| Nominated site: Canoe Creek Area Location: Blair and Huntingdon Counties Canoe Creek State Park is located 7 miles east of Hollidaysburg on Rt. 22. |
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This nomination, which includes Canoe Creek State Park, parts of State Game Lands 147 and 166, and some surrounding private land*, fulfills ALL FIVE of IMAPs criteria! It has a great diversity of bat species, plus a streamside and wetland community that includes beavers. Over 20,000 little brown bats use the Canoe Creek Church as a maternity colony in the spring and summer. All six species of PAs hibernating bats, including the endangered Indiana bat, have been identified in an abandoned limestone mine on the site, which provides a winter hibernaculum (place to hibernate).
Canoe Creek State Park invites the public to many educational programs that allow people to see the bats exiting (evening) or entering (morning) the church, as shown in the picture above. The park is also host to an annual Bat Festival. People all over Pennsylvania have begun to hear the rumor of an old church that houses thousands of bats. Some people might visit with some apprehension toward the little flying mammals, but thanks to the educational efforts of the DCNRs Bureau of State Parks and the PA Game Commission, most leave with a new understanding of bats and no longer fear them.
The Canoe Creek watershed is also an Important Bird Area as identified by Audubon of Pennsylvania. The Juniata Valley Audubon Society has adopted this IBA, #76.
*note to private landowners: participation in this project is voluntary. IMAP has no regulatory authority and does not seek it. Rather, this project aims to identify sites critical to wild mammal species, rare or common, in a proactive manner through nominations from PA residents, and to draw attention to these sites as tools for teaching people about mammals habitat needs.
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