Pike: Conservationists pursuing ‘climate resiliency’

Plus, rehab for West Ann Memorial Park

By OWEN WALSH
Posted 2/7/23

PIKE COUNTY, PA — Between Milford Borough and Shohola Township, Pike County is on the receiving end of more than $500,000 in grant funding to put toward outdoor recreation and conservation …

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Pike: Conservationists pursuing ‘climate resiliency’

Plus, rehab for West Ann Memorial Park

Posted

PIKE COUNTY, PA — Between Milford Borough and Shohola Township, Pike County is on the receiving end of more than $500,000 in grant funding to put toward outdoor recreation and conservation efforts.

The PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources awarded more than $195,000 to the Nature Conservancy for the acquisition of about 130 acres in Shohola Township. The land is slated to become state game lands, part of an ongoing effort across public and private partnerships to conserve the natural ecosystems there.

The department also awarded grants totaling $400,000 to Milford for the rehabilitation of its downtown West Ann Memorial Park.

Shohola Creek Project

In mid-January, the Nature Conservancy in Pennsylvania and Delaware—a private conservation nonprofit—acquired more than 1,000 acres that lie downstream from Shohola Lake and include more than a mile of frontage on Shohola Creek as well as six tributary streams.

The parcel links together two pieces of state game land—the 3,000-acre State Game Land 116 to the north and the 11,400-acre State Game Land 180 to the south—to create a 43-mile corridor of public land, protected from development. The Nature Conservancy immediately transferred ownership to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

“We are grateful for partners like the Nature Conservancy that do the heavy lifting to help bring tracts like this to the game commission in order to continue the commonwealth’s conservation heritage,” said Dave Gustafson, director of the PA Game Commission’s Bureau of Wildlife Habitat Management. “Protecting this property from future development will not only help the watershed, but also add to the biological, recreational and scenic values associated with the [existing] network of lands.”

The new addition also includes Bald Hill, a habitat for several plant and animal species threatened by climate change, according to the conservancy. The organization’s director of land protection, Mari-Beth DeLucia named the black bear and bobcat as two primary animals of concern.

“[Bear and bobcat] move a lot… as the climate changes, species need to be able to move north in response to the warming temperatures,” she said. “When you connect all this land and it’s open, not only to the public, but also for animals to move, that’s really critical.”

By connecting these different parcels into one long stretch of protected land reaching the Delaware River, DeLucia said conservationists can help species travel unencumbered by human development.

“This whole core area will allow animals to move across in response to climate change,” she said.

Protecting lands like these also contribute to the region’s “climate resilience,” DeLucia said, by preserving the delicate balance of differing climates within a small geographic area. As anyone who has climbed a mountain, either in a car or on foot has likely experienced, the climate on the north-facing side is often drastically different than that on the south-facing side.

“Microhabitats are really important for climate resilience and the ability of these creatures to find a suitable habitat on an exceptionally warm day,” she said.

In addition to habitat loss and migration disruption, the abnormally warm temperatures we’ve had early this winter, followed by extreme cold, can mean trouble for bird species when they come back from the south. The early warm weather can cause local flora to bloom too soon, which means they don’t bud again in springtime, leaving the animals that rely on these plants as a food source with nothing to eat.

“That is already happening, because things are already weeks earlier than they used to be,” DeLucia said. “Eventually [some] species will evolve, but when species are already teetering on edge because of development and all the other stuff, they don’t have that resilience to evolve over time… These birds who migrate thousands of miles: if that food source isn’t there when they get there, they just die.”

Several different funding sources contributed to the $4 million acquisition. The game commission covered half the bill, providing $2 million toward the purchase price.

Two funds through the Open Space Institute—which is a national conservation organization working to protect natural resources throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada—also lent financial support to the project: the Delaware River Watershed Protection Fund and the Appalachian Landscapes Protection Fund (ALPF).

Protecting a watershed

Launched in 2014, the Delaware River Watershed Protection Fund is capitalized by the William Penn Foundation and has protected approximately 20,000 acres of forested land in the Delaware River Watershed. According to a press release, the forested land acts as a natural filter for clean water in the headwater streams of the Delaware River Watershed, which provides drinking water for approximately 15 million people, including residents of Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington and New York City.

The ALPF supports land protection along the Appalachian Mountain range, an area that is home to the world’s largest broadleaf forest, stores most of the nation’s forest carbon, and provides refuge for plants and migration routes for animals at risk of habitat loss from climate change.

“The Open Space Institute is exceptionally proud of its role in protecting Shohola Creek, which will provide public access and recreation while safeguarding critical water resources and unspoiled forests in the face of a changing climate,” said Bill Rawlyk, OSI’s Mid-Atlantic field coordinator.

Additional donors and private supporters, including the Kentfields Foundation, as well as the Pike County Commissioners’ Scenic Rural Character Preservation program, also contributed to the Shohola acquisition.

Shohola is the second land protection project the Nature Conservancy has pursued in Pike County. The first came in 2017, when the group purchased and transferred 318 acres to the PA Bureau of Forestry to expand the Delaware State Forest.

According to Gustafson, this 43-mile corridor will be open to the public, allowing visitors and locals to “enjoy outdoor recreational pursuits such as hunting, hiking and bird watching.”

West Ann Memorial Park

Milford Borough’s $400,000 grant will go toward the rehab of downtown West Ann Memorial Park. Rep. Joe Adams (PA-139), who represents Pike and Wayne, said that the DCNR’s funding originated from American Rescue Plan dollars.

“That’s a big chunk of money,” Adams said. “Improved parks are a key ingredient in revitalized communities, large and small. I’m thankful Pike County will be awarded this highly competitive funding. Further developing these locations will benefit children, parents and the entire community.”

The grant is slated for the construction of pedestrian walkways and a parking area, installation of play equipment with required safety surfacing and fencing, improved ADA accessibility, general landscaping and other related site improvements.

Pike County, recreation, conservation, the Nature Conservancy, West Ann Memorial Park, Shohola Creek, Delaware River Watershed

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