Shared with permission from Western Pennsylvania Conservancy

Robert and Rilla Stickle were private landowners in Forest County who embraced their own form of sustainable forestry: love your forestland and teach your family to love the forest, too.

The Stickles raised their children with an outdoor ethic to explore, appreciate and learn from nature. Robert, an architect by trade, was an avid outdoorsman and often invited family and friends to hunt, hike and gather on their 181 acres of woodlands. He often took his wife, Rilla, and their three children to the nearby Allegheny National Forest to experience nature. Rilla, a devoted birder and gardener, would sometimes journal about her outdoor experiences on the family land, which they always hoped would remain natural and forested for the next generation.

Now deceased, Robert and Rilla’s legacy will live on thanks to an anonymous philanthropic gift that honors their memory and appreciation of forest, trees and streams. The Conservancy is appreciative of this generous donation in memory of the Stickles that will support WPC’s watershed conservation work and riparian plantings in the ANF to benefit all future generations – human and aquatic.

For more information on all that happens in the Pennsylvania Great Outdoors, go to VisitPAGO.com