Deborah Weisberg

Laurel Caverns in Fayette County is poised to become Pennsylvania’s first underground state park, pending approval by the state Legislature.
Gov. Josh Shapiro included the designation with a $5 million allocation in his 2025-26 budget, with an eye toward enhanced tourism and conservation of the cave’s geological features. Located on Chestnut Ridge in Forbes State Forest, Laurel Caverns is the largest calcareous sandstone cave in Pennsylvania and would become the state’s 125th state park.

More than two dozen state parks, forests and game lands in Pennsylvania are being sprayed this month as part of an ongoing effort to combat spongy – formerly called gypsy – moths, an invasive insect that poses a significant threat to woodland ecosystems.
The aerial spraying of 11 state forests and parks and 16 game lands with a biological agent and a chemical insecticide targets caterpillars as they emerge from their overwintering egg masses and begin to feed on the leaves of trees. While oaks are the spongy moth’s preferred host, hundreds of species of trees are vulnerable.