• Home
  • How We Work
  • Where We Work
  • News Room
  • About Us
  • My Nature Page

The Nature Conservancy in Africa - Conservation in Africa

The Nature Conservancy in Asia Pacific - Conservation in Asia-Pacific

The Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean - Conservation in the Caribbean

The Nature Conservancy in Central America - Conservation in Central America

The Nature Conservancy in North America - Conservation in North America

The Nature Conservancy in the United States - Conservation in the United States

The Nature Conservancy in South America - Conservation in South America
 Endless Mountains Landscape
 

Endless Mountains Landscape

 

Places to Visit

Aptly named, the Endless Mountains seemingly stretch all the way to the horizon — spanning more than 2,800 miles across four counties in Pennsylvania’s northeastern corner: Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming. Left behind after the Wisconsin glacier’s retreat during the last ice age, the region boasts rocky summits cloaked in red spruce, spectacular waterfalls and patches of dense old-growth forest. Spring-fed streams, dairy farms and remnants of former Native American inhabitants occupy broad valleys viewed from any of the nine mountain ranges. This large landscape also hosts many upper Susquehanna tributaries, nourishing the river for the first ninety miles of its 410-mile journey to the Chesapeake Bay.

The Nature Conservancy has appreciated the Endless Mountains’ rugged, glacier-etched beauty for some time. In fact, the Woodbourne Forest and Wildlife Preserve — located in Susquehanna County — was acquired in 1956 as The Nature Conservancy’s third nature preserve anywhere, and third in the state of Pennsylvania. In addition to safeguarding northeastern Pennsylvania’s largest old-growth forest stands, Woodbourne sustains much of the region’s natural history and rural way of life.

Woodbourne keeps good company in the Endless Mountains — sharing the region with some of Pennsylvania’s most spectacular state parks and protected areas. At World’s End State Park, seven mountains converge around a narrow, S-shaped valley to provide the sensation of being at the ultimate ends of the earth. On the northwestern edge of the Wyoming State Forest, visitors hike along a maze of weathered rock domes known as “the Haystacks.” Perhaps the most photographed of Pennsylvania’s protected areas, Rickett’s Glen State Park boasts more than 22 waterfalls cascading from a rock-strewn hillside covered in old-growth forest dating back 500 years. Also present in the region are some of the state’s biggest game lands.

In September 2006, The Nature Conservancy and the Woodbourne Stewardship Committee celebrated the preserve’s 50th anniversary. As the location where it first established a presence in Pennsylvania, the Endless Mountains have sentimental value for the Conservancy. The Conservancy will continue working to preserve this landscape’s unique character and tranquility for visitors, and for the numerous birds, fish and other broad-ranging species that call it home.