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Conservation Plan (Phase I):
Pennsylvania Important Bird Area #76 — Canoe Creek Watershed

By Canoe Creek Watershed IBA Coordinator
Dr. Stan Kotala

Purpose of Phase I Conservation Plan

This phase I conservation plan is a preliminary document to:

catalog the natural resources and built environment for each Important Bird Area,
identify site boundaries,
document the criteria for which it was selected,
describe the birds and wildlife habitat which occur on the site with special reference to the species for which the site was selected as an IBA,
identify any conservation issues or threats to the site, and
provide recommendations for conservation actions to conserve or enhance habitat for bird populations, especially for those species for which the site was selected as an IBA.

The recommendations are presented from the perspective of bird and wildlife habitat conservation. The plan is presented as an initial position from which to plan for and implement bird conservation on the site.

Site Name: Canoe Creek Watershed IBA

Size: Core site 15,259 acres

Ownership: Pennsylvania Game Commission (50%), Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Bureau of State Parks) (7%), private (43%)

County/Municipality: Blair County / Frankstown and Catherine Townships

Physiographic Province/Bird Conservation Region/Watershed: Ridge and Valley Province / BCR 28, Appalachian Mountains / Susquehanna River — Chesapeake Bay. The site includes all of the watershed of Canoe Creek and its named tributaries (Mary Anne’s Creek and New Creek) and numerous unnamed tributaries.

Legislative Districts: 9th Congressional District, U.S. Representative Bill Shuster (R); 30th Senatorial District, State Senator Robert Jubelirer (R); 80th House District, State Representative Jerry Stern (R)

Stewardship Adoption Status: Juniata Valley Audubon (juniatavalleyaudubon.org) has adopted the Canoe Creek Watershed IBA for monitoring, advocacy, and education efforts. Point counts are conducted several times a year at 20 designated points in the Canoe Creek Watershed IBA.

IBA Selection Criteria:

(1e): 226 bird species reported on site. 111 species have been documented breeding at the site within the last 10 years. High densities of species have been documented. Exceptional number of Neotropical migrants are nesting.
(2): Bald Eagle (SM, FM), Osprey (SM, FM), Great Egret (SM, FM), Least Bittern (SM, FM), Peregrine Falcon (SM, FM).
(3): Northern Harrier (SM, FM), Black-crowned Night Heron (SM, FM), Pied-billed Grebe (SM, FM), Green-winged Teal (SM, FM), Northern Goshawk (SM, FM), American Coot (SM, FM), Common Snipe (SM, FM), Swainson’s Thrush (SM, FM), Long-eared Owl (SM, FM, W).
(4a): Exceptional representative of classic Ridge and Valley ecosystem, with long, wide forested riparian corridor and undisturbed palustrine and riverine wetlands. The water quality of Canoe Creek and its feeder streams is exceptional.
(4b): High densities of forest canopy and thicket species. Scarlet Tanager (B - 500 ± pair), Warbling Vireo (B - 30 ± pair), Yellow-throated Vireo (B - 20 ± pair), Ovenbird (B - 500 ± pair), Wood Thrush (B - 500 ± pair), Worm-eating Warbler (B - 100 ± pair). The site includes a six-mile-long riparian forest corridor protected on both sides of Canoe Creek. Hillside forest protects many forest interior species and good populations of Watch List species.
(5): Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology Special Areas Project: 1992-present (Juniata Valley Audubon).

Important Avian Habitats

Riparian and upland forests (75% of the watershed); thickets; agricultural fields; park; riverine habitat; lacustrine habitat; riverine, palustrine, and lacustrine wetlands (emergent, shrub, and forested); numerous beaver ponds in various stages of succession.

General Site Description

The Canoe Creek Watershed Important Bird Area consists of large areas of contiguous forest (>8,000 acres), pristine riparian habitat along Canoe Creek (6 miles), pristine emergent, shrub, and forested wetlands of the palustrine, riverine, and lacustrine types (200 acres), and large roadless areas, as well as residential and agricultural areas. Brush Mountain and Canoe Mountain provide outstanding uninterrupted forest habitat in a 20-mile long and 2-mile wide corridor. The Canoe Creek Watershed IBA (15,259 acres) is contiguous with the Bald Eagle Ridge IBA (50,000 acres) to the west and the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River IBA (5,000 acres) to the east. The Frankstown Branch IBA is contiguous with the Greater Tussey Mountain IBA (65,000 acres) to the north and south. Together, these four IBAs comprise an enormous block of core wildlife habitat for breeding as well as corridors connecting them to intact ecosystems to the north and south, facilitating dispersion of species as well as migration.

Summary of Birds

The Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) (S2S3B, S3N), the Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus) (S3B,S3N), the Green-winged Teal (Anas creca) (S1S2B, S4N), the Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) (S1B,S3N,PE), the Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) (S2B,S2S3), the Great Egret (Casmerodius albus) (S1B,PE), the Swainson’s Thrush (Catharus ustulatus) (S2S3B, S5N), the Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) (S3B,S4N), the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) (S1B,S1N,PE), the Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) (S3B,S3N), the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) (S2B,PE), the Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exilis) (S1B,PE), the Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) (S2S3B), the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) (S2B,PT), and the Barn Owl (Tyto alba) (S3B,S3N) have been observed in the Canoe Creek Watershed. However, none of these has been confirmed as nesting in the watershed.

The following bird species of special concern breed in the Canoe Creek Watershed:

GREAT BLUE HERON (Ardea herodias) S3S4B, S4N: 40.33.009N, 78.13.759W (5-96), (5-97) Stan Kotala, Alice Kotala, Helena Kotala

AMERICAN COOT (Fulica americana) S3B,S3N: 40.29.189N, 78.16.866W (6-96), (6-97) Stan Kotala

SORA (Porzana carolina): 40.33.533N, 78.12.950W (6-03, 6-04 several observations) Stan Kotala

VIRGINIA RAIL (Rallus limicola) S3B: 40.33.543N, 78.12.946W (6-03, 6-04, 5-05, 6-05 several observations) Stan Kotala, Alice Kotala, Helena Kotala, Roy Boyle.

The Canoe Creek Watershed also is home to numerous Audubon Watchlist species, including the American Black Duck (Anas rubripes), the Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina), the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera), the Black-throated Blue Warbler (Dendroica caerulescens), the Prairie Warbler (Dendroica discolor), the Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea), the Worm-eating Warbler (Helmitheros vermivorus), the Louisiana Waterthrush (Seiurus motacilla), the Kentucky Warbler (Oporornis formosus), the Canada Warbler (Wilsonia canadensis), and the Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla), all of which nest in the watershed. More than 220 species of birds have been observed in the Canoe Creek Watershed. 110 species nest in the watershed. Because of its high concentration of the above-mentioned species as well as its tremendous diversity of birdlife, the Canoe Creek Watershed was declared an Important Bird Area by the Ornithological Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey in November of 2001.

Summary

The Canoe Creek Watershed and surrounding area have an impressive concentration of endangered, threatened, and candidate species. 50% of the land in the Canoe Creek Watershed Important Bird Area is publicly owned (State Game Land 166 and Canoe Creek State Park) and much of the rest is constrained by restrictions on development of steep slopes, wetlands, and floodplains. This site was declared an Important Mammal Area by the Mammal Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey in 2002. The committee noted the importance of beavers to the ecology of the Canoe Creek watershed (especially within SGL 166), where these animals act as major landscape architects, a keystone species playing a pivotal role in enhancing the biodiversity of this very valuable site. The IBA and IMA designations will give this area an advantage when conservation agencies set priorities for habitat acquisition, wildlife research, restoration projects, and resource allocation. IBA and IMA status certifies that a particular area has been selected for this distinction based on strict peer-reviewed scientific criteria.

The Canoe Creek area includes a full spectrum of habitat types upon which many bird species depend, including large blocks of contiguous forests, more than two hundred acres of wetlands, several miles of high quality streams, talus slope matrices, high elevation (up to 2300 feet) mountains (Canoe Mountain and Brush Mountain), old fields, caves, forested riparian zones along Canoe Creek, Mary Anne’s Creek, New Creek and the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River, and gently rolling hills as well as steep mountain slopes with a large variety of soil types and vegetative cover.

Because of its concentration of Biological Diversity Areas as noted by ecologists of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy during the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory, large numbers of species of special concern, its large block of contiguous forest, undisturbed reference-quality wetlands in SGL 166, and intact forested riparian zones, the Canoe Creek Watershed and adjacent areas have been designated a Landscape Conservation Area as defined by the County Natural Heritage Inventory program.

Avian Monitoring Efforts

The Canoe Creek Watershed IBA has been monitored by Juniata Valley Audubon for more than a decade through the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology’s Special Areas Project and through point counts done according to Audubon Pennsylvania protocol.

Education/Recreation/Ecotourism Activities and Opportunities

The Canoe Creek Watershed IBA is a popular destination for ecotourists. It is very popular with the local population that rely on it for family and personal recreation. It has been selected as one of the stops on the Susquehanna River Birding and Wildlife Trail. Its hiking trails are used by thousands of people for outdoor recreation including birding, jogging, walking, photography, nature study, fishing, and hunting. Canoe Creek State Park has an education/visitor center that is a regionally important wildlife and environmental educational site. It is a popular location for environmental workshops.

Management/Conservation Issues and Opportunities

The greatest threat to this IBA is fragmentation of private properties in forested areas, residential construction, and change in the forest from deer browsing.

Conservation Actions

The following conservation actions describe current and ongoing efforts by the Blair County Conservation District, the DCNR’s Bureau of State Parks, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and Juniata Valley Audubon:

Protection of riparian areas and wetlands, and forest through public education.
Very active environmental education program at Canoe Creek State Park through a full-time DCNR Environmental Education Specialist that includes local schools, colleges, and state government. Educational bird walks and mini-courses have been a part of this program.
Prominent displays and educational exhibits on many matters of natural history, biodiversity, and wildlife management.
Protection of riparian and upland forest habitats, wetlands, and abandoned fields through public ownership.
Control of some exotic invasive plants, notably purple loosestrife, autumn olive, tree of heaven, and multiflora rose.
Replacement of lawn areas at Canoe Creek State Park with native warm season grasses.

The following conservation actions describe proposed recommendations for consideration for the maintenance, improvement, and enhancement of habitat for bird species especially to optimize habitat value for IBA target species as well as for the promotion of bird conservation through educational outreach:

The most important task to be accomplished in the Canoe Creek Landscape Conservation Area is public education to encourage the implementation of best management practices in residential and agricultural areas. Both the environmental education program at Canoe Creek State Park and the Blair County Conservation District could perform this function. The greatest opportunities in the Canoe Creek Landscape Conservation Area are in wetland restoration, streambank fencing, and the creation of forested riparian buffers on the hydric soils along New Creek in Turkey Valley and wetland restoration and floodplain preservation along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River between the villages of Geeseytown and Canoe Creek. These tasks could be accomplished through the Blair County Conservation District, PennDOT, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Increase the size of the forested riparian buffer along New Creek and Mary Anne’s Creek.
Initiate environmental education programs that highlight the Important Bird Area program’s objectives.
Educate landowners regarding the importance of buffers along streams and wetlands.
Educate landowners regarding the importance of maintaining natural habitats rather than mowed lawns.
Use the Pennsylvania Audubon APATH (Audubon Protecting Animals Through Habitat) and the National Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program to encourage landowners to make wildlife a consideration when landscaping around their homes.
Evaluate the applicability of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and the Landowner Incentive Program for the Canoe Creek Watershed IBA’s private lands.
Place three Osprey nesting platforms along Canoe Lake.
Establish a conservation protocol for the preservation of early-successional habitat for the Golden-winged Warbler in Canoe Creek State Park.
Establish the Forest Legacy easement program in Blair County, specifically targeting the county’s four IBAs: Canoe Creek Watershed IBA, Bald Eagle Ridge IBA, Greater Tussey Mountain IBA, and Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River IBA.

FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE CANOE CREEK WATERSHED IBA, CONTACT DR. STAN KOTALA AT 814 946-8840 OR VIA E-MAIL AT ccwiba@keyconn.net.

Institutional Partners and Key Contacts

Canoe Creek State Park: Terry Wentz (Park Manager), Heidi Boyle (DCNR Environmental Education Specialist)

Pennsylvania Game Commission: Rob Criswell (Land Management Supervisor), Southcentral Regional Office

Blair County Conservation District: Donna Fisher (Supervisor)

Juniata Valley Audubon: Cindy Moore (President), Stan Kotala, M.D. (Canoe Creek Watershed IBA Coordinator)