Habitat

KECA’s mission is to protect and enhance Pennsylvania’s elk country for future generations. We accomplish that through three priorities; conservation education, habitat enhancement and permanent land protection.

We place our habitat projects into two categories; on-site and off-site. On-site refers to all the habitat work that takes place at the Elk Country Visitor’s Center (ECVC). There are 254 acres that make up the property around the ECVC, but only 80 acres of that is made of up wildlife openings and out of that we are aggressively managing 63 acres. Some of these openings are managed specifically for attracting elk and other wildlife to our many viewing areas while others are designed to provide forage for elk and other wildlife while also allowing us to harvest the grasses once a year by baling the hay and storing it in our barn. This provides supplemental feeding to our two Belgian Horses, Jake and Donny.

If you are wandering why we have two horses, it’s because we offer covered wagon rides on the property.

Our off-site projects occur both on public and private lands. We work with our partners at Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC). KECA currently is managing the habitat on 6 seperate areas of Elk and Sproul State Forest Lands. The state land managers come to KECA when they have critical habitat projects on public land for which they do not have adequate funding. 

We also work directly with private landowners by enhancing habitat on their land for elk and other wildlife. There are currently 12 projects with private landowners. Combined, there are 400 acres of herbaceous openings being managed by KECA off site. KECA professionally manages the habitat based on scientific principals and established agricultural practices. The herbaceous openings are treated in a variety of ways; tillage of soil, application of lime and fertilizer, herbicide application, planting of various beneficial vegetations, and regular mowing to control weed growth and promote regeneration of succulent clovers and grasses. The state does an excellent job in managing elk and wildlife on state owned land but it becomes more difficult when these wild animals venture onto private ground. KECA fills that niche. We provide needed habitat enhancement on private land all awhile keeping with the state’s management objectives. This ensures consistency across the elk range between and private and state owned land. If you own property and are interested in a cooperative habitat enhancement project, please contact KECA to learn more.