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Feature - New National Wildlife Refuge Protects Nature, Rural Life In Monroe County
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With the help of The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week established the nation’s newest national wildlife refuge in Pennsylvania’s Cherry Valley, just a half-mile from I-80 and a morning’s drive from crowded Manhattan.
 
"It is a great honor, as Secretary of the Interior, to be able to recognize the establishment of this new national wildlife refuge," Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne said. "The Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are committed to the protection and conservation of the environmental diversity of this country. This new refuge will allow us to further our mission as we work to ensure that generations of Americans long into the future still will benefit from the abundance of our nation's natural beauty."
 
"The partnership approach to the planning for the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge is a model for future planning efforts," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall. "The collaboration of officials from local, state, and federal offices, as well as non-governmental organizations made sure the process was efficient and comprehensive. The strong, grassroots support for the project shows that this habitat is nationally significant and Cherry Valley is the right place for a new national wildlife refuge."
 
"The Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge will protect a rare and important landscape for both people and nature," said Bill Kunze, Pennsylvania state director for The Nature Conservancy.
 
"This project not only benefits rare plants and animals, but also a landscape of working farms and private homes scattered through a beautiful valley only 75 miles from Philadelphia and Manhattan. We're very happy for the people of Cherry Valley, who have loved this land for generations, and have worked hard to bring this refuge to life," Kunze said.
 
Cherry Valley sits at the edge of the Pocono Mountains, a region known for its tourism, recreation and summer homes. This pastoral valley of farmland and open space lies squarely in the path of human development in all directions.
 
But the valley also is home to unique ecosystems and rare species like the bog turtle. That’s why The Nature Conservancy has provided the science and the conservation expertise to protect habitat here for nearly 20 years.
 
According to Hall, the Service achieves much of its fish and wildlife conservation mission by strategically acquiring lands from willing sellers as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. 
 
At CherryValley, the Service's next step is to work with partners and landowners within the refuge boundary to identify opportunities to acquire lands from interested property owners through easements and fee title.
 
Organizations, such as the Commonweath of Pennsylvania, The Nature Conservancy, National Park Service and other entities already protect a significant amount of conservation land within and near the new refuge boundary.
 
The Service has established a boundary for the refuge, encompassing 20,466 acres in Monroe and Northampton counties, within which it may now acquire nationally significant habitat for wildlife as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
 
Where People and Wildlife Live in Harmony
 
The new refuge — spanning some 20,466 acres across Monroe and Northampton counties — will be developed over many years. When complete it will protect an area that stretches west from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and includes a portion of the Appalachian Trail and the slopes of Kittatinny Ridge, a globally important flyway for raptors and songbirds.
 
Cherry Valley is home to 85 rare species like the bog turtle and spreading globeflower, and calcareous fens, a vulnerable wetland type. Many more common but rarely seen creatures — like beaver, river otter, bobcats and bald eagles — make their homes here.
 
The new refuge will also safeguard one of the largest unprotected sections of a relatively unbroken, 400,000-acre Appalachian forest extending from Pennsylvania’s southern border to New York’s Shawangunk Mountains.
 
The future site of the new national wildlife refuge — only the third such refuge in Pennsylvania — also is home to the farms and homes of about 9,000 people. Many of the families have worked over generations to keep their properties in a state of minimal development and maximum open space.
“This project benefits not only rare plants and animals, but also a landscape of working farms and private homes woven throughout a beautiful valley only 75 miles from Philadelphia and Manhattan,” says Bill Kunze, Pennsylvania state director for The Nature Conservancy.
 
Establishment of a national wildlife refuge is a long-term conservation strategy to preserve that natural area and rural way of life in Cherry Valley. The project will mix outright land purchases from willing sellers, voluntary conservation easements, and other financial incentives and will demonstrate that people and wildlife can live in harmony.
 
A Project Long in the Making
 
The effort to bring the national wildlife refuge to Cherry Valley began nearly 20 years ago when the Conservancy and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service first worked together to protect endangered bog turtles in the area. The result was a plan — supported by elected officials and local conservation group Friends of Cherry Valley — that would protect not only habitat for the rare plants and animals, but also the rural nature of the community.
 
Years later, the Conservancy led a team of experts to study the feasibility of a wildlife refuge at Cherry Valley. The result was a plan, supported by elected officials and the Friends of Cherry Valley, that would protect not only habitat for the rare plants and animals, but also the rural nature of the community.
 
The new refuge has a head start, as 6,000 acres in the area already have been protected through past efforts by the Conservancy, government agencies and local conservation groups. The next step for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will be to work with partners and landowners within the refuge boundary to identify opportunities to buy land or conservation easements.
 
“The establishment of the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge will now give conservation-minded landowners the additional option that has been needed to assist them in preserving their land as a legacy for future generations,” said Debra Schuler, president of the Friends of Cherry Valley.
 
“The vision, persistence and dedication of all these partners has created a model for conservation in heavily populated places throughout North America and around the world,” added Bud Cook, senior project manager for the Conservancy’s Pocono Mountains project. “Finding ways to preserve the biological riches of these places will be a critical test for conservation leaders in the future, and the Cherry Valley success story can help point the way.”
 
 

Adapted from an article for The Nature Conservancy/PA by Marcus Schneck, outdoor and wildlife writer.

12/26/2008

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