HARRISBURG (TNS) — The Tionesta Scenic and Research Natural Area in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania is the latest old-growth tract in the state to be inducted into the Old-Growth Forest Network.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, the 4,000-acre tract in McKean and Warren counties is the largest old-growth forest in Pennsylvania and the largest between the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York and the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee.
It is home to many ancient and impressively large eastern hemlock trees, some more than 400 years old.
Other dominant tree species in the area are beech, birch, oak, maple, ash and black cherry. The large beech trees of the area have mostly succumbed to beech bark disease.
This area is the traditional homelands of numerous indigenous peoples and Nations, including the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and the historic Erie and Susquehannock peoples, many who were incorporated into the great Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Hemlock-beech forests once covered 6 million acres of the Allegheny Plateau in Pennsylvania and New York. To preserve a remnant of that forest, the federal government purchased the last remaining uncut hemlock-beech forest in 1936. Half of that area was set aside in the Tionesta Scenic Area, primarily for public enjoyment, four years later. The other half was set aside in the Tionesta Research Natural Area for scientific study.
It’s an Important Bird Area. Audubon notes, “Breeding bird surveys over the last 5-plus years show this to be one of the most important ‘source’ areas in the state for breeding bird songbirds. Old-growth dependent species are abundant. This area supports the state’s largest breeding population of Swainson’s thrush. It is one of the few confirmed breeding locations in Pennsylvania for the yellow-bellied flycatcher. Blackburnian warbler breeding density is approximately 40 times greater than in second-growth forests. Exceptionally high overall diversity, with over 300 species of regularly breeding forest birds and more than 200 total recorded species throughout the national forest.”
In counties capable of supporting old growth forest, the Old-Growth Forest Network identifies at least one forest that will be protected from logging and open to the public.
“Pennsylvania is leading the nation in the quantity of old-growth forests dedicated to the network,” said Old-Growth Forest Network Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager Brian Kane. “With 23 now in the national network, Pennsylvania shows its commitment to the preservation of old-growth forest within its boundaries.”
