Penn State, Centre County receive NFWF grants to benefit forest and stream conservation
Centre County will benefit from several wildlife grants that are part of $1.5 million in National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funding for conservation of forest and aquatic habitats across the central Appalachia region.
At a press event Tuesday held in Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, NFWF awarded grants for 11 projects spanning parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia through its Central Appalachia Habitat Stewardship Program, which is funded through USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA’s Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, American Forest Foundation, Shell Oil Company and in western Pennsylvania, the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Together, the grantees were able to match funds to leverage over $3.3 million in projects.
“Collectively, the eleven grants we announce today will improve habitat for some of the region’s most iconic species, including eastern brook trout, hellbender and wood thrush,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF in a press release. “This work is possible through an impressive partnership of public and private sector organizations who all are committed to protecting and restoring this region’s rich natural heritage.”
Nearly $1 million in grants went to Pennsylvania to restore forests in the Laurel Highlands, assess and monitor brook trout in western Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Wilds, improve forest habitat for birds in the Pennsylvania Wilds and advance conservation-based estate planning.
For the Pennsylvania Wilds, including parts of Centre County, the American Bird Conservatory received a $175,000 toward a $375,000 project to improve forest management planning and habitat management for birds, including the golden-winged warbler, cerulean warbler and wood thrush.
“From a casual observer ... what they will experience when the active (forest) management is done and there’s no one working in the woods, is they would walk through a stretch of woods that would give them a feeling of dynamic conditions,” said Jeff Larkin, an Indiana University of Pennsylvania professor who works with the American Bird Conservatory.
Those dynamic conditions, said Dave Gustafson, chief forester with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, will come as a result of actively managing forests through timber harvesting and prescribed fire to create young forest habitats and preserve mature forests. Hunters, bird-watchers and hikers might find the forest management helps them better interact with wildlife, he said, and several eyewitness accounts have already confirmed that.
The mix of young and older forests, said Larkin, are crucial to supporting the life cycle of the golden-winged warbler, cerulean warbler and wood thrush, all of which need different types of forests at different stages in their reproductive cycles.
Forest management will take place on four regions of state game lands spread across Centre, Clinton, Clearfield and Elk counties, including State Game Lands 100-321 located north of Snow Shoe bordering the Sproul State Forest and State Game Lands 33-60 covering the Sandy Ridge area near Philipsburg-Osceola Mills, he said.
A $79,987 grant awarded to Penn State’s Center for Private Forests will go toward a project to advance conservation-based estate planning through a workshop series. The series, with a total project cost of $159,974, will target over 300 estate planning attorneys, financial planners and consulting foresters to increase awareness and implementation of legal and financial tools for estate planning that puts conservation at the forefront.
“Engagement is a really critical factor (of the Center for Private Forests). They engage the public, landowners, natural resources professionals, they engage the entire community,” said Gary Thompson, associate dean for research and graduate education at Penn State. “They focus on applying stewardship practices to care for the forested ecosystems and work by cultivating a model for applied excellence in sustaining our forests, drawing upon leading research and the direct experience of forest landowners.”
In the Cross Fork Watershed that runs through neighboring Clinton County, a $139,987 grant will go toward a $279,987 Trout Unlimited project to monitor eastern brook trout by reducing sedimentation and improving water quality. The National Audubon Society received $183,419 toward a $371,852 project to implement landscape-scale forest conservation on 1,125 acres of private lands to benefit forest birds in Pennsylvania using financial incentives from the American Forest Foundations Family Forest Carbon Program.
Gustafson said the NFWF funds are critical because of organizations’ abilities to leverage them to broaden the scope of projects and enact systemic change. Both the state Game Commission and the American Bird Conservancy have been using NFWF funds to manage forest environments since the Central Appalachia Habitat Steward Program began in 2017.
“This is a catalyst for the reaction,” he said. “It’s getting a lot more done with the partnerships and this is the spur that’s getting the foot in the door, opening up opportunities.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 7:11 AM.
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