Plum Creek Mountain's Use Limited to Hunting, Only for RS Residents

Roaring Spring Borough Council has made a final decision on the use of Plum Creek Mountain. A decision, it says, is in the best interest of the borough and its taxpayers.

Council voted on, and approved, limiting use of the land to hunting only, and only for residents of Roaring Spring Borough, essentially getting back to the original intent of the land, according to Council President Rodney Green.

“The original ordinance that was passed more than 20 years ago started out with Roaring Spring residents only using the land,” said Green.

Green said the original intent got away from them over the years as more and more people from outside the borough started using the mountain for more than hunting.

“There were many exceptions being made over the years, many different situations where people were told they could go up there and that just mushroomed,” Green said. “It just got away from its original intent and turned into an all-access place and being used by anyone for any purpose.”

One of those purposes, according to Green, was the increase in all terrain vehicles being ridden on the mountain, causing damage, and opening the borough up for liability.

Green said the influx of ATVs on the mountain has been hard on the vegetation by ripping apart the ground and causing irreparable damage.

“People have taken their ATVs and even trucks on the mountain and go off established roads and trails and that has caused increased erosion up there,” he said.

While ATV riders have caused a lot of damage, it is just one of the factors that led the borough to its decision to limit access.

Green said there has been a problem with people drinking alcohol and building fires on the mountain, as well as taking firewood from the land.

Vandals have also been an issue, Green said. For more than 25 years the borough has logged and sold the timber from the mountain, a practice that has been lucrative enough to help the borough avoid tax increases over the years.

“The logging company’s equipment has been vandalized on many occasions,” Green said.

Another reason for the ordinance, and perhaps the one that has worried council the most, is the potential liability to the borough if someone were to get hurt while on the mountain.

“Our main concern was, like everything else in our society, standards change and the standard for liability has changed over the years,” Green said. “What at one time was not perceived as having any risk of letting people on your property, now our insurers are saying there is a risk and if you don’t take care of it you will have to pay for it through higher premiums. We were told we would be paying a significant increase in insurance if we left things the way they were. If we didn’t do anything we were looking at thousands of dollars in increased insurance premiums.”

Green said the risk of being liable is just too great to allow use of the mountain to continue as it was.

“In today’s world, anyone can sue you,” he said. “If you allow someone on your property and something happens, for you to think you can’t get sued, you are only kidding yourself. So, you either insure yourself properly or you try to limit access as much as you can.”

In choosing the latter, the borough will not only regain control of who can use the mountain and for what purpose, but it will also save borough taxpayers money.

“This change will benefit Roaring Spring residents,” Green said. “We have to invest our time and money into taking care of that property. The time it takes to put up signs and to check for damage, that costs taxpayers’ money and a lot of people who don’t live in the borough were benefiting from that.”

To illustrate how many non-borough residents have been using the land compared to borough residents, Green referenced a May council meeting that drew a large crowd asking council not to change access to the mountain.

“When council met in May to discuss Plum Creek Mountain, more than 50 people came to speak to council,” Green said. “Of those 50 people, we determined that only five of those signed up to speak actually lived in the borough.”

Roaring Spring Borough manager Lisa Peel said there are 2,500 residents in the borough, yet more than 4,000 permits to use the mountain were issued, numbers that show just how far things have strayed from its original intent of use.

“The borough is trying to get a handle on what has become a very chaotic situation,” Green said.

The new ordinance aims to regain control of the mountain for the borough while still benefiting its citizens. Now, instead of buying a permit to use the mountain, Roaring Spring residents will register their names with the borough office and be put on a list of authorized users. Registration to use the mountain for hunting must be renewed annually.

Enforcement of the new rules will be handled by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who will have a list of authorized users.

Green said gates will be put up and anyone not on the list who is found on the mountain will be first given a warning but repeat offenses will lead to trespassing charges and fines.

“We are trying to get it back to its original intent,” Green said. “I just think all these things, (the ATVs, vandalism, liability issues) led us to this. The only other solution would be to post No Trespassing signs and not allow anyone on the mountain.”