Upper Penns Creek watershed natural HERITAGE areas
Click the following links to see a selection of photographs and plant lists for these Natural Heritage Sites within the Upper Penns Creek Watershed:
Bear Meadows Natural Area
Pine Swamp
Wildflower Hill
Stover Gap
Woodward Cave

The first Centre County Natural Heritage Inventory was done in 1991 and an update to it was completed in 2002. A copy of the complete report is available at the Centre County Conservation District Office in the Willowbank Building in Bellefonte, 814-355-6817. The Upper Penns Creek watershed has a high concentration of Heritage Areas compared to the rest of the county.

At the extreme western edge of the watershed, Bear Meadows Natural Area is a high mountain bog located in a horseshoe shaped valley between two 'C" shaped ridges. This area has been designated as a National Natural Landmark by the Department of Interior since 1966. Also in this area is the Tusseyville/Sinking Creek Hillside which supports a very old mesic calcareous central forest of high diversity.

The Coburn quadrangle contains several natural areas, most owned by the Commonwealth. The Poe Valley State Park Ravine is a good example of recovering mesic central forest community; Penns Creek Hardwoods is dominated by tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, and American basswood, Tilia Americana; Blue Rock possesses a patchy limestone cliff community within a mesic calcareous forest and channel scar wetlands along Pine Creek; and *(photos and plant list)Pine Swamp is a 85 acre northern conifer swamp which is in the process of being designated as a Plant Sanctuary by DCNR. The Penns Creek Conservation Area is a site that is designed to suggest the need for protection of the Penns Creek Gorge as a whole.

Near Spring Mills the Kettle Creek Farm is the home to a plant species of special concern, an unusual relic prairie opening provides habitat for several rare plants and Wildflower Hill is a mesic calcareous forest with a diverse hardwood forest and profuse early spring flowering native plants.

The eastern end of the watershed has an interesting collection of natural areas: Bear Run Natural Area is a small area of State Forest with old eastern hemlock, Tsuga Canadensis, and tulip trees, Liriodendron tulipifera. Haines Gap contains a mesic central forest and a pristine stream. Pine Creek Meadows, an open wetland along the creek, is an acidic shrub swamp community. Nearby is Stover Gap, which is a 90 acre northern hardwood community with many species of hickories and oaks in a recovering forest with a headwaters area with very little disturbance. Also nearby is Woodward Cave which is listed because of the cave habitat, but which also houses a very fine collection of spring wildflowers.

Several other caves in the watershed appear on the Natural Heritage Area list including Sharer’s Cave, Stover’s Cave #1, and Hosterman’s Pit.

Although these areas are all listed as Natural Heritage Areas, many of them are located on private land, and their appearance on this list should not give the impression that they are open to the public. Permission from the landowner to visit these areas would be required of any interested parties, and is important for the protection of these resources.