Roy Siefert was a longtime supporter of the forests of Pennsylvania. He died recently, and his death is a loss to the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy and to me personally. Roy was an advocate for forests and for managing them for their health and ecosystem services. He volunteered for NPC for years and was currently serving as a board member.
Roy grew up in Hartsville, Bucks County. He often talked about the changes he saw in his hometown over his lifetime. Many of the forests and fields he tromped through as a kid are now housing developments and roadways. He often used aerial photographs of the area around his boyhood home to demonstrate how landscapes can change over a lifetime.
Roy was proud of his two years at Penn State’s Mont Alto campus before finishing his B.S. in Forest Science at Penn State’s University Park campus in 1976.
The connections he made at both Penn State campuses were important to him. He remained engaged with current students and enjoyed reconnecting with classmates from his time at PSU.
A recent example of this reconnecting happened when NPC purchased the Anderson Hill properties in 2023. NPC worked on this project with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Roy was able to reconnect with Steve Bernardi, who was a year behind him at Mont Alto. At the time, Steve was the land manager for the Pennsylvania Game Commission (he’s now retired). The walk in the woods that day led to Steve and Roy continuing to communicate and spend time together nearly 50 years after last seeing each other.
One of the things that impressed me most about Roy was the number of friendships he maintained across so many different areas and eras of his life.
Before starting his career with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, he spent time working for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana and on forest inventory projects in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Once he returned to Pennsylvania and joined the Bureau of Forestry, he settled into northcentral Pennsylvania. His first position was as a Forest Maintenance Supervisor in the Susquehannock State Forest in 1980. After five years, he moved into a forester position working on silviculture and recreation projects. He also worked in Forest Fire Protection before moving to the Tioga State Forest and becoming the District Forester in 1999.
Roy spent the next 15 to 16 years overseeing the building of the Pine Creek Rail Trail’s northern and Marsh Creek sections and working through the state’s reviews and processes in the early years of Marcellus shale gas exploration, before retiring in 2015.
During his tenure as District Forester, NPC worked with him and a Wellsboro family to add 31 acres to the Tioga State Forest. Their property was along the Bee Tree Ski Trail and Painter Run. Roy was excited about how this property would improve the State Forest’s ability to manage the Bee Tree Ski Trail and add access to Painter Run.
After retirement, Roy joined the board of the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy. He was quick to help in any way he could. He was willing to direct traffic at events, sweep out picnic pavilions before a dinner, tromp along as we checked boundaries, update members on projects in their area, and serve as a sounding board.
Roy was often my first phone call when a new project came up. His experience with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry allowed him to understand a lot of what we were working through and dealing with. He was a calm, reassuring, experienced voice and left me feeling that the obstacles we were facing could be overcome.
One spring, several people died while paddling on Pine Creek. Roy was quick to help me figure out how to get funding and paddling safety signs created and installed at a couple of access points managed by the Bureau of Forestry.
Roy’s role with the Coal Creek project cannot be understated. He was involved with the Tioga River restoration for over 20 years. He knew so many of the players and made many introductions for me. When we got the survey back, Roy was ready and willing to walk the boundary with us. He was very patient as I repeatedly said, “Hey Roy, go stand by that rock so there’s some perspective and people can see how big it is.”
One of the last communications I had with Roy was related to a project we helped get rolling with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. An NPC member had reached out to Roy about a property with a for-sale sign and a large wetland along Route 6 and the Pine Creek Rail Trail. Roy passed the information along to me, along with background on the property and its habitat. I forwarded that to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and they took it from there.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Commissioners were taking action at their April meeting. Roy and I were both live-streaming the Saturday morning meeting to see what happened with the property.
As we watched, we were texting back and forth about the project. After the Commissioners voted to approve the purchase, Roy shared a story about how he and the then-Forest Rangers had to arrest the previous property owner who, along with his shotgun, was stopping work on the Pine Creek Rail Trail.
Roy’s email signature included a quote by Mira Lloyd Dock: “We need not only play-grounds and parks, but we need woods—great, wide, far-reaching woods.” Roy did everything he could to conserve and promote “great, wide, far-reaching woods.”
His perspective, voice, and knowledge will be deeply missed.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other groups Roy volunteered with. In addition to helping NPC, Roy also volunteered with the Society of American Foresters, the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, the Tioga County Concerned Citizens Committee, the Tioga Woodland Owners Association, and the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation.
Roy was involved, engaged, and always advocating for the forest resources of the state.
With gratitude for Roy’s friendship and service,
Renee’ Carey
Executive Director, Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy