PA Natural Heritage Program Celebrates 40 Years Of Discovery - New Species, Solving Mysteries, Finding Rare Species In New Places

The PA Natural Heritage Program released its annual report this week detailing its accomplishments during 2021 that includes discovering new species, solving mysteries and discovering rare species in new places.

The report also celebrates the program’s 40 years of accomplishments.

The Program is a partnership between the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Fish and Boat Commission, Game Commission, Western PA Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Volunteers, students, communities and local partners are an important part of the program.

Its mission is to provide scientific information, expertise and assistance to support the conservation of biological diversity in the Commonwealth.

Among the accomplishments in 2021--

-- Finding five globally rare moths and a stonefly species;

-- Discovering big sand tiger beetles in new locations;

-- Conducting species surveys in the Allegheny National Forest, Pymatuning Marsh and other areas;

-- Doing bat population surveys in high conservation state forests;

-- Continued inventory work to support the lower Susquehanna River Botany Plan;

-- Expanded work on understanding floodplain plant communities;

-- Assessing streams for their readiness for freshwater mussel introduction;

-- Supported stream restoration work and plantings for rare butterfly habitat;

-- Updated and released 643 new natural heritage areas;

-- Continued local partnerships for ecologically-informed park management;

-- Released a map of climate change connectivity corridors to support resilience in our natural systems;

-- Classified additional geoheritage features; and

-- PA Conservation Explorer tool supported 20,500 searches for rare or endangered species as part of environmental permit reviews.

The report also highlights the threats to and conservation efforts related to turtles in Pennsylvania.

Click Here to read the entire report.

For more information on this initiative, visit the PA Natural Heritage Program webpage.

[Posted: August 18, 2022]  PA Environment Digest