Description
Running through Pennsylvania for 185 miles, the Kittatinny Ridge is the first prominent landscape feature visitors encounter when moving north or west from Philadelphia. It is one of the commonwealth’s most treasured landscapes.
In 2017, The Nature Conservancy purchased roughly 350 acres of Hamer Woodlands at Cove Mountain, representing TNC’s first nature preserve in central Pennsylvania along the Kittatinny Ridge. In February 2021, the PA/DE chapter closed on a land deal to expand Hamer Woodlands at Cove Mountain. The purchase of 1,200 acres of land adjacent to the existing preserve quadruples its size and—most importantly—fills a gap between existing conservation lands, creating a 14-mile stretch of protected land along the Kittatinny Ridge, helping to ensure this chain of forests in one of the most important landscapes for climate adaptation in Pennsylvania and the Appalachians will remain connected, healthy and more climate resilient into the future.
This once in a generation opportunity creates a model for landscape scale land protection and management in the Central Appalachians while simultaneously protecting critical wildlife habitat, clean water for the Susquehanna River and an iconic Pennsylvania viewshed as well as expanding local recreation and tourism opportunities just outside of Harrisburg.
This is all thanks to critical support TNC has received from our generous donors and partners like the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Susquehanna Appalachian Trail Club and Perry County.
