By PATRICK BUCHNOWSKI
SHANKSVILLE — The Pennsylvania Game Commission and The Conservation Fund will buy 217 acres in Shade Township to add to state game land near the Flight 93 Memorial site.
The $130,000 purchase from Berwind Natural Resources Corp. brings the total to 575 acres that will remain undeveloped in State Game Land 93, which opened to the public in 2006.
“The state game lands directly across from the future entrance of the memorial will ensure that the entrance to the memorial will remain dignified and without inappropriate development,” said Joanne Hanley, superintendent of the National Park Service’s Flight 93 office in Somerset.
“We are very appreciative of the game commission,” she said.
“We work cooperatively.”
The game commission and The Conservation Fund established Game Land 93 with
100 acres bought from Berwind Natural Resources.
Game Land 93 will be open for hunting, fishing, trapping and other outdoor activities, said Barry Zaffuto, regional land management supervisor for the game commission.
“It will remain open for historical regional activities,” he said.
“You’re not going to get shops or restaurants or wind towers.”
The game commission expects to add one more parcel, Zaffuto said. It plans to buy
50 to 60 acres from the Families of Flight 93.
Game Land 93 was named in honor of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93.
Money for the most recent land purchase came partly from Iberdrola Renewables Inc. of Radnor, Chester County. Iberdrola, which owns the Casselman Wind Power Project near Garrett, is partly funding the purchase to protect the habitat of upland sandpipers, a threatened species.
The $58 million, 2,200-acre Flight 93 National Memorial is scheduled to open Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the crash.
