Below is a Facebook post from the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation helped with the project thanks to $76,800 from the Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s Outdoor Fund. The project, RMEF’s first on State Game Lands 293, enhanced habitat for elk, whitetail deer, black bear, wild turkey, grouse and other wildlife.
Recently, land managers and habitat crews in the Game Commission’s Northcentral Region and several partners completed a 118-acre habitat project on State Game Lands (SGL) 293 to benefit elk and other wildlife.
Thanks to a grant from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Game Commission was able to partner with CML Contracting and AESIC to do some major improvements on a newer section of SGL 293.
This section of the game lands was acquired in 2012, but a timber reservation placed on the property limited the scope of habitat work that could be implemented until 2019. Around the same time, elk were seen using the area frequently. The elk were taking advantage of the food and cover the young regenerating forest in this area of the game lands could provide.
However, without additional follow up habitat work, elk would soon eat themselves out of house and home. The Game Commission’s forestry and habitat management staff devised an ambitious plan to convert 118 acres of regenerating forest to herbaceous habitat (a mixture of grassland and cool season forage) and maintain an additional 99 acres of regenerating forest as shrubland habitat, primarily using prescribed fire.
These efforts created a mosaic of habitat types in the complex consisting of herbaceous, shrub, and young forest habitats, and the complex is the most intensively managed habitat specifically for elk within the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania’s Elk Management Area.
This habitat work will not only benefit elk but also several other animals, including black bears, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, grouse, and more!
A huge thank you to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, our partners and staff for creating this important complex of habitat on SGL 293.
(Photo credit: Pennsylvania Game Commission)