Pennsylvania Game News - October 2011 - 41

The Game Commission is pleased to announce that, once again, complimentary Game News subscriptions are now being provided to landowners participating in the agency’s Hunter Access Cooperator program. This return of Game News is possible thanks to funds recently obtained from the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Improvement Program (VPA-HIP). These funds were appropriated from the 2008 Farm Bill and issued through the Farm Services Agency. Cooperators have long provided an outstanding service to Pennsylvania hunters and trappers. If you visit any cooperators this fall, stop by and thank them for all they’re doing for us.

Game News Back to Hunter access cooperators

Society have identified woodcock as a crucial species of management concern because it is an important species to the public. “Hunters enjoy pursuing woodcock with dogs, and nonhunters are awed each spring by the courtship displays of males,” Wurzbacher said. “They are a cryptic bird, preferring young forests and other early successional habitats for cover. “This preferred habitat also is

shared by other animals and, subsequently, managing habitat for American woodcock benefits a plethora of birds, mammals and reptiles, including popular species such as deer and wild turkey. “It is important to note that Game Commission restrictions inserted into the timbering contract prohibit timbering-related activity on SGL 314 on all main hunting days in the fall and spring,” Wurzbacher said.

Check out SGL 26
ON Sunday, October 9, from 12-3 p.m., the PGC will host a tour of SGL 26. The tour begins at the parking area along Rt. 869, just west of the Cambria/Bedford County line and follows the switchbacks to the bottom of the mountain and then along Bob’s Creek. Tour ends at Diamond Lane, with easy access to Rt. 164, Blue Knob State Park, and Rt. 869 (Pavia). A major portion of this 7-mile tour follows the switchbacks of the former bed of a narrow gauge railroad used more than a hundred years ago to haul lumber up the mountain from a lumber camp situated along Bob’s Creek. Today the old railroad bed provides habitat for wildlife in the form of grasses and legumes that prosper on the running surface, as well as berry producing shrubs, plants and vines that grow along the roadsides. Highlights of the 7-mile tour include a deer fence, used to protect young tree seedlings; a former timber haul road seeded with clover to provide food for deer, turkeys and other wildlife, and to reduce soil erosion; Forest Thinning – This section of woods was thinned through a commercial logging operation to promote growth of the remaining trees and encourage the growth of seedlings. The downed tree tops protect seedlings and provide additional nutrients to the soil. Wildlife Hedgerow – The crabapple and hawthorn trees, as well as the barberry growing among them, produce food that wildlife will eat throughout the fall and winter months. One stop even shows evidence of where a lumber camp once stood in the late 1800s.
OCTOBER 2011 41

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_126465_11363_0_43/http%3B/www.sgl.state.pa.us/zoom_maps.aspx?rgn=Southcentral&sgl=026

Pennsylvania Game News - October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - October 2011