Forest
Stewardship News Release
September
16, 2004- For Immediate Release
Contact: Allyson
Muth , Phone: 814-863-0401 E-mail: abm173@psu.edu
Auto Tour Promotes Pennsylvania Old Growth Forests for Eco-Tourism
A new tourist guide to Pennsylvania's old-growth forests is now available from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and on the DCNR Web site. Dr. Donald L. Gibbon, consulting naturalist, and Dr. Walter Carson, forest ecologist at the University of Pittsburgh, first conceived the Auto Tour of Old-Growth Forests four years ago. Gibbon describes the idea as 'a tour for people who are interested in the forest, to see how it looked originally, and to see the best of what's left." Some remaining parcels of old growth include the Alan Seeger Natural Area, the Anders Run Natural Area, Cranberry Swamp, Cooks Forest State Park, and more. According to the DCNR, less than one percent of Pennsylvania forestland (30,000 acres) can be defined as "old growth." Old growth forests occur when man or nature leaves the forest undisturbed and the forest succession cycle is not reset. It takes many years for the different forest types to attain such advanced maturity - at least 100 years for scrub-oak barrens to 350 years for hemlock forests.
"These small fragments represent the best picture we have of what forests might have looked like prior to European settlement," says Carson. "When you walk into a section of old-growth, you get the sense that you're seeing a very different kind of forest. One of the different features is a large amount of big downed, woody debris, and standing dead trees with fallen crowns and very large, slowly decaying trunks." Visitors may also expect to get a glimpse of towering giants like Cooks Forest's record setting 181-foot white pine, or of 300-year-old black cherry trees in the Tionesta Scenic Area. Cooks Forest's white pine and hemlock trees are between 350 and 450 years old.
The nineteen natural areas chosen for the tour lie in the Lumber Heritage Region, a fifteen-county area in the northwest, north-central part of the state that contains many of our state and national forests. The region owes its name to a history of heavy logging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The inaccessibility of some parcels spared them from the widespread clearcutting. Even today, the forests along these muddy bogs and rocky inclines have never been harvested; however, individual trees might have been removed from the area.
Although Pennsylvania's old-growth fragments are too small to provide significant wildlife habitat, Carson says there are some animals that require old growth. Auto-Tour sites frequently overlap the Audubon Society's designated Important Birds Areas and the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Pennsylvania Important Mammals Areas. Mammals like black bear, pine marten and flying squirrel, and birds like blue-headed vireo, brown creeper, and barred owl find refuge in old-growth forests.
The Auto Tour of Old-Growth Forest brochure, available from the DCNR and on the DCNR Web site, contains detailed directions, photos, and a brief description of each area. Gibbon says, "It would probably take six or seven days to visit all the sites. It's especially interesting to visit them in all seasons, not only summer."
Many of the sites are located off Route 120 or Route 322, and some can be accessed by car. Cooks Forest and the Alan Seeger Natural Area, for example, have roads running through them. Other sites are located a couple of miles off the road, and travelers will need to walk to see the old growth. "This is not set up for the armchair tourist," Gibbon explains. "It's for people interested in experiencing woods as woods." Many of the areas do not provide amenities.
As Pennsylvania's second largest industry, tourism is vital to our state's economy. The "Pennsylvania Wild" campaign, one of four new state initiatives to promote Pennsylvania tourism, will encompass portions of the old-growth areas outlined in the auto tour. Contact your local Bureau of Forestry district office for a brochure.
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 , or write to: Forest Stewardship Program, Forest Resources Extension, The Pennsylvania State University, 7 Ferguson 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.# # #
