Advancing Conversation Corridors in Pennsylvania

The Spark

House Resolution 87 passed with bipartisan support in Spring 2023. It would implement the use of wildlife corridors to keep people and animals safe from collisions. According to Sally Ann Sims, Co-founder and member of the Pennsylvania Habitat Connectivity, the legislation would help to support the state’s wildlife.

“So, all wildlife and we're including mammals that you see the, the rabbits, the raccoons, the deer, the bobcat, and also aquatic animals like, fish and mussels and the hellbender that's now our state amphibian, to move around. So, we're already the, the state, natural resource agencies are already working, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Game Commission and the Fishing Boat Commission in particular, are working to help, make habitat better for these, for these animals. And so, the corridors that the corridors that, that, that they move through are, areas that help them get food, may reproduce, respond to different changes in their environment so they can they can thrive, their populations can thrive. So, the corridors may not be a physical thing. It may be it may be a road crossing. It may be a big culvert that allows fish to go through. It may be just, one parcel of land between two state parks where animals are able to pass through.”

Pennsylvania Habitat Connectivity was established in 2019 to advance wildlife corridors in Pennsylvania. Members of the organization realized there was a lot of activity done in other states, but not so much in Pennsylvania.

“So, there are several natural resource agencies in the state that already their work already overlaps with, with maintaining corridors, building corridors, encouraging wildlife movement. And we wanted to see if we could help in some way to get them to organize and prioritize wildlife borders around the state so that more work could be done in that area. And we could help with habitat connectivity in the state and throughout the region, because Pennsylvania is a really key state in terms of species moving north for climate change and back and forth with several different states to help them maintain healthy populations.”

The wildlife corridors would also slow down the spread of diseases among the animals.

“So, without the corridors, there's a there's the primary the primary, stressors that they're facing now are development for housing and commercial development. So if a subdivision goes in and there's, say, foxes and different animals in that area, they need to be able to move to another area where they can get the resources that they need. Invasive species are moving, into Pennsylvania. We've we've noticed the, the lanternfly in particular. But there's diseases and there's species that are moving in that animals can use that ability to move to, to help regulate that. Like if, if there's a disease among certain mammals, they can move and spread out more. They can move from areas away from where it's concentrated. So mostly there's there's development, there's pollution, there's invasive species, and there's climate change. Those are most of the big stressors that animals that have to seek migration and corridor pathways are dealing with.”

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