Pennsylvania Game News - October 2022 - 48

PAST & PRESENT
State Game Lands 302 is not a place dominated by virgin
timber. The oldest stands here are " only " about 85 years old.
Prior to its acquisition by the Game Commission in 1986,
a lot of this rolling countryside was farmed. That explains the
orchards - remnants of old homesteads that are maintained
for wildlife today - found scattered across the game lands.
Mining also was big in years past and remains important
today. State Game Lands 302 lies in the heart of Marcellus shale
country, as evidenced by wells, and reclamation work like that
in the photo at right. Game lands impacted by gas development
are replanted, with some becoming lush openings like this.
Wildlife of all sorts thrives on the game lands. Federallyendangered
Indiana bats and threatened northern long-eared bats, for example, both maintain roosting
sites here, as they have for years.
And going forward, protecting the most sensitive parts of State Game Lands 302 remains a priority.
Maintaining streambank buffers, herbaceous openings and warm-season grasses, controlling invasive
plant species and providing coarse, woody debris for food and cover are all goals here.
That will benefit not only species already present, but others that could come back. One goal on
State Game Lands 302 is to create habitat attractive to American woodcock.
HUNTING, TRAPPING & MORE
State Game Lands 302 features a variety of food and cover types that supTo
further explore
state game lands
visit the Mapping
Center at
www.pgc.pa.gov
port all manner of wildlife. Hunters who visit pursue white-tailed deer, turkeys,
cottontails, squirrels, pheasants, ruffed grouse and waterfowl including mallards,
wood ducks and Canada geese. Furtaking opportunities include those
for coyotes, raccoons, minks, opossums, red and gray foxes and striped skunks.
The Game Commission manages for all species in a variety of ways.
Deer and turkeys, for example, use early successional habitat, while cottontails
and pheasants can be found in the many reverting old fields, and other
herbaceous areas edged by hedgerows developed with them in mind. Squirrels
regularly are found in oak stands.
Non-game species benefitting from habitat management include several
species of greatest conservation need, including wood thrushes, and even
reptiles and amphibians like box and wood turtles.
UNIQUE WILDLIFE HABITAT
State Game Lands 302 is known to a lot of locals as
the " Enlow Fork " game lands because that's the name of
the largest stream - stocked with trout, no less - flowing
through it. But that's far from the only water on this
property. There are a number of other creeks as well as
numerous manmade wetlands. That all provides valuable
wildlife habitat and unique management opportunities.
Sycamore-box elder floodplain forests, for example, are increasingly rare in Pennsylvania. Many
get converted to agriculture or development, are overtaken by invasive species, or change as flood
frequency and/or duration changes due to manmade channels and upstream impoundments and
dams. That makes intact forests of this type, like the one on State Game Lands 302, all the more
important as riparian buffers and wildlife sanctuaries.
48
Michelle Bothun

http://www.pgc.pa.gov

Pennsylvania Game News - October 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - October 2022