Naturalist's legacy preserved By Valerie Zehl DIMOCK, Pa. -- If it can be said that a spirit lingers in a place, it may be that Ben Stone still walks the trailing pathways of the Woodbourne Forest Preserve in this quiet corner of Susquehanna County. Last month friends and family dedicated a lookout tower in the preserve to Stone, who died in a kayaking accident seven years ago. It's not that he was alone in his passion for the almost-sacred preserve, where towering virgin hemlocks keep watch in a primeval forest. But Stone, who served as Woodbourne's resident naturalist for 14 years, can be counted among the most ardent of those who invested some part of their lives into Woodbourne's initial preservation 50 years ago and its subsequent nurturing under the protection of The Nature Conservancy. Now the lookout tower stands as another gift from the man to this place, tendered through the dedication of his friends and the work of their hands.
According to The Nature Conservancy's Web site at http://www.nature.org,Woodbourne Forest harbors a plethora of wildlife and plants such as painted trillium, wood sorrel and gold thread. Beavers, raccoons, minks, northern flying squirrels and other creatures -- including nine species of salamander -- make this preserve their home. Less than a mile away from the preserve stands the homestead he and wife Joyce built for themselves and their three daughters, a place where he crafted his wood-burning stoves and dulcimers. He began a Montrose folk-music society, led a grassroots environmental group and championed recycling and other local initiatives. Seven years after his death, Stone's marks remain throughout the county and his spirit may linger along the paths he loved in the Woodbourne Forest Preserve. "This place is mostly significant to me because of Ben," says Jerry Gere, who built the lookout tower from trees on his own land in South Montrose. "It's Ben's legacy that brought me back." Photo caption: Jerry Gere of South Montrose puts finishing touches on a Lookout Tower dedicated to his late friend, Ben Stone, at Woodbourne Forest Preserve in Dimock, Pa. Stone served as resident naturalist there for 14 years before his death resulting from a kayaking accident in 1999.
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Made
of naturally weather-resistant black locust and designed to blend
into its surroundings, the lookout perches on the edge of a vast
wetland that's part of the more than 600-acre site.