It’s been a month or so since Chad Schwartz and Brian Birchak took over as co-directors of the Lehigh Gap Nature Center.

Located just off Route 873 and down Paint Mill Road in Slatington, the organization’s expanse sprawls more than 700 acres, encompassing a once-desolate mountain decimated by decades of pollution at the hands of the New Jersey Zinc Company.

That same area, in 1983, was deemed a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site.

Now, Lehigh Gap’s main center - its Osprey House - sits nestled between two tree-covered peaks and is where Schwartz and Birchak have made a new home for themselves.

Before they became co-directors, Schwartz and Birchak headed many of the center’s educational programs, reaching thousands of students each year.

“There’s a split now in where our attention needs to be spent,” Birchak said. “We’re kind of realizing that, in order to grow, we can no longer do education full time.”

Schwartz and Birchak both started at the nature center as volunteers. Schwartz volunteered when he was a Whitehall High School student and continued through college. He was officially hired three years ago. Birchak, who grew up in Palmerton, was hired as a program specialist at the center a little over two years ago.

“We both had this place in our hearts,” Schwartz said. “So, by the time we were hired, we’d already known quite a bit about it.”

The Lehigh Gap Nature Center was led by former high school biology teacher Dan Kunkle, who orchestrated the land’s purchase and eventual revegetation. Kunkle retired from the position of director in December 2019.

He said the center’s creation required a dedicated team of people and he looks forward to spending his newfound free time traveling.

“It’s time for me to start enjoying what I’ve tried to protect all my life,” Kunkle said.

But while he no longer acts as the director of Lehigh Gap, Kunkle has retained the title “director emeritus.”

He has spent the past few years training his two replacements, upping the ante in January of last year by promoting Schwartz and Birchak to the positions of director of science and education and director of communications, respectively.

Despite their familiarity with the center and its operations, Schwartz and Birchak said working at the Lehigh Gap and running it are two very different things. The last month has allowed them to settle into their new positions, even if they still have a few things to learn.

“We’re getting there,” Birchak said. “We’re attacking this now, in 2020, realizing that we have a better handle on it.”

They’ve already started formulating future goals. They hope to expand the center’s programming without overloading its four paid employees and team of volunteers, increase their presence in Allentown and grow their membership base.

“Grants pay for a lot of stuff,” Birchak said. “But the foundation of that membership support is a huge part of it.”

At the forefront of Schwartz’ mind is keeping the history of Lehigh Gap Nature Center from becoming a distant memory to its guests. It may be a conservancy now, but just a few decades ago, the land encompassing Lehigh Gap was a wasteland - a bleak eyesore no one really knew how to remedy.

“We realize that a lot of people are forgetting our story here because they see a green mountain,” Schwartz said. “Kids who come here on field trips don’t even know what this place used to look like.”