Game Commission Adds To State Game Lands

The Board of Game Commissioners this week approved the purchase of two tracts that will adjoin State Game Lands in Elk and Northampton counties.

 

The first tract is 37.5 acres in Fox Township, Elk County, an interior holding of State Game Lands 44. The price of $30,600 is being paid with monies derived from a previously-approved oil/gas lease on SGL 75 in Lycoming County with Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, of Charleston, West Virginia.

 

The current property owner will retain all coal, oil and gas rights to this parcel, which is a reclaimed strip mine that is predominantly grassland interspersed by black locust trees. A township road borders the eastern side of the property and will provide excellent access to SGL 44.

 

The second offering was three tracts totaling 12 acres in Bushkill Township, Northampton County, that adjoin SGL168. The land was offered to the Game Commission by the Wildlands Conservancy, of Emmaus. The price of $12,000 is being paid with monies derived from a previously-approved coal lease with Ladner Inc., of Hummelstown, for a mining lease on SGL 264 in Dauphin County. The wooded tracts are on the southern slope of Blue Mountain, contain a headwater stream of Bushkill Creek and help fill an indenture holding within SGL 168.

 

In other action, the Board of Game Commissioners approved a land exchange with the Northern Tier Solid Waste Authority, of Burlington, that will convey two tracts – 53.9 and 23.4 acres – in Burlington Township, Bradford County, to the Game Commission in exchange for 26.1 acres of SGL 289 in the same municipality.

 

As part of the exchange, the Game Commission agreed to the relocation of Township Road T-357 – located north of the old red pine plantation tract it swapped – to realign the road. The two tracts being conveyed to the agency are mixed hardwoods interspersed with conifers. The larger of the two has about 10 acres of reverting hayfield. The smaller is an indenture holding, and Mill Creek flows through its southwest corner.

 

The Northern Tier Solid Waste Authority also has entered into an agreement with the Game Commission to transfer an additional 35-acre tract adjoining SGL 289 in Burlington Township, Bradford County. The transfer of this parcel was contingent on settlement of the aforementioned exchange.

 

NTSWA has retained the right to remove topsoil from this parcel now and in the future; the Game Commission has asked that if topsoil is removed, the land is converted into a wetland, which the agency would help design, and offer manpower and equipment to build. The lower sections of this tillable agricultural land floods seasonally. It also contains a narrow wooded riparian corridor.

 

Also, this exchange is contingent upon approval of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the National Park Service, because the 26.1 acres of SGL 289 was acquired in part with funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act.