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Hellbender Journal Autumn 2002
Of our 2.1 million acres of state forest, over half of the acreage is in North-Central Pennsylvania centered on the boundaries of Clinton, Potter and Cameron counties and occupying portions of five others. This contiguous conglomerate includes the majority of the Susquehannock, Tioga, Tiadaghton, Sproul, Moshannon and Elk forest districts. Besides having the majority of total state forestlands, this conglomerate is the most contiguous. More notable is the percentage of the state's total of Natural (83%), and Wild (61%), Areas in this contiguous forest. However, our current state forest Natural Areas together amount to only 79,000 acres and each are simply too small (most just several hundred acres), scattered and disconnected from each other, to effectively and assuredly preserve forest biodiversity. Research studies have concluded that in order to preserve habitat for the majority of current communities of forest species, protected areas need to be in the order of thousands of acres. Some researches have placed that minimum threshold at 12 to 24,000 acres - and this is to just preserve the biodiversity of today's forests, not necessarily the species we have lost over the last 100 years. If we are to preserve the intricate biodiversity that we have left today, we obviously need to preserve areas much larger than those protected under the Natural Area designations. Our already established Wild Areas, on the other hand, are much larger - all in the thousands of acres. Of the states 13 Wild Areas, the largest two and another potentially the third largest, lie within the large section of state forests previously described: The Quehanna Wild Area is the largest at 48,000 acres, the Hammersley is second largest at 30,000 acres and the potential third largest area is the 17,000 acre "old growth area" proposed by the Sproul District Forester. All three of these areas contain some of the largest tracts of the oldest stands of timber and have been treated, at least slightly, better than the rest of our state forestlands. These three areas are interconnected by the major waterways of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, Sinnemahoning Creek and Kettle Creek. Significant portions of banks of these waterways are protected with the Bucktail Natural Area and Kettle Creek State Park. These protected riparian zones do now, and could continue to, act as "corridors" connecting the "core" Wild Areas. Old Growth Forests are a rare landform in Pennsylvania. Wild Areas generally are in proximity to the center portion of state forestlands. This and their relatively large parcel size (in the thousands of acres) make Wild Areas obvious choices for enhanced protection of wildlife habitat. State Forest Wild Areas are generally more mature interior forests than the balance of state forestlands. Therefore, protection of these areas along with an end of commercial timber harvesting will relatively quickly result in the formation and maintenance of old growth forests. Old Growth forests, by their very definition, harbor a diverse array of wildlife. Thus protecting Wild Areas in Pennsylvania would not only add more protected forest (145,000 acres) to the state forest system, it could allow the establishment of interconnected wildlands as envisioned by The Pennsylvania Wildlands Recovery Project. Protecting these lands could be relatively simple; the areas are already defined and specially managed by the Bureau of Forestry and the protection would be by the simple change of policy of, and a commitment from, the Bureau. |
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Within
Pennsylvania's state forest system are lands designated Natural
Areas where the forest ecology is protected with an absence of development
and silviculture. Lands designated Wild Areas are protected from
development but not from timber practices. There is currently a
temporary moratorium on timber harvesting in Wild Areas; however,
for real preservation of the biodiversity of our forests to have
success, this moratorium should be made permanent - basically classifying
and managing Wild Areas the same as Natural areas - areas where
natural processes define the structure and health of the forest
free from unnatural disruption and fragmentation. It is not enough
just to preserve areas of forest - non-developed "buffer"
areas where sound land management is applied must surround these
protected areas.
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