Fire for habitat and a hunting deadline

Posted on: September 9, 2015 | Bob Frye | Comments

We’ve all heard it: where there’s smoke there’s fire.
In this case, that’s a good thing.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is using fire to create habitat in southwest Pennsylvania.
Kimberley Run Natural Area, owned by the Somerset Conservancy and located just outside of Somerset, is enrolled in the agency’s cooperative hunter access program. It has more than 100 acres of warm season native grass fields.
The commission is doing a controlled burn on 33 of those acres in six parts in an effort to enhance and perpetuate the grasses that provide habitat for birds.
“ Fire will remove the woody trees that have started to encroach on the grasslands, it will release native forbs from the seed bank that have been shaded by the thick dense grass, and it will serve to thin the grass density to allow for a more diverse herbaceous habitat,” the commission said in a news release.
“The warm season grasses in this area were planted at such a rate that they are too dense to allow for some wildlife to even enter the grass fields. They are intended to be more clumpy in nature and allow wildlife to run through it, hide, and use it as nesting cover, but that is currently not the case in this area,” said Travis Anderseon, a land management officer with the commission.
The commission has been using fire as a habitat tool for a while, said regional forester Neil Itle. The particular burn will occur sometime this month, provided all conditions are right, he added.
On another subject hunting related, there’s a deadline approaching.
Hunters who want a goose blind at Pymatuning Wildlife Management Area need to apply now. They’re due by Sept. 12.
Applications, which can be found on page 54 of the hunting digest, should be mailed to: PGC Pymatuning Wildlife Management Area, 9552 Hartstown Road, Hartstown, PA 16131.
A public drawing to award permits will be held at 10 a.m. on Sept. 19.
Shooting days are Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, one-half hour before sunrise to 12:30 p.m.
A special junior-only waterfowl hunting day will be held Nov. 28. Junior hunters apply using the same application, but will have their chances in a special drawing.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

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