatches off the water were pleased too! Bobby Hughes and the EPCAMR Staff would like to thank everyone for showing up and making a huge difference. King’s pizza was great too and although we fell a little short on food, Bobby ended up taking a few of the guys out afterwards for pizza at Dino’s up at the Wyoming Valley Mall.
