PA BOARD PURCHASES NEW STATE GAME LANDS AND ACCEPTS DONATION
The Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners today approved the purchase of 115.66 acres adjoining State Game Land 314, in Springfield Township, Erie County, from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy for $400 per acre. The property consists of seven parcels with a diversity of habitat types, including roughly 780 feet of frontage on Lake Erie with undeveloped natural bluffs up to 75 feet high. Other habitat types include old reverting fields and woodland classified as Great Lakes Region Lake Plain Palustrine Forest, a critically imperiled plant community. The tracts are bisected by Old Lake Road, which provides access into the property. Although the majority of the property south of Old Lake Road is forested with maple, ash, beech, white pine and black cherry, there are small pockets of open wetlands and old fields reverting back to a natural condition. A tributary to Raccoon Creek flows through the southern portion of the property.
SGL 314 presently contains 3,178 acres in Erie County.
The Board also accepted a donation from Sofia Pearlman, of Camp Hill, of 10.4 acres in Franklin Township, York County, adjoining SGL 243. The tract is forested with mixed hardwoods containing yellow poplar, maple and beech as the predominate species. The understory is mostly spice bush and multiflora rose. The property lies south of Cabin Hollow Road.
SGL 243 presently contains 1,166 acres in York County.
