Michaux State Forest Restoration Project Plans to Enhance Habitat, Bolster NWTF’s Forests and Flocks Initiative

Over 1,000 acres of the southern Pennsylvania state forest are currently being monitored for management work to begin this upcoming summer. Foresters plan to use several different forestry techniques, such as non-commercial tree felling; forestry mulching; planting of ecologically valuable trees, shrubs and forbs; and cut-and-leave treatment of dead trees that have died due to disease or insect infestation. The managed acres will count toward the 100,000 acres of land conserved under the NWTF’s Forests and Flocks Initiative.  

Foresters are planning to cut down over 1,000 trees across the 205-acre project footprint. Strategically placing woody material directly into or near streams will improve habitat, enhance water quality, support diverse ecosystems and enhance forest composition and structural diversity at all vegetation layers.  

Foresters plan to strategically remove trees to create stream canopy gaps, as well as increasing downed woody materials along three miles of streams and adjacent forests. The increased structure in and around the stream will help reconnect the water table with the floodplain, slow down water velocity during high flow events, reduce erosive potential, and improve water filtration and recharge through increased retention time within the watershed. 

Managers also plan to retire about three miles of poorly placed redundant road segments, which negatively impact streams and stream-side forests. The roads will be repurposed as shared-use trails and firebreaks, which are designed to prevent or slow the spread of wildfires and control prescribed burns.  

This project will increase the efficiency, predictability and safety of implementing prescribed fire and other managed disturbance regimes to sustain dynamic habitats at the upper tributary system level. 

The American Bird Conservancy, the project’s grantee, is working in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry, Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program and South Mountain Partnership Conservation Network to advance all five of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) program pillars.   

The Pennsylvania NWTF State Chapter committed significant funds to the project via the state chapter’s Super Fund. Created in the NWTF’s formative years, the Super Fund is a volunteer-driven program. NWTF volunteers in every state raise money at banquets and other types of fundraisers and then allocate a significant portion of those funds back into meaningful conservation and outreach projects in their respective states.   

The project will directly benefit wild turkeys by creating early successional habitat. Indirectly, the project will improve ecosystem conditions for all species by increasing species and structural diversity on a landscape level, which will result in a healthier forest and a greater quantity and quality of nesting and brood rearing habitat for wild turkeys. 

This project is the perfect example of NWTF’s Four Shared Values: Clean Water, Healthy Forests and Wildlife Habitat, Resilient Communities, and Robust Recreational Opportunities. 

“The NFWF project on the Michaux is a continuation of the great restoration work that has occurred on the South Mountain ridge-tops,” said Mitch Blake, NWTF district biologist. “A fire-adapted landscape, long excluded from fire, is now being restored acre by acre through landscape-scale disturbance. It's great to see the habitats for species of the greatest conservation concern being addressed as well as upper tributary water quality concerns. This project is really the epitome of a landscape scale forest health collaborative.”