Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

This interesting photo was taken in the Allegheny National Forest's Hickory Creek Wilderness this past Sunday, during FAW's annual fall wilderness trail stewardship project, at the site of an old logging camp which of course has not been operational for as long as 100 years. At some point in recent decades someone picked up the pictured metal object and hung it on a branch in a tree. The tree's tissue has since grown around the object, fixing it in place for the rest of the lifetime of the tree. The question is, what is the object? Presumably it was associated with the logging camp, but is it a table leg, some part of mess hall equipment, or something else? Also at this site are objects such as bed frames, whiskey bottles, ketchup bottles, and broken plates. If you think you know what this object is, please email your answer to info@pawild.org The first person with the correct answer will receive free copies of the Citizens' Wilderness Proposal for Pennsylvania...

Several hemlock trees in the Allegheny National Forest in Warren County have been infected by the Hemlock woolly adelgid. Tests by both the US and Pennsylvania departments of agriculture have confirmed that the insect has infested trees within a proposed wilderness area. The Hemlock woolly adelgid is a small insect native to East Asia that feeds by sucking sap from hemlock trees. In eastern North America, it is a destructive pest that poses a major threat to the Eastern hemlock. Friends of Allegheny Wilderness will be organizing a volunteer outing in the near future to hike further into the area in an attempt to ascertain the extent of the infestation there. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

WARREN – The Warren-based non-profit organization Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (FAW) teamed up Thursday with the U.S. Forest Service, and inmates from FCI McKean to plant 200 white pine (Pinus strobus) trees in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF). The planting took place at three specific sites as part of ongoing cooperative ecological restoration work between FAW and the agency: · At the head of an abandoned road near the North Country National Scenic Trail in the proposed Minister Valley Wilderness. · At the head of an abandoned road leading from the Hearts Content Campground into the Hickory Creek Wilderness. FAW and the ANF have been working to restore this site since 2001. · At the head of an abandoned road at the Hickory Creek Wilderness trailhead. FAW and the ANF have been working to restore this site since 2006. The objective of this restoration work is ultimately to for all intents and purposes erase from the landscape all evidence that there were e...

The FAW (Friends of Allegheny Wilderness) volunteers honored Earth Day by having a trail stewardship weekend along the Allegheny National Forest’s scenic Hickory Creek Wilderness trail. Using only axes, they cut a hiker passage through a large-diameter oak tree that had fallen on the trail. In federal wilderness areas such as the Hickory Creek Wilderness, no power tools are used for trail clearing or for any other purposes. The pictured method of trail clearing also has significant value because, while it allows easy passage for hikers on foot, it acutely frustrates and discourages illegal non-conforming uses of the trail such as by motorized and mechanized vehicles. Rough axe cuts also provide a rustic, aesthetically pleasing appearance for the wilderness hiker. Pictured are volunteer trail stewards with the Warren-based non-profit organization Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (FAW) along the Allegheny National Forest’s scenic Hickory Creek Wilderness trail during FAW’s recent...

Mike Matz, director of the Pew Environment Group's wilderness campaign, issued the following statement on President Obama's proclamation of September as National Wilderness Month. "By proclaiming September as National Wilderness Month, President Obama is recognizing the important role our country's most cherished wild spaces play in our lives. Wilderness areas are the places we hike, hunt, fish, and find unmatched solitude. They remind us of our natural heritage and enhance the American spirit. "September marks the anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act, the law that has helped Americans safeguard their most beloved wild public lands. All but one Congress since then has built upon that legacy for future generations to use and enjoy and experience as we do today. "It is vital that we carry on our country's wilderness tradition. Right now, Congress has a chance to forever protect over 2.3 million acres of public land in bipartisan bills that are pending in ...

WASHINGTON -- Planning efforts for the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act marked an important milestone today at a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to raise awareness of the benefits and values of wilderness. Leaders of federal land management joined national wilderness organizations in formally committing to spotlighting and celebrating the nation’s wilderness in the months leading up to the anniversary -- September 3, 2014. "We have been fortunate to have lived 48 years of the vision proclaimed by the Act that it is 'the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness,'" said Chad P. Dawson of the Society for Wilderness Stewardship (SWS), the organization representing wilderness NGOs that are part of the 50th Anniversary National Planning Team. "Our celebration is a renewal of that vision and our promise to those generations yet unborn....

Pictured are Kyle Hannon, left, from U.S. Senator Bob Casey's Erie office; and Dr. Ron Simonsen, right, lifelong Warren resident and longtime member of the Board of Directors for Friends of Allegheny Wilderness. Can you identify which proposed area from the Citizens' Wilderness Proposal for Pennsylvania's Allegheny National Forest Kyle and Ron are standing in in the attached photo? The first person to answer correctly will win four free tickets to any 2012 home game for the Jamestown Jammers minor league baseball team! (Home games run through the first week of September, including during Labor Day weekend.) Post your answer at: http://www.facebook.com/FriendsofAlleghenyWilderness (Posting in the blog comments won't do you any good. If I had Jammers tickets I'd be using them myself.) The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

In addition to their primary mission of working with local communities to ensure that increased wilderness protection is a priority of the stewardship of the Allegheny National Forest, Friends of Allegheny Wilderness over the years has also made significant volunteer investments in the stewardship of the Hickory Creek Wilderness trail, ecological restoration of sites within the Hickory Creek Wilderness, and removal of refuse from the Allegheny Islands Wilderness. FAW's next major wilderness stewardship project will be a trail clearing backpacking trip along the 12-mile Hickory Creek Wilderness trail from Thursday, May 24th through Saturday May 26th. This is a great, rewarding way to intimately experience the natural beauty of the wildly popular Hickory Creek Wilderness first-hand! The group will be leaving from the Hickory Creek Wilderness trailhead on Hearts Content Road Thursday evening, May 24th, spending two nights in the wilderness, and hiking out on Saturday, May 26th. Minimu...

The ETHS endorsed the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal in full, though it is most acutely interested in the two proposed forest reserves within Elk Township. These are the 3,022-acre proposed Cornplanter Wilderness Area between the Webb’s Ferry boat launch and Camp Olmstead, and the 4,752-acre proposed Scandia National Recreation Area, covering most of the ANF land south of Camp Olmstead to the Kinzua Dam. The group emphasizes that its efforts to have select areas of the ANF set aside should not be viewed as a referendum on the legitimacy of timber harvest or even oil and gas drilling throughout the entire federal forest. They seek only to leave certain special areas of woodland in their pristine condition by law for future generations. “We have concerned ourselves, since our inception in 2001, with preserving our cultural heritage here in Elk Township, which is indeed important,” noted ETHS Board Member, Dr. Julie Lindblom Boozer. “However, preserving our heritage goes beyond re...

Check out the 16-minute campaign video "Keystone Wilderness: A Citizens' Wilderness Proposal for Pennsylvania's Allegheny National Forest," documenting the campaign to protect wilderness in the Commonwealth's only national forest. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

The Warren-based non-profit organization Friends of Allegheny Wilderness recently donated two books to the collection of the Warren County Historical Society. The first is a copy of the organization's Citizens' Wilderness Proposal for Pennsylvania's Allegheny National Forest, which during the most recent ANF Forest Plan revision received the enthusiastic support of more than 6,800 out of 8,200 public commentors on the plan (greater than 80 percent). The second is a professionally-bound 180-page volume containing all of FAW's newsletters from August 2001 through December 2011, as well as several dozen newspaper articles related to the organization's wilderness protection campaign from that same time period. "Friends of Allegheny Wilderness is proud to contribute to the Warren County Historical Society's permanent collection, so that county residents and others will always have the opportunity to learn about our important campaign to protect wilderness in Pen...

Members of the non-profit Warren-based Friends of Allegheny Wilderness ( http://www.pawild.org ) visit the west side of the Allegheny Reservoir at North Branch Hodge Run in Warren County on Saturday afternoon, February 11th, 2012 during an overnight winter backpacking trip deep into the interior of the forest. The group is working to have a 4,752-acre portion of the Allegheny National Forest, known as the proposed Scandia National Recreation Area, protected by law in perpetuity in its natural condition from all forms of development. Photo by Kirk Johnson, Friends of Allegheny Wilderness The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

Friends of Allegheny Wilderness and the Scandia Wilderness Committee are inviting people on an overnight winter backpacking trip into the proposed Scandia National Recreation Area over the weekend of February 11th and 12th. This outing will give hikers a fine sense of wild, remote character of this eminently qualified prospective national recreation area. FAW, the Scandia Wilderness Committee, and others seek to protect in perpetuity in its natural state this stunning wild area from all forms of development. Of particular concern to the organizations are development ideas that have been floated in the past that are tacky and egregiously inappropriate for this highly natural area. The hike will begin Saturday morning from the north side of the proposed area along the Roper Hollow Road, and the group will hike south into the Hodge Run drainage from there. Participants should be prepared for off-trail hiking, and consider that there is possibility for deep snow at this time of the year. S...

Would you like to experience the wild backcountry of the largest Roadless Area in the Allegheny National Forest first-hand? Friends of Allegheny Wilderness turns ten years old this June, and as part of our decennial celebration we are planning an overnight backpacking trip into the proposed Tracy Ridge Wilderness Area in the Allegheny National Forest for the weekend of June 11th and 12th. Why not come and join us? You won't regret it! In addition to containing a nine-mile segment of the spectacular North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT), Tracy Ridge also has a self-contained network of trails providing numerous options for day hikes, loops trails, and connections to the NCT. For our hike, we will be leaving from the Tracy Ridge Campground parking lot on the morning of Saturday, June 11th and hiking down the trail along Johnnycake Run to the Allegheny Reservoir, where we will pick up the NCT and head south from there. We will camp overnight Saturday in the wild backcountry of Tra...

The Warren-based Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (FAW) is looking for volunteers to help with a trail cleanup project in the Hickory Creek Wilderness Area in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) over the first weekend in April. Hickory Creek Wilderness is located in southern Warren County. In addition to FAW's ongoing primary mission to see that wilderness protections in the ANF are increased, the non-profit organization over the years has also made significant volunteer investments in wilderness stewardship. This has included maintenance of the Hickory Creek Wilderness trail, ecological restoration within Hickory Creek Wilderness, removal of refuse from the Allegheny Islands Wilderness, and other projects. FAW's next major stewardship project will be a cleanup of the 12-mile Hickory Creek Wilderness trail on April 1st-3rd. The organization has consulted with and received approval from the U.S. Forest Service to proceed with the project. The FAW crew will leave from the Hickory ...

This past weekend, Friends of Allegheny Wilderness participated in the 10th annual Kinzua Outdoor and Travel Show in Bradford, facilitated by the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce. Having an informational wilderness table at this event has become an annual ritual for FAW as we have now participated in our 9th consecutive KOTS (missing only the first year). This is a great way to meet a lot of local outdoors-oriented people in a short period of time, and introduce them to the wilderness preservation idea. For the first time FAW also held a drawing during the show, in order to give away a professionally matted & framed 12" x 16" photograph taken within the proposed Tracy Ridge Wilderness Area (framed by Kinzua Country Frameworks in North Warren). Titled "Johnnycake Run Sunset," the photo depicts the mouth of Johnnycake Run, looking west out across the Allegheny Reservoir. This proved to be quite a popular drawing with a great deal of interest and entries. Unfortun...

WARREN -- Warren-based Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (FAW) executive director Kirk Johnson has been invited to attend the second annual wilderness stewardship conference facilitated by the fledgling National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance (NWSA). This year's conference will take place from March 10th through March 13th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The mission of the recently-established NWSA is to "develop a growing network of volunteer-based organizations to provide stewardship for America's enduring resource of wilderness." The NWSA vision is to see each wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System adopted by a wilderness organization dedicated to protecting the area through partnerships with government agencies charged with their management. In addition to FAW's ongoing primary mission of seeking to protect substantial additional portions of the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) under the Wilderness Act of 1964, the non-profit organization has over ...

Audubon Pennsylvania has joined with six other conservation organizations as part of the fledgling Pennsylvania Wilderness Coalition, which was formed earlier this year. The mission of the coalition is to support the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal for Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest. National Audubon Society opened its Pennsylvania State Office in 1997 as the organization’s tenth state office. Today, Audubon Pennsylvania has more than 24,000 members across the Commonwealth. Its mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and biological diversity in Pennsylvania. “The Allegheny is located in the northwest corner of the state, but as Pennsylvania’s only national forest, it belongs to all of us,” said Phil Wallis, executive director for Audubon Pennsylvania. “Wilderness designation, under the Wilderness Act of 1964, for the most unbroken forest canopy tracts in the Allegheny will leave a p...

WARREN -- The Clarion University Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society (CU-TWS) has formally added its support to the Citizens¹ Wilderness Proposal for Pennsylvania¹s Allegheny National Forest, produced by the Warren-based non-profit organization Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (FAW). CU-TWS is a chapter of the international Wildlife Society, and promotes many of the same values and principles embodied in the Citizens¹ Wilderness Proposal. Some of CU-TWS¹s goals, also inherent in the proposal, are to augment educational opportunities for students in natural resources, provide and conserve high quality habitat for native wildlife, and build the active support of an informed citizenry. "Setting aside the tracts of land delineated in the Citizens¹ Wilderness Proposal will provide open space and a natural environment in which members of The Wildlife Society can enjoy the peace, serenity, and healing qualities of a wilderness area," said Luke Bobnar, president of CU-TWS. "T...

Group Will Work to Permanently Protect Parts of the Allegheny National Forest WARREN – Six conservation organizations, representing nearly 65,000 Pennsylvanians, have joined to form the Pennsylvania Wilderness Coalition. The new group will advocate for wilderness designation on the Allegheny National Forest – the state’s only National Forest. “The Allegheny is located in the northwest corner of the state, but as Pennsylvania’s only National Forest, it belongs to all of us,” said Adam Hostetler of Lebanon, vice president of the Pennsylvania Division, Izaak Walton League of America. “Wilderness designation for some of the most pristine and wild areas on the Allegheny will leave a permanent natural legacy for future generations, so they can forever hike, hunt, camp and explore here.” Wilderness designation by Congress is the highest level of protection that can be given to federal lands, adding them to the National Wilderness Preservation System as areas where nature reigns and people are...