Cleanup of Bushy Run Battlefield tornado damage could take months, officials say

Standing at the head of one of Bushy Run Battlefield’s wooded trails on Monday, it’s hard to tell that a footpath through the trees ever existed.

Downed trees, branches, leaves and debris completely block the way, leaving clearings where there once was forest and thickets where paths were once passable.

Damage from the EF1 tornado that blew through the Penn Township battlefield with wind speeds of up to 110 mph last Wednesday may take months to repair, according to Bushy Run manager Matt Adams.

No one was hurt on the property, and no buildings were damaged, but many of the trees were pummeled, broken or knocked down by the wind. Tree removal teams started work at the property on Monday.

“The really rough preliminary estimate is they can have the bulk of their work done by the end of August,” he said. “Our reenactment is the first weekend in August, so it is a little up in the air right now. We’re sort of exploring all the options that we have and trying to see what alternatives we have: could we do it in a different part of the battlefield? Could we close off different parts of the battlefield?”

The state historical site is known for its reenactment of the 1763 clash between British soldiers and Native Americans during Pontiac’s War, typically held the first weekend in August.

No visitors allowed

In normal times, the museum and visitor center offers indoor historical exhibits and educational events, along with walking and go-cart tours of the 213-acre property.

It’s too early to know exactly how many trees were damaged by the storm, Adams said. Many of the oldest trees, for which Bushy Run was recently inducted into the Old-Growth Forest Network, are on the south side of the property, and many were sequestered in the valley away from the tornado’s path. Volunteers previously estimated that the oldest trees are between 170 and 210 years old.

Some areas of the property are not yet accessible, Adams said. A portion of the trails in on the property also now lack landmarks, making it more easy to get lost, he added.

“I haven’t even been able to get back there because the trails have been obliterated,” he said.

It won’t be safe to invite people back onto the property at least until tree service company Paul Bunyan of Dayton, Ohio, removes the downed trees and branches, and until the area is considered to be safe by the state. The Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission is paying for this first round of repairs.

After that point, Adams said, volunteers may potentially return to the property in smaller groups to complete cleanup work.

“Even after all the trees that are down now have been recovered and cleared, we’re going to have to assess pretty much every single tree on this park for damage,” Adams said. “For as many trees as got knocked down, just as many were damaged. We’ve got limbs hanging, trees snapped off halfway up and just kind of dangling there. We can’t have people walking around the property until all those have been assessed, and then cleaned up.”

The future

The damage to the battlefield is disheartening for those who spend time maintaining and caring for it. Jim Comunale, a board member of the Bushy Run Battlefield Historical Society, described the scene as devastating.

“These trees, they’re a living part of the battlefield,” he said. “The history behind them, to last this long, and in one short night be totally destroyed, you don’t know how many years they’ve gone through storms and everything else.”

The cleanup work has kept the board busy, he said.

“We’ve been talking about what to do now. Everybody’s getting together,” he said. “We have another month before our reenactment was scheduled to happen, and that doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now.”

The past few days have been an emotional journey, Adam said, but the museum is now focusing on the road ahead.

“At first, it’s shock, and that was a couple days. That wore off, and you go through all the litany of things. It’s sadness, or being angry, or despairing, or whatever, I think where we are at now is just kind of pragmatism,” he said. “What can we do? What are the things we can’t do anything about right now? What resources do we have available to us that we could use for educational programs and things like that?”

Ideas for remote or virtual educational activities that the team put together during the early parts of the pandemic may end up being part of the museum’s offerings while the public is unable to visit.

“We’re really a little bit kind of wait-and-see, to see what it’s going to look like with the timeline of getting the park safe,” he said.

“For the moment, we just have to assume that all of those plans are up in the air and we have to be flexible with it. Obviously, we’ve got things on the schedule in November, and we’d like to think that by November we’ll be back to normal, but we’re just preparing ourselves for any possibility.”

Community support

The museum is working with the Penn Township police to make sure the property is secure. In addition to representatives of the office of Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward Ward, R-Hempfield, and Westmoreland County, community members also have reached out to support the battlefield, Adams said.

“We’ve had all kinds of people from the community reach out. We’ve had a lot of small donations coming in from people,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of community support, and a lot of people who want to help us out, but we’ve got to get this first round of work done before we can let anyone on the property.”

The battlefield has a history of garnering support from the region and beyond, Comunale said.

“We have support everywhere,” he said. “People really love the place. We have reenactors during our reenactment that come from all different states. So it’s a big deal.”