introduction - Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program

Landscape Conservation AreasEcological Significance: LCAs are designated around landscape features that function as a linkingelement within an aggregation of BDAs, and around large blocks of contiguous forest. Largeareas of contiguous forest have unique and important ecological value because they are capable ofsupporting species that require interior forest conditions, species that have large territory sizes,and have the potential to support a forest ecosystem with long-term viability.Conservation Planning Application: These large regions in relatively natural condition can beviewed as regional assets; they improve quality of life by providing a landscape imbued with asense of beauty and wilderness, they provide a sustainable economic base, and their highecological integrity offers unique capacity to support biodiversity and human health. Planningand stewardship efforts can preserve these functions of the landscape by limiting the overallamount of land converted to other uses, and by considering the large-scale pattern of thelandscape while endeavoring to minimize fragmentation of natural cover when planningactivities. These goals can be facilitated by limiting new infrastructure development, includingroads and sewer lines, within LCAs, and by utilizing existing cleared areas for new projects.Important Bird AreasEcological Significance: IBAs are designated by the PA Audubon Society to highlight thoseportions of the landscape especially important in supporting bird diversity.Conservation Planning Application: Planning for these areas should consider how best tomaintain their value as bird habitat. The value of large-scale IBAs arises from the interior foresthabitat contained within them, and thus the recommendations for LCA stewardship to minimizeforest fragmentation are applicable. Smaller-scale IBAs are typically based around naturalcommunities that have particular habitat value, and thus a high degree of protection should beaccorded to the sites.Geologic FeaturesEcological Significance: These include those areas that illustrate regional geologic processes,landforms or scenery and are those that are recognized as outstanding in Pennsylvania by Geyerand Bolles (1979, 1987). These places are not necessarily of importance to biological diversityand are therefore not considered Natural Heritage Areas. However, they are included as naturalhistory features in the county.Conservation Planning Application: These sites may be of interest for preservation due to theirunique historic value, and often offer good opportunities for on-site natural history education.6