Walking Purchase Park is the priority in 2026 for the Salisbury Township Environmental Advisory Council.

The EAC is being asked to make recommendations for Walking Purchase Park to the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners.

Two officials from Eastern Salisbury Fire Department attended the Dec. 17, 2025, EAC meeting in the Salisbury Township Municipal Building.

The 480-acre Walking Purchase Park, north of Lehigh Mountain and south of the Lehigh River, is administered by Salisbury Township, Allentown and Lehigh County. The park is also known as Lehigh Mountain Park.

Representatives of the three government entities have been meeting to discuss the possibility of Wildlands Conservancy taking over the administration of Walking Purchase Park.

“They are looking to make it [Walking Purchase Park] so that everybody has access dawn to dusk,” Michele Lopez, Salisbury Township assistant zoning officer and code-rental inspector, who chairs the EAC meetings, said.

“What the [township] commissioners are looking for is an EAC recommendation [concerning Walking Purchase Park],” Lopez said.

“This is going to be an ongoing discussion. It might take four meetings. It might take a year,” Lopez said.

The EAC, which meets every other month, next meets 7 p.m. Feb. 18, in the meeting room of the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

“I think the initial meeting is to look at all the options,” Salisbury Township Commissioner Heather Lipkin, board of commissioners’ liaison to the EAC, said at the Dec. 17, 2025, meeting.

“This is not the only meeting we are going to have about this,” Lipkin said.

“We would like to present a coherent plan to all our partners,” Lipkin said.

“We would have to present it to Allentown and Lehigh County, at minimum, plus, Wildlands Conservancy,” Lipkin said.

“They [Wildlands officials] want it [the road] to be paved,” Lopez said.

The unpaved road in the park makes it difficult to clear snow from its surface.

“They [Wildlands officials] want it to be a road that is plowable,” Lipkin said.

“Wildlands wants the road paved before it is turned over [to Wildlands],” Lopez said.

Discussion at the meeting also centered on a possible prescribed burn in Walking Purchase Park to reduce underbrush and the possibility of fires during drought conditions.

Eastern Salisbury Fire Department Fire Chief Ian Dodson and Eastern Salisbury Fire Department Assistant Chief Dennis Takacs Jr. attended the meeting.

“We’re responsible for emergency services [in Walking Purchase Park],” Dodson said.

Also discussed was logging of the park.

“Has anyone done a tree inventory?” EAC Chairperson Maria Rodale asked.

“For 2026, that is the goal, to gather as much information as possible,” Lopez said.

Wildlands Conservancy opened Black River Sanctuary, which is opposite Franko Farm Park in the township, in October 2024. The sanctuary has approximately three miles of trails and is 187 protected acres. According to the Wildlands website, there were 7,000 visitors for more than 12,000 visits through Sept. 30, 2025, at the sanctuary.

“Looking at what they [Wildlands Conservancy] did at Black River is a good example,” Rodale said.

For more information on the Black River Sanctuary, visit https://www.wildlandspa.org/blackriver1year/.