The Pennsylvania Game Commission presented PPL Corporation with the commission’s Working Together for Wildlife Award this week.

Joanne H. Raphael, vice president of External Affairs for PPL, accepted the award from Michael W. Schmit, Game Commission deputy executive director, at PPL’s Montour Preserve near Washingtonville, Pa. The award recognizes PPL’s support of wildlife and habitat management initiatives in Montour County.

Since the Montour Preserve’s creation in the 1970s, PPL has supported activities such as seedling planting and the annual stocking of pheasants on nearly 4,000 acres of land owned by PPL near the preserve.

It has provided facilities and trainers for the state’s hunter-trapper education programs. In addition, it has maintained parking lots for hunters, provided a map for sportsmen to use, and supported Game Commission law enforcement practices and other wildlife management activities on PPL-owned land.

PPL’s Montour Preserve has also joined the Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in supporting the activities of Pheasants Forever, a nonprofit wildlife habitat conservation organization that focuses on improving farmland and other nonforested habitats for pheasants and other small game.

Situated in the Appalachian foothills of north central Pennsylvania, the Montour Preserve includes the 165-acre Lake Chillisquaque. The preserve offers a variety of educational and recreational opportunities, including hiking on more than 14 miles of trails, birding, boating, fishing, cross-country skiing and fossil hunting at its popular fossil pit. The preserve’s Visitors Center serves as a nature and history museum and is open year-round.

PPL operates Montour Preserve in conjunction with the company’s Montour power plant in Derry Township. The preserve is operated as part of PPL Project Earth, an initiative through which the company educates the public about energy resources and the environment.

4/15/2005