Pennsylvania Game News - May 2022 - 52

IMPROVEMENTS ABOUND
State Game Lands 134 has undergone some changes in recent
years that among other things have improved access.
The former Northcentral Game Farm, which opened as a
wild turkey farm in 1947 and eventually transitioned to pheasant
propagation, closed in 2017. Both the Barbours and Proctor
sections of the site since have opened to hunting. They contain
managed old fields, orchards and food plots, and dove hunting
here can be excellent.
Meanwhile, the removal of the former game farm's flood levee, which helps reduce flooding on Plunkett's
Creek, also provided fill material used to upgrade Huckle Run Road within the game lands' interior.
The levee removal and road upgrade was completed through a three-week training operation by the 333rd
Engineering Company of the U.S. Army Reserve.
A training facility for the Game Commission's K-9s also is planned for this site.
Additionally, improvements to a disabled persons' access road in the northern-most section of the
game lands provides limited-mobility hunters with good opportunities surrounding a unique wetland.
This road can be reached from Cabbage Hollow Road.
There is an extensive skid road and trail system on this game lands and the East End Hunting and Fishing
Club annually assists in clearing trails on this game lands to help facilitate hunter access and game retrieval.
HUNTING, TRAPPING & MORE
Deer, black bears and wild turkeys are the principal game species hunted on this
To further explore
state game lands
visit the Mapping
Center at
www.pgc.pa.gov
game lands. Ruffed grouse are hunted where young forest exists here, and squirrels,
cottontails, woodchucks and waterfowl also are hunted where they're found.
Furbearers on this game lands include beavers, bobcats, coyotes, fishers, red
and gray foxes, minks, muskrats, opossums, porcupines, raccoons, river otters
and striped skunks.
State Game Lands 134 is listed both as an Important Mammal Area (Wyoming
State Forest IMA) and an Important Bird Area (Wyoming State Forest and World's
End State Park IBAs). Small-footed, silver-haired and Indiana bats likely roost
here, and northern flying squirrels, snowshoe hares, rock voles and northern
water shrews are among other mammals that likely occur on the game lands.
Meanwhile, the game lands is well-suited for Canada, worm-eating and cerulean,
green and black-throated blue warblers, as well as scarlet tanagers and northern
goshawks. Plus, golden-winged warblers, woodcock, yellow-breasted chats, whippoor-wills
and blue-winged warblers also might be found here.
CLOSER LOOK
While State Game Lands 134 offers hunters and trappers very good access, topography - which can be
quite steep - isolates many areas, providing the opportunity for a wild, big-mountain hunting or hiking
experience. The game lands is almost entirely forested, but it contains about 50 acres of herbaceous
openings and 14 miles of vegetative administrative roads. The management goal for this game lands is
to maintain a balance of different forest age classes, with a permanent young forest component while
reclaiming invasive shrublands and improving wildlife openings.
Forest management plays an important role in the overall management of the game lands. Deerdeterring
fences presently are in place on several previously logged areas. These are removed periodically,
making for exceptional deer hunting areas. Fourteen water courses are located on the game lands. The
two largest - Plunkett's Creek and Loyalsock Creek - both are coldwater fisheries that produce native
brook and brown trout. Loyalsock Creek also is stocked with trout.
52

http://www.pgc.pa.gov

Pennsylvania Game News - May 2022

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