Opponents of Chester County campground feel confident but cautious after packed meeting

The applause is muted in the video, but a Chester County commissioner’s opening remarks about a controversial plan to build a campground there set the tone for the standing-room-only meeting.

“I cannot, in good conscience, support the construction of new campgrounds in Big Elk Creek State Park,” Commissioner Eric Roe told the crowd at a charter school in West Grove earlier this month.

Hundreds attended the Jan. 10 joint town hall meeting between Franklin and Elk townships to discuss the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources plans for Big Elk Creek State Park. Many attendees spilled out into hallways, and others watched at home via livestream for over three hours. The 1,700-acre parcel that is Big Elk Creek State Park was unveiled by the state in September 2022; DCNR presented preliminary plans for a campground during a Nov. 6 meeting at Lincoln University.

“They hid this from everyone,” Franklin Township resident Anteia Consorto, co-founder of Save Big Elk Creek, said in December.

Consorto said the opposition group is concerned about the impact camping and its accompanied infrastructure would have on the watershed, local wildlife, and local roads.

The group, she said, was feeling confident but cautious after the Jan. 10 meeting.

“They have taken camping off the table for now, but it’s the ‘for now’ aspect of it that bothers us,” Consorto said recently. “Will it be revisited down the road? We hope they would take it off the table forever.”

DCNR spokesperson Wesley Robinson, in a statement to The Inquirer, said the agency is not “considering camping as a recreational feature of the park at this time.” DCNR is creating an advisory task force for Big Elk Creek State Park, he said, that will include local elected officials, township officials, and residents.

“Our efforts at Big Elk Creek are focused on ecological restoration at the park and the best ways to convey the rich cultural and natural history the park holds. We are listening to the community and its environmental concerns. Our top goal is to get this right,” Robinson said in a statement.

While most of the crowd was against the campground, Ellie Kerns, a Chester County resident and field organizer with the nonprofit PennEnvironment, read a statement in support.

“I’m excited that other Pennsylvanians and visitors will be able to enjoy these beautiful natural and wonderful open spaces through the addition of Big Elk Creek State Park to Pennsylvania’s network of public lands and state park system,” Kerns told the audience.

SaveBigElkCreek.org has called for a “balanced approach” at the state park, including ADA-accessible bathrooms and trails, along with “youth group primitive camping to members of recognized organizations accompanied by responsible adults.”

Consorto said her group is trying to lobby Gov. Josh Shapiro to turn Big Elk back to a nature preserve.

Approximately 37.9 million people visited state parks last year, and DCNR said overnight reservations were higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic. The bulk of the campgrounds are in north and south-central Pennsylvania. That’s one reason the Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania chapter supports the campground plan.

“The Sierra Club is in favor of reducing barriers to access and creating safe and welcoming spaces for all to recreate in the great outdoors,” deputy director Sarah Corcoran told tThe Inquirer in the statement.

Anyone interested in commenting on the project can email DCNR at BigElkCreekSP@pa.gov.