Two new PA Wilds Conservation Shops have opened this year in the Pennsylvania Wilds. Operated by the nonprofit PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship (PA Wilds Center), these mission-driven gift shops help improve market access for rural entrepreneurs by sourcing 90 percent of their inventory from rural makers and businesses in the 13-county PA Wilds region, while also accomplishing other mission points.
In Tioga County, the PA Wilds Center has transitioned from a mobile Conservation Shop that it has operated for the last few years at Leonard Harrison State Park, at the PA Grand Canyon, to a permanent brick-and-mortar store. In Forest County, another store has opened within an historic train depot in Marienville, along the nearly 74-mile Knox and Kane Rail Trail.
The two new PA Wilds Conservation Shops launched with separate soft openings this summer. The Forest County shop opened on June 7, the first day of the Bigfoot Festival in Marienville, an event that draws thousands of people to the area each year. The Tioga County shop opened on June 20, with a ribbon cutting with the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and other state agency partners. The flagship PA Wilds Conservation Shop, which opened in 2016, will continue to operate at Kinzua Bridge State Park, even as the Skywalk there undergoes maintenance off and on for the next three years starting later this year.
Although soft openings have been held and the two new shops are open to visitors, the PA Wilds Center plans to hold grand opening celebrations for each shop in fall 2024. More information will be released closer to the grand opening events.
Leonard Harrison State Park has undergone a multi-year renovation by the DCNR, which created an expanded parking area and an updated visitor center. The visitor center building houses the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, offering more space than the former mobile unit shop.
Jenks Township, which owns the train depot where the PA Wilds Conservation Shop is located in Forest County, has led a years-long effort to rehab the building as part of a local revitalization effort. The township began talking to the Center in 2020 about potentially operating a Conservation Shop at the location, given how the nonprofit stores are positioned to help advance local tourism development and revitalization efforts.
The PA Wilds Conservation Shop at Leonard Harrison State Park is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. throughout the summer and fall seasons. The shop closes for winter and early spring due to weather. The PA Wilds Conservation Shop in Marienville is currently open Wednesday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information can be found at ShopThePAwilds.com/PA-Wilds-Conservation-Shops.
PA Wilds Center COO Abbi Peters, who co-founded the Center’s commerce platform, says the Center invests thousands of dollars a year buying inventory and value-added products directly from local businesses for its gift shops. “It’s more than just a gift shop; it’s an investment in our rural communities and a way to support local artisans,” she said. “This creates important market access and work opportunities across our landscape.”
Peters says the shops also intentionally pass foot traffic to other area businesses, visitor bureaus, and attractions. “Our stores help augment visitor services, as well as build local and regional capacity by creating a PA Wilds staff presence in the counties where they are based,” Peters said. “Building new capacity is really important to do in a highly rural region like ours, where we are experiencing growing visitation while also trying to recover from decades of population decline.”
There are currently more than 40 vendors supplying products for the Conservation Shops, a vast majority of whom are located in the PA Wilds and participate in the free Wilds Cooperative of PA network. The Wilds Cooperative seeks to connect and promote local businesses and is the entry point for those looking to tap into and leverage PA Wilds branding, marketing and commerce opportunities. Rural artisans interested in learning more about how to get their products into the shops are encouraged to visit WildsCoPA.org/join and apply.
Each new PA Wilds Conservation Shop has created a full-time store manager and a store keyholder position, as well as part-time jobs.
Libby Bloomquist, the PA Wilds Center Sustainable Commerce Director, says the new hires live in the region and have a deep understanding of what it means to sell locally produced products. “We call our employees ‘community connectors’ because that’s truly what they are,” said Bloomquist. “They talk to customers about who made the products, how their purchase makes a difference in the local economy, and other places to visit while they’re traveling in the area.”
With the goal of helping integrate the shops into the Tioga County and Forest County communities, the PA Wilds Center has also contracted with a local nonprofit partner in each community to help the stores build key partnerships in the first year of operation and better understand local events and visitor trends.
Develop Tioga will help lead partnership efforts related to the PA Wilds Conservation Shop at Leonard Harrison State Park, and Four Seasons Trail Association will do so for the PA Wilds Conservation Shop at the train depot in Marienville.
These partners will help build and strengthen relationships within the local communities. This includes area schools, the local business community, event coordinators and trail groups, local artisans and makers interested in becoming vendors, and others.
The funding to stand up the two new PA Wilds Conservation Shops came from a three-year Area Development grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to support the next phase of expansion for the work being done to help rural small businesses leverage the region’s growing outdoor recreation economy.
The ARC funding will also help the Center create new licensing and professional development opportunities for rural entrepreneurs, support outreach efforts, and help underwrite key regional marketing projects to continue positioning the region as a premier outdoor recreation destination and create new economic opportunities. Read more about the PA Wilds Center’s plans for the ARC Area Development grant here.
ABOUT THE PA WILDS
The Pennsylvania Wilds is a 13-county region that includes the counties of Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Tioga, Warren, and northern Centre. The PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc., is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to integrate conservation and economic development in a way that inspires the communities of the Pennsylvania Wilds. The PA Wilds Center promotes the region and its 2+ million acres of public lands as a premier outdoor recreation destination as a way to diversify local economies, inspire stewardship, attract investment, retain population and improve quality of life. The PA Wilds Center’s core programs seek to help businesses leverage the PA Wilds brand and connect with new market opportunities, including: the Wilds Cooperative of PA, a network of more than 575 place-based businesses and organizations, and the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, a retail outlet primarily featuring products sourced from the WCO. For more information on the PA Wilds Center, visit www.PAWildsCenter.org. To learn more about the WCO, visit www.WildsCoPA.org. Explore the PA Wilds at www.PAWilds.com. Find regionally made products at www.ShopThePAWilds.com.