Pennsylvania Game News - November 2024 - 56

HUNTING, TRAPPING & WILDLIFE
State Game Lands 48 receives considerable numbers
of deer, bear, and turkey hunters. Most concentrate on the
ridges, with bear hunting especially popular on the more
remote areas of Wills Mountain.
There's small game hunting for gray squirrels, too, while
the fi elds and surrounding shrubby habitats along Milligan's
Cove Road are stocked with pheasants eight times a
year, from early fall through winter. Rabbit and woodcock
hunters use low-lying fi elds and shrub habitats. There are
some ruff ed grouse, as well. Furtakers target raccoons,
opossums, fi shers, eastern coyotes and foxes.
Other wildlife found includes woodland shrews, mice, chipmunks, southern fl ying squirrels,
voles, and several species of bats. Once-common Allegheny woodrats are extirpated
because of numerous factors, including habitat change and a parasite carried by raccoons.
Birds range from common ones like black-capped chickadees and blue jays to more unusual
ones like worm-eating warblers, blue-headed vireos, and prairie warblers.
MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES
More than 92% of this game lands is forested, primarily with oak.
To further explore
state game lands
visit the Mapping
Center at
www.pgc.pa.gov
Going forward, one goal is to increase the percentage of young forests.
Another goal is to maintain conifer stands off ering winter cover for
wild turkeys and ruff ed grouse, and presenting possible nesting habitat
for bird species common and otherwise. Agricultural areas and herbaceous
openings are managed for farm-game and old-fi eld habitat, too.
There are over 1,000 acres of shrublands, most of them in a single
stand of scrub oak barrens. Such habitats are rare at elevations this
high, so the plan is to conserve and enhance this habitat, primarily
through controlled burns. This barrens is the core of the Wills Mountain
Natural Heritage Area (NHA). NHAs are sites that support rare plants or
animals, exemplary ecological communities, and Pennsylvania's native
species biodiversity. Shrubby bottomlands in Milligan's Cove are managed
for woodcock and other species relying on young forest habitat.
HISTORY & RECREATION
The southern portion of this game lands was once most
famous for its mail trail, used in the 1800s and early 1900s
to transport mail between Hyndman and Centerville. A
stagecoach trail located a few miles farther north was also
used during this same period. Segments of both can still be
observed today. Elsewhere, several homestead and colonialera
farms - some which operated into the 20th century -
existed here. Some remnants of those farms, in the form of
stone fences and farm lanes, are still visible today.
The Game Commission acquired this property in stages, beginning in 1929, with most
acquisitions occurring from the 1970s through 1990.
Today, in addition to hunters and trappers, this often-steep game lands attracts hikers,
birders, some horseback riders and others who collect mushrooms and berries.
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Pennsylvania Game News - November 2024

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