The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) today announced the permanent protection of hundreds of forested acres in the Laurel Highlands along two miles of the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP). Today’s acquisition of a 329-acre tract of land in Black Township, Somerset County, is one of five properties conserved in recent years along the GAP and added to WPC’s now 609-acre Casselman River Conservation Area. According to the Allegheny Trail Alliance, there are approximately one million visits to the trail annually for recreational purposes. Trail users will pass directly through this scenic protected area that hosts forested slopes and marshes. Beyond its
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From ranchers in the West to forest managers in the East, private landowners are voluntarily conserving habitat for wildlife, helping species rebound and recover. One such success highlighted in this new magazine from the Natural Resources Conservation Service is happening in the Appalachians with the Golden-winged Warbler. Accountability: Outcomes Improve Conservation Efforts Karli Rogers aims her radio-telemetry antenna towards a marked bird in a regenerating forest. The biologist is following the beeps as she makes her way through the dense understory. There she finds a young golden-winged warbler being fed by an adult, a sign of progress, showing habitat restoration
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The Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) and the U.S. Forest Service are releasing products from the first phase of an ongoing study assessing benefits of and risks to the region’s “ecosystem services” — natural assets valued by people such as clean drinking water, outdoor recreation, forest products, and biological conservation. A wealth of data, maps, and other knowledge on ecosystem services and risks to their sustainability are now available on the “Ecosystem Benefits and Risks” website within the Appalachian LCC Web Portal. The new website provides regional resources and tools for planners, managers, and the interested public across the Appalachians.
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New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced plans to manage at least 10 percent of forested stands on 90 of the agency’s 125 Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) as young forest. Over the next ten years, DEC will use timber harvests and other management techniques to create young forest on approximately 12,000 of the 120,000 wooded acres on WMAs statewide; those acres do not include areas of shrubland, which will be managed separately. DEC plans to maintain 10 percent of all WMA woodlands as young forest in perpetuity. DEC explains the pressing need for young forest, noting that
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The North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) published today The State of North America’s Birds 2016, the first comprehensive report assessing the conservation status of all bird species that occur in Canada, the continental United States, and Mexico. The report was released by NABCI partners at the Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Canada, on behalf of all three countries, with a simultaneous event at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, in partnership with International Migratory Bird Day. NABCI was created by Canada, the United States and Mexico as a tri-national commitment to protect birds and their habitats. “This report will allow
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Migratory birds throughout the Western Hemisphere will benefit from $4 million in grants for 32 collaborative conservation projects across the Americas, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today. The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act grants will leverage the Service’s investment with $16.9 million in additional partner funds—a more than four-to-one match. The projects will conserve migratory bird habitat, engage local communities in bird habitat protection, and strengthen international relations, while raising awareness of the importance of bird conservation. “One hundred years ago, we signed the first Migratory Bird Treaty with Canada, recognizing the need to conserve shared species across
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Click here to view and download the 2023 AMJV Partnership Year in Review!
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The 2023 AMJV Impact Report is now available for downloading and sharing! Starting in 2022, this beautiful report has been designed annually by Liz Brewer (AMJV Outreach Specialist) to…
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by Liz Brewer, AMJV Outreach Specialist Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture (AMJV), in partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), and the West Virginia…
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