08/07/2026
William G. 'Turk' Jones, the adman turned conservationist, was the first environmentalist I knew as a young person. He attended Bucknell studying Biology, then went to New York and became a successful Madison Ave. advertising executive. After 17 years as an "Adman" (1946) he quit, moved here and bought an abandoned farm near Kylertown that had acres of stripped ground, naming it Rolling Stone Tree Farm. He began growing fir trees on the slag piles left behind by early coal operators. He had ideas about what types of trees could survive and grow on this inhospitable ground. He connected with PSU and the US Forest Service and worked with them. He imported evergreens from Austria, Scotland and Norway as well as Douglas Firs from the Pacific Northwest. He also used hybrid poplars that grew very fast. By 1948, the first backfilling laws were enacted in PA forcing mine owners to remediate. Coal operators resisted, and the actual beginning of the tree planting didn't occur until the late 1950's. At that time, 'Turk' became a consultant to the Central PA Open Pit Mining Association. He bought another large farm with 800 acres of stripped land that became the Robert Bailey Estate Tree Farm where he continued his research and plantings. No one believed, including coal operators, that anything could be grown on this devastated land, but he persevered with his ideas and through his research, direction and oversite, 36 million trees were planted on formerly strip-mined sites in 17 PA counties. He received countless environmental awards. After the establishment of Earth Day in 1970, 'Turk' became a sort of folk hero, a new age "Johnny Appleseed". Students, scientists, broadcasters, all flocked to his incredible tree farms. He was featured in TIME Magazine, Reader's Digest, interviewed by Walter Cronkite, appeared on the TODAY show, wrote a book "The New Forest". He continued to inspire environmental restoration through reforestation here and overseas after his retirement. He died Nov. 1, 1981. When you visit Project 70 you are seeing his work all around you. The trees recently harvested in the area long Rt 504 were also his plantings. In fact, you can't drive anywhere around here without seeing his incredible legacy.
