Legacy of Success

The Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund helps communities help themselves -- a great deal for state government. Each dollar of Keystone Fund investment typically leverages three dollars or more in direct local investments in our parks, trails, community green spaces and libraries. The Keystone Fund creates real and lasting improvements that make Pennsylvania a better place to live and work. 

The Keystone Fund has supported:

• 444 trail projects for walking, bicycling and other recreation uses
• Conservation of approximately 130,000 acres of green space for county and municipal parks, greenways, wildlife habitat and other open space uses
• approximately 2000 community park development projects including ballfields, playgrounds, pools, picnic areas and recreation centers
• hundreds of State Park and Forest improvements including construction and rehabilitation of restrooms, parking lots, roads, bridges, visitors' centers, water fountains, sewage treatment and other facilities
• 570 historic preservation projects in 65 counties
• 212 library projects to build new facilities and renovate older buildings as well as improve accessibility and safety

The Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund has helped make Pennsylvania:

• First in the nation in trails and (and helped leverage $45 million in federal funding for trail, bicycle and pedestrian related projects).
• successfully administer and manage an 120-state park system totaling about 300,000 acres (the 3rd largest in the nation) which was awarded the top honor as the 2009 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management by the American  Academy for Park and Recreation Administration in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association.
• The first state to adopt Sustainable Sites (LEED for nonbuilt environments).
• Hold the honor of being independently certified as having a sustainably managed State Forest
• Rank 6th in the nation in receipt of federal Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars for outdoor recreation
• An attractive place for businesses to locate, businesses to grow and people to live!

The economic benefits springing from Keystone Fund investments are immense, including, for example:

• The Great Allegheny Passage trail generates over $40 million in annual direct spending and another $7.5 million in wages for communities along the trail. (Campos, 2009)
• Philadelphia community parks generate $40.3 million in expenditures from out-of-town visitors and $688 million in increased value for properties around the parks. (The Trust for Public Land, 2009)
• A 2011 DCNR report indicates that state parks serve as economic generators in the communities that surround them; according to the report, 2010 visitors to state parks spent $859M, an increase in spending from a 2008 study.

*Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources administered Keystone project figures may include other funding streams that fall under the Department's Community Conservation Partnerships Program.