With Support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Plans Underway to Preserve Blue Mountain Wildlife Refuge

Monday, November 26, 2018

With Support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Plans Underway to Preserve Blue Mountain Wildlife Refuge

The Conservation Fund is making efforts to preserve more land in Northampton and Monroe counties.

The fund has preserved 1,731 acres for the Cherry Valley Wildlife Refuge, so far, and it plans to preserve 2,700 acres next year. The land, which runs along the Blue Mountain's Kittatinny Ridge, is being acquired from Pennsylvania American Water and will eventually be turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for public use.

Funding for the 2019 transfer is in place, according to Kyle Shenk, the state director of conservation acquisition for The Conservation Fund. The water company will keep a portion of its land in the area, according to Shenk.

"American Water will retain facilities that are critical to water quality operations," Shenk said. The refuge was created in 2008 to protect the federally threatened bog turtle and secure wetlands for migrating birds, amphibians and other wildlife...

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