had been left by the oil wells and strip mines of the late 19th and early 20th century, the valley had a rich natural history of moraines. Preston worked to form the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which purchased the land that became Moraine State Park, recreated the glacial landscape and preserved open spaces. Muddy Creek was dammed to form Lake Arthur. The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy worked with the state to reclaim the land. The mines were sealed, over 400 oil and gas wells were capped, and the land that had been stripped was covered again with back fill, and graded to resemble its former condition. The soil was specially treated with fertilizer to allow for the growth of thousands of trees, shrubs and grasses. Lake Arthur was completed in 1970 with the opening of Moraine State Park on May 23, 1970. Legacy Frank W. Preston continued to work in ecology and conservation in his adopted home state of Pennsylvania. He worked hand in hand with Maurice K. Goddard and Otto Emery Jennings in creating state parks in Western Pennsylvania including, McConnells Mill State Park, Maurice K. Goddard State Park and the Jennings Environmental Education Center which borders Moraine State Park to the north. Frank W. Preston died on March 1, 1989 in Butler, Pennsylvania. His Meridian property has since become a park owned and maintained by Butler Township following the death of his wife, Jane, in 2008. The property was willed to the township on the grounds that it never be timbered, mined, or drilled for natural gas. The park was named Preston Park in his honor. Bibliography The following articles authored by Frank W. Preston appeared in Ecology a scientific journal published by the Ecological Society of America. "The Commonness, and Rarity, of Species" 1948 "Time and Space and the Variation of Species" 1960 "The Canonical Distribution of Commonness and Rarity" 1962 "Diversity and Stability in the Biological World" 1969 References External links 1896 births 1989 deaths People from Butler, Pennsylvania Alumni of the University of London American environmentalists British emigrants to the United States Fellows of the American Physical Society