Nolde Forest, a state park in Berks County, will be getting bigger for the first time in 50 years, thanks to a partnership between Natural Lands and Berks Nature, reports WFMZ.com.

The partners have purchased two parcels of land in Cumru Township and transferred ownership to the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks as additions to the 665-acre Nolde Forest.

“The two additions to the state park’s holdings are extraordinary. They represent the only expansion of the Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center since the park was created in 1966,” said Cindy Adams Dunn, the secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).

Both of the donated parcels, 55 acres on the western border and five acres on the park’s southern border, were once a development risk.

The land of Nolde Forest had been stripped of trees to make charcoal. Only a single white pine was left in 1904 when Jacob Nolde bought 500 acres to build a home. By the time he died 12 years later, more than a half-million conifers had been planted.

Read more about this forest expansion from WFMZ.com here.

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