Keystone Fund grants have supported over 3,700 community park projects, including ball fields, green spaces, playgrounds, pools, and recreation centers.
The Keystone Fund has helped to preserve more than 161,000 acres of open space for people and wildlife.
The Keystone Fund was created in 1993 with overwhelming support in the Pennsylvania legislature. In November 1993, 67% of Pennsylvanians voted to supplement the Keystone Fund’s permanent funding stream with $50 million in bond revenues.
The Keystone Fund helps communities help themselves. Each dollar in Keystone Fund grants typically leverages $3.13 in direct local investments in our parks, trails, community green spaces, and libraries.
Blue Mountain stretches from northern New Jersey down through 11 Pennsylvania counties to the Maryland state line. Rain and snow on the mountain drain into 1,597 sources of public drinking water and the mountain’s forests provide some of the best wildlife habitat in the state and are home to 160 miles of the Appalachian Trail. An alliance of sportsmen, conservation groups, businesses, landowners, and government and tourism agencies are working to conserve it, piece by piece. But most of it remains unprotected.
A Keystone grant to purchase 33 acres of Montandon Marsh began the work to preserve and protect what is a one of the few remaining diverse riparian wetlands ecosystems in central Pennsylvania. The work includes collaborating with a sand and gravel miner in the marsh to protect the marsh so future generations can enjoy it. Education, outreach, and protection the marsh are a vital part of the ongoing effort to preserve Montandon, which offers refuge for migrating waterfowl and critical habitat for wetlands birds.