Cherry Run Maintains Rank as WPC’s Largest Project
The work of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has helped to improve the quality of watersheds located in Cherry Run.
The yellow birch, red maple and other deciduous trees peppered among the hemlock along Cherry Run stream have lost their leaves now that autumn is settling into winter. Many summer residents, such as American redstart, northern parula and other migrating songbirds, have left, but hikers may see wild turkeys strutting within the rhododendron. Like other parts of Pennsylvania, white-tailed deer are common, but visitors could see an eastern coyote once in a while.
This is State Game Lands 295, which is commonly known as the Cherry Run Game Lands, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s largest project and an example of the type of land WPC works to protect in the Central Valleys and Ridges. The 12,670-acre property in Centre and Clinton counties has five streams, including Cherry Run — designated a Wilderness Trout Stream by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
Most of the land’s length is cradled by the parallel ridges of Big Mountain (with a 2,200-foot crest) and Bear Mountain (with a 1,900-foot crest); the watershed’s high ground is located in Riansares Mountain, a 2,300-foot knob on the northernmost portion of the Big Mountain ridge. Two springs on Riansares Mountain are the source of Cherry Run stream.
The game lands cover nearly 20 square miles of rugged forestland and offer great habitat for deer, turkey, black bear and other wildlife. Its game land designation provides permanent protection of its natural state for activities such as hunting, fishing and hiking.
Cherry Run is a Wilderness Trout Stream, which means it has naturally reproducing brook trout, a native population the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission manages without the addition of any hatchery-reared stock. Hikers may not see these brook trout even in clear water because their olive-green back camouflages them. But anglers know these are colorful fish, with orange bellies, red lower fins and blue-edged red flank spots.
Remnants of old logging roads run through much of this property. One road stretches from the stream’s mountaintop headwaters to it’s mouth by Fishing Creek.
The Hardwood Trails property stretches over 1,600 acres on Evitts Mountain in Bedford County, Pa.
Visitors can hike on an abandoned railroad bed paralleling Penns Creek. The railroad grade is at treetop level, which affords good views of warblers and other migrating birds. The railroad bed is an easy walk, allowing attention to focus on wildlife. The trail eventually leads to an abandoned tunnel and bridge that crosses Penns Creek with access to Poe Paddy State Park.
In a few months, spring migrating songbirds will use Penns Creek as a travel corridor.
The Conservancy first became interested in the Cherry Run land in 1971 and negotiated for eight years with the B & R Lumber Company of Johnstown. During this time, the Pennsylvania Game Commission made a commitment to acquire the land and agreed to reimburse the Conservancy for the land over a period of years.
To finance the project, WPC negotiated a long-term loan with Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh. This marked the first time that the Conservancy had to borrow funds for a land project, but the loan allowed WPC to keep its revolving land acquisition fund intact and available for other projects already under negotiation.
But this large tract of mountain wilderness is not the only WPC land conservation project in the Central Valleys and Ridges.
Last year, WPC permanently conserved a major expanse of mountainside forest over a key tributary to the Potomac River. Hardwood Trails is composed of more than 1,600 acres on Evitts Mountain in Bedford County.
This photo, taken in 1978, shows an aerial view of Cherry Run.
The acquisition helps to protect Evitts Creek and the lakes formed by the creek, Lake Koon and Lake Gordon, which are just below the property. The hillsides above them are important to protect, both for their own conservation values and for the benefit of the lakes’ water quality, partly because the lakes supply drinking water for the city of Cumberland, Md.
“This is a key conservation property, a huge mountainside parcel in Bedford County,” said Thomas D. Saunders, president and chief executive officer of the Conservancy. “It creates one large linkage of protected lands from Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland up into Pennsylvania’s Buchanan State Forest.”
WPC will transfer the Hardwood Trails property to the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ (DCNR) Bureau of Forestry to become a new addition to Pennsylvania’s Buchanan State Forest.
The Conservancy has protected more than 250 acres around Sideling Hill Creek, which flows through the southern reaches of Bedford and Fulton counties and is home to important ecosystem features such as shale barrens, rare freshwater mussel species and a freshwater sponge.