Robin Hood Bridge, Before and After Wildlands Conservancy's Crassness

                                       photo by Tami Quigley


Last spring I conducted a well attended tour of the WPA structures in Lehigh Parkway for  Friends Of The Allentown Parks. We ended the tour at the last WPA structure built in Allentown, the Robin Hood Bridge. This fall I unsuccessfully tried to save the dam, which was built with the bridge as part of the beautiful setting. The Wildlands Conservancy had a grant to remove the dam, from which they also harvest administrative fees. In a crass act of destruction they removed the dam, and piled the broken dam rubble around the beautiful stone piers, destroying a classic view which Allentown had enjoyed for over 70 years. A naturalist told me the other day that the project even disappointed from his environmental point of view. The stream is no deeper, the silt didn't reduce, and a large portion of the former stream-bed is exposed. Although I recognize and support Friends Of The Parks as a most worthwhile organization, I must respectfully decline their invitation to conduct another tour this coming spring. It is apparent that this Mayor, City Council and even the new park director have no appreciation of the irreplaceable gifts that were bestowed upon our park system so many years ago.  

UPDATE: The post above is reprinted from December of 2013, when it was titled, I must Respectfully Decline. I did relent, and conducted a second tour of the park last summer. The new park director referred to above was only here long enough to approve two dam destructions by the Wildlands Conservancy. The second dam removal, the Trout Hatchery Dam, may well have caused the massive fish kill last year. We now have a third new park director within two years, and another chance for responsible park stewardship, which has been long lacking.