The Game Commission will highlight its efforts at ongoing habitat improvement initiatives during free public tours of State Game Lands between September 13 and October 19.

"State Game Land tours provide the opportunity for those who enjoy nature to come out and talk with our employees - the people who are directly responsible for managing and protecting these lands," said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. "With autumn nearly here, these tours will provide a chance to see some of the best scenery the Commonwealth has to offer. These tours afford hunters and trappers and others who appreciate wildlife the opportunity to see how the Game Commission is spending hunting and furtaker license fees to acquire and manage these lands for wildlife."

Roe noted that staff shortages and limited financial resources forced a reduction in the number of State Game Land tours this year.

Information on the various tours is as follows:

· Lebanon County: September 13, State Game Land 145, south of Mt. Gretna. At 9 a.m., tour participants will meet at the Game Commission parking lot on Pinch Road, just south of Mt. Gretna. Tour stops will showcase various types of habitat work and focus on management techniques used to improve the habitat for wildlife. Participants also will have the opportunity to view management techniques used for timber harvests, deer fencing, and wildlife food plots. An oak stand that was severely impacted by gypsy moths will be visited, as well as an area being managed for rabbits. The tour, which should conclude around noon, is free, open to the public and will be held rain or shine. Appropriate outdoor clothing is recommended. Agency staff will be available to answer questions. Directions from Mt. Gretna to the parking lot are: From Route 117 in the center of Mt. Gretna, turn onto Pinch Road and proceed south for one mile, then turn right into the parking lot at the Game Commission wooden sign.

· McKean County: September 20, State Game Land 62, between Mt Jewett and Ormsby, adjacent to Kinzua Bridge State Park. Tour participants should gather at 1 p.m. at the Game Commission booth at the Kinzua Bridge Park Fall Festival. From there the group will use their own vehicle to travel 1.5 miles to the McKean County SGL headquarters. The group will travel on some short walks and some short drives through SGL 62 to see food plots, warm season grasses, aspen cuts, timber harvests, fruit tree plantings, Pennsylvania Conservation Crew projects, the Kinzua Chapter of National Wild Turkey Federation projects and other habitat work done on this SGL. The tour will last about two hours, ending at the Game Commission Food and Cover headquarters, where equipment used to implement habitat improvements will be on display.

· Luzerne/Wyoming counties: October 5, State Game Land 57. Registration to be held from 7:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at the headquarters building complex on SGL 57, Ricketts Station, Forkston Township, Wyoming County. Game Commission personnel will be on hand to explain various points of interest, including wildlife habitat improvement projects. Four-wheel-drive vehicles with high clearance are strongly recommended for this three-hour, 30-mile, self-guided driving tour. Directions: Take Route 487 north at the intersection of Route 118 and proceed 7.5 miles and turn onto a dirt road near SGL sign on right. Travel on dirt road one-tenth of a mile to a "Y" intersection and proceed left three-tenths of a mile to the headquarters complex. Each vehicle will be provided a map and brief explanation of wildlife management programs being carried out on this magnificent tract of public hunting land.

· Bradford County: Sunday, October 5, from 10:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. (rain or shine). This will be a 28-mile, self-guided, circular driving tour through State Game Lands 12 and 36, and will take about two hours to complete. The route will start at the SGL 12 parking lot on top of Wheelerville Mountain along Route 154 just south of Canton, Bradford County. Roads are passable for most vehicles. It will go along East to the Barkley cemetery area than down the hill to Laquin area turning west onto the railroad grade to Wheelerville. Once you reach Wheelerville you will come to a "T" which is SR 154 and the tour is over. You could go north along SR 154 to Canton, or south along SR 154 to Shunk and points south in Sullivan County. Since the tour goes by Sunfish Pond County Park, a picnic lunch may be the order of the day! The local history of the mountain and the Game Commission's refuge system is intriguing. A tour guide packet that is full of information and old Game Commission photographs will be given to each vehicle at the start of the tour.

· Clearfield County: October 5, State Game Land 331 (formerly known as SGL 93), which consists of 4,876.1 acres. Tour participants should meet beginning at 12:30 p.m. at the Pennsylvania Wildlife Habitat Unlimited (PWHU) headquarters along Route 255, five miles north of Interstate 80, Exit 101 in Huston Township. The tour group will leave promptly at 1 p.m. to travel onto SGL 331 from Showers Road and loop through the SGL ending at the Food and Cover Crew headquarters buildings around 4 p.m. Along the way, tour participants will see an unfenced timber sale, recently fenced timber sales, aspen regeneration and timber sales fenced several years ago. Game Commission staff and representatives from EXCO-North Coast Energy will be on-hand to discuss gas well development and related issues impacting management of SGL 331. The tour also will include stops at SGL 331 food plots, the small game management area, grafted apple trees, PWHU apple tree plantings and pruning, and the PWHU browse cuts. Equipment used to implement habitat improvement projects will be on display at the agency's headquarters. Refreshments will be available at the end of the tour.

· Bedford/Blair counties: October 12, from noon to 3 p.m., State Game Land 26, which encompasses 12,062 acres in a four-county area. This popular tour highlights mountainous terrain and fall foliage. The seven-mile, self-guided auto tour begins at the parking area on the northeast side of Route 869, between Pavia and Beaverdale, and concludes near the village of Blue Knob. Youngsters will enjoy the opportunity to locate and identify mounted wildlife specimens placed in their natural habitat along the drive. Game Commission personnel will be on hand to answer questions relating to Game Commission programs and activities.

· Berks/Schuylkill counties: October 19, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., State Game Land 110, which encompasses more than 10,000 acres of historical, scenic and recreational property in a two-county area. The nine-mile trip will begin at the agency's parking lot on Mountain Road, midway between the Shartlesville Exit of Interstate 78 and Route 61; and will exit onto Route 183, north of Strausstown. Game Commission Officers will be on hand to answer questions relating to Game Commission programs and activities.

· Dauphin/Lebanon/Schuylkill counties: October 19, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., State Game Land 211, which encompasses more than 44,000 acres in a three-county area. The tour will start at the Ellendale gate in Middle Paxton Township, Dauphin County, just northeast of Dauphin Borough. The 19-mile trip will be made along an abandoned railroad bed, and will end at Goldmine Road, southwest of Tower City, Schuylkill County. Game Commission personnel will be on hand to explain various points of interest, including wildlife habitat improvement projects.

"Recognizing the benefit of the tours, the agency has maintained some tours," Roe said. "It was a difficult decision to scale back on the number of tours we offer this year. However, the agency's current financial situation required that we make tough choices."

During the 2006-07 fiscal year, Game Commission Food and Cover Corps and land managers were successful in reaching many set goals for habitat improvement on the many tracts of State Game Lands, and leased areas within the past year. Statewide, these teams planted 3,597 acres of grain and 2,095 acres of grasses and legumes to benefit wildlife.

There were 730 acres planted or converted to warm season grasses. About 2,307 acres of wildlife food plots were limed and 4,747 acres fertilized to improve wildlife food production; 17,200 acres were mowed to maintain high quality grasses and legumes and 1,220 acres of field and administrative road borders were cut to provide nesting and escape cover.

Wetland restoration work was completed on three State Game Lands sites and several locations across the state through the efforts of Food and Cover employees and various habitat partners.

There were 46,963 fruit trees pruned to improve production, and finally, 2,900 new nest boxes and 1,800 waterfowl nest structures were erected.

"Additionally, an integrated comprehensive State Game Lands planning initiative was undertaken to provide a more efficient wildlife habitat development program specific to each individual game lands complex, based on its existing habitat and infrastructure," said William Capouillez, Game Commission Bureau of Wildlife Habitat Management director. "The program initiative included a general State Game Lands planning template guideline and resulted in each region office drafting an initial plan using varied staff disciplines to include, foresters, biologists, land managers and Food and Cover Corps."

The Department of Labor and Industry, through the Pennsylvania Conservation Corps (P.C.C.) provided $111,500 in funding and 10 work crews to assist with habitat projects such as planting seedlings, erecting stream bank and forest fencing, and planting warm season grasses. Crews also constructed storage buildings, painted and made repairs to Food and Cover Corps headquarters, constructed and installed gates, and painted and maintained game lands boundary lines.

The Game Commission's Howard Nursery in Centre County produced and distributed 1,688,300 tree and shrub seedlings for wildlife food and cover plantings, and 364,650 of the seedlings distributed were sold for $71,523. Seedlings also were available for purchase by the general public during the 2007-08 season. The nursery propagated 37 species of important food and cover plants, including 773,850 deciduous trees and shrubs, and 914,450 evergreens. Native species continue to be added annually.

The Howard Nursery wood shop produced and shipped 5,305 bluebird/chickadee/wren boxes; 8,545 bluebird box kits; 645 wood duck boxes and kits; 379 squirrel, kestrel, barn owl and bat boxes; and almost 4,931 signs, backboards and bulletin boards for use on game lands and cooperative access properties. An additional 171 "non-standard" nesting devices, such as mallard and turkey rocket boxes also were produced. For the first time in 2008, a wide variety of wood products were made available for purchase by the general public on the agency's website.

"Maintaining optimum habitat diversity on our forested game lands is an important goal of our timber management program," Capouillez said. "There were 6,055 acres offered for bidding for commercial timber harvest operations during the past fiscal year.

There were 1,605 acres treated with herbicide to remove ferns, striped maple, spicebush, and low quality beech brush hampering the establishment of more beneficial tree species. Contractors erected 8-foot-high woven wire fences around 258 acres of recently harvested habitat areas to protect the susceptible new growth from excessive browsing by deer. This was a notable decrease of 326 acres from the previous year.

"Also, our upland vegetation management machine was used to treat 193 acres by cutting and shearing advanced growth of woody vegetation so it could revert to an earlier successional, low ground cover, stage."

In 1919, the Game Commission was granted authority to purchase lands for the protection, propagation and management of game and wildlife, and to provide areas for public hunting and trapping. Since that time, the Game Commission has acquired more than 1.4 million acres in 65 of the state's 67 counties (Philadelphia and Delaware counties being the exceptions).

With few exceptions, State Game Lands were purchased using revenues from hunting and furtaker license sales; State Game Lands timber, coal, oil, gas and mineral operation revenues; the state's share of a federal excise tax on sporting arms and ammunition, known as the Pittman-Robertson Program; from Working Together for Wildlife artwork and patch sales; and from the Pennsylvania Waterfowl Management stamp and print sales.

Visit the Game Commission’s State Game Lands webpage for more information.

9/5/2008