Forest
Stewardship News Release
March
29, 2004 - For Immediate Release
Contact: Rance
Harmon, Phone: 814-863-0401 E-mail: rsh144@psu.edu
IMap Identifies Pennsylvania's Important Mammal Habitat
Pennsylvania’s two-year old wildlife conservation program, the Important Mammals Areas Project (IMAP) is the first of its kind in the world. Modeled after the Important Bird Areas Project, IMAP seeks to identify conservation sites for threatened, endangered, and vulnerable mammals, as well as sites that host a diversity of mammals or that are important for public education about mammals. IMAP receives most of its funding through the State Wildlife Grants program administered by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The program is currently in the process of delineating boundaries around the 45 designated sites, which include the Northern Allegheny Plateau, Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Ridge, the Wyoming State Forest, and the Delaware State Forest among others. Part of IMAP’s selection criteria is the area’s capacity to provide habitat for “species of special concern.” However, another important goal of the project is to select sites that are important for educating the public about mammals; for example, the Northern Allegheny Plateau IMA includes the Benezette Elk Viewing Area, which provides a unique opportunity for visitors to observe elk in their natural habitat.
While the majority of the project
areas are publicly owned, areas like the Wyoming State Forest IMA may
encompass both public and private tracts. Project Coordinator, Alana Hartman
emphasizes that IMAP is a non-regulatory, voluntary program, “Every
landowner should know that nothing would be imposed on them, whether they
want to be part of the project or not.”
According to Project Director Alicia Linzey, only 9 of the 45 Important
Mammal Areas are wholly privately owned, and of those nine, three are
owned by conservancies. Hartman compares the IMAP conservation plans to
the wildlife objectives for a forest stewardship plan, both outline management
practices to sustain desired species; for example, planting fruit trees,
shrubs, and vines, and creating brush piles to provide winter cover for
rabbits and other small mammals. She says, “Each landowner would
be their own steward.”
“ A lot of the species that are in trouble are the relatively small mammals, such as bats, and the shrews and rodents,” says Linzey. “You might argue that we’ve lost the big ones already: wolves, bison, moose, and mountain lions. The small ones are especially vulnerable because they are very place-based, and require specific habitats. Water shrews, for example, live in cold, rocky streams and eat insects. Any land-use practice that results in an increase in water temperature or stream sedimentation will compromise the habitat. When this happens, they have nowhere to go.”
The IMAP program does not plan to consult with individual private landowners, or to offer landowners financial support for conservation projects. However, by 2005 they hope to be able to assist private landowners in finding government and private funding sources, says Rick Spencer, Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizer for the National Wildlife Federation. According to Spencer, one of the goals of IMAP is “helping landowners do the right thing, and helping them tap into funding from federal and state programs.”
To learn more about IMAP or to find out if your land falls within a designated Important Mammal Area, visit the Pennsylvania Wildlife Federation Web site or call the IMAP office at 717-232-3480.
The Pennsylvania Forest Stewardship Program provides publications on a variety of topics related to woodland management for private landowners. For a list of free publications, call 1-800-235-WISE (toll-free), send e-mail to RNRext@psu.edu, or write to: Forest Stewardship Program, Forest Resources Extension, The Pennsylvania State University, 320 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA 16802. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and USDA Forest Service, in partnership with the Penn State's Forest Resources Extension, sponsor the Forest Stewardship Program in Pennsylvania.
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