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Blue Mountain - Kittatinny Ridge Conservation Project
 Audubon Pennsylvania releases “The State of the Kittatinny Ridge” report
The Kittatinny Ridge is one of Pennsylvania’s largest Important Bird Areas and the site of a world-famous autumn raptor migration.
Audubon Pennsylvania and many partner organizations have been working for years to conserve this critical landscape. A recent report
details the current status of the ridge based on a series of measurements indicating some of the area’s great successes and largest remaining challenges. Click here for the report.
The Kittatinny Ridge Project, led by Audubon Pennsylvania, is a collaborative
effort of local, regional, and state organizations and agencies
to focus public attention on the importance of the 185-mile long
forested Ridge through Pennsylvania; and to promote conservation
activities to protect the Ridge from further habitat loss, fragmentation,
and inappropriate land use.
The Kittatinny Ridge (also known as Blue Mountain)
is a long mountain ridge that winds 185 miles through eastern
and central Pennsylvania, to the Maryland line. The Ridge is a
globally-significant fall migration flyway used annually by tens
of thousands of raptors and vultures and millions of songbirds,
and has been designated by Audubon Pennsylvania, as the largest
of the state’s “Important Bird Areas.” The many rock outcroppings
along the ridge also make it an excellent place to watch migrating
hawks, eagles and vultures. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and Audubon’s
HawkWatch at Waggoner’s Gap are located along the Ridge.
Kittatinny Ridge Conservation Corridor includes
160 miles of the Appalachian Trail; and serves as a vital link
in the Appalachian Forest that stretches the length of the East,
providing critical, high quality interior-forest habitat for dozens
of species of songbirds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The
Ridge also protects important drinking water supplies and stream
habitat.
Educators, schools, nature centers, libraries, group leaders, conservation groups, and government offices can receive FREE copies of the Kittatinny Ridge poster. Please click here for more details.
 Wildlands Conservancy Preserves the Hauser Tract
In March 2011, Wildlands Conservancy successfully negotiated the purchase of 172 acres of upland habitat on the north side of the Kittatinny Ridge and along the Appalachian Trail. With native grasses and state-ranked flora and fauna, the property has been a top priority of Wildlands for nearly all of the organization’s 38 years. However, it took the efforts of four separate conservation groups to really climb the summit. Appalachian Trail Conservancy and Lehigh Gap Nature Center nurtured a land ethic relationship with the owners, Dan and Susan Hauser, and when the time came, Wildlands and the PA Game Commission coordinated a speedy settlement and much needed funding to make the project work. Protection of the Kittatinny Ridge—its habitat, its views and its story—is in everyone’s best interest and it takes teamwork. Many thanks to those involved and especially Dan and Susan Hauser for considering all of us worthy of caring for their land.
See the following link for coverage on Channel 69 News.
Website Links to Partnering Organizations:
PA
State Environmental Education
Hawk
Mountain
Manada
Conservancy
The
Nature Conservancy
Appalachian
Trail Conservancy
Blue
Mountain Wildlife Conservancy
Charles
Brightbill Educational Center
Lehigh
Gap Nature Center
Wildwood
Park Olewine Nature Center
Jacobsburg
Environmental Educational Center
Central
Pennsylvania Conservancy
Kings
Gap Education Center
Hawk
Migration Association of North America |
