evergreencircle SUMMER 2026
Our Loyal Evergreens
The Evergreen Circle honors the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s loyal supporters who have made annual gifts for at least 15 of the last 20 years. Thank you! You are making an incredible impact in Western Pennsylvania.
Evergreen Circle Profile: Kimberly Donovan and Bruce Hazen
Kimberly and Bruce placed a WPC conservation easement on their property, also a certified wildlife habitat.
On a spring hike to celebrate the designation of Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area as Old Growth Forest, Kimberly Donovan moved from plant to plant along the trail, sharing an animated discussion with a friend. You could easily pick up on her enthusiasm as she talked about what was growing, so it’s not surprising to find that Kimberly has dedicated a lot of time creating a nature habitat of her own.
Kimberly and her husband Bruce Hazen are Evergreen Circle members who have cultivated a decades-long relationship with the landscape where they’ve built their lives. They take great care in managing their 19.4-acre forested property in Slippery Rock Township, which is close to McConnells Mill and Moraine state parks, and near where Bruce grew up. They spend free time removing invasive species like autumn olive, multiflora rose, Japanese bittersweet and Japanese stiltgrass and planting a diversity of native plants like red mulberry, button bush, serviceberry, elderberry and milkweed. Their intent is to sustain a healthy wildlife habitat and provide connectivity to benefit the biodiversity of the state parks and other natural areas near them. With these factors in mind, in 2013 they worked with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to place a permanent conservation easement on their property, which Bruce purchased in 1989. A member since 1987, Bruce was familiar with the Conservancy because McConnells Mill State Park was among the first properties the Conservancy ever conveyed to the state as public land. The land was acquired in 1946 and designated as a state park in 1957. As a child, Bruce played in a section of the park called Hell’s Hollow. Despite its name, it’s a beautiful canyon carved by Hell Run, a high-quality stream with cascades, bedrock flumes (narrow channels of water carved into solid rock) and a waterfall. Remnants of a mid-19th century lime kiln, whose glowing fire and smoke gave the area its name, can still be seen next to the falls. WaterLandLife.org
Kimberly and Bruce became interested in a conservation easement after learning the results of a state park ecological survey, which stated that Slippery Rock Gorge and McConnells Mill State Park needed properties to serve as buffers around them to better protect biodiversity of the region. They hoped that their easement might encourage others in the region to do the same. In fact, a neighbor and fellow WPC member who lives directly adjacent to McConnells Mill also placed her 40-acre property under easement with the Conservancy. While Kimberly spent a lot of time outdoors as a child (she grew up in Moon Township when the area was much less developed) and has a background in sustainability, she credits Bruce’s influence in developing a deeper interest in nature and conservation as an adult. They met when Kimberly was renting a house on a WPC-owned farm in Plain Grove Township while attending graduate school at Slippery Rock University. Fellow classmates were operating a community-supported agriculture program (CSA) at the farm, and she and Bruce were CSA members.
Hell’s Hollow in McConnells Mill State Park contains bedrock flumes, channels formed by water eroding the surrounding limestone.
Over the years, Kimberly has volunteered with environmental organizations and is involved in the local food movement. While she still works as a tax accountant, Bruce is retired from a career in nursing and social work. Beyond a healthy environment, Kimberly is also interested in personal health and wellbeing, and has been a fitness instructor at the Butler YMCA for more than 20 years. Story continued on page 2