Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center

Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center, south of Reading, is a Pennsylvania state park that serves both as a public recreation area and a center for environmental education. It began as the private estate of Jacob Nolde, a German immigrant and hosiery manufacturer who started assembling depleted farmland and cutover woodland in Cumru Township in 1904. Inspired by a lone white pine, he created a managed conifer forest recalling Westphalia, planting nearly 500,000 trees by 1910 and hiring forester William Kohout to oversee its growth and fire protection. Acquired by the Commonwealth in the late 1960s, it became Pennsylvania’s first state-owned environmental education center in 1970.

Pennsylvania · United States