Lancaster Conservancy has announced the opening of a new hiking trail at Safe Harbor Nature Preserve in Conestoga. The trail takes visitors through a restored meadow and patch woodlands that provide grassland and edge habitat for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife.

Planning for the ecological restoration of the 26-acre meadow began in 2019. For decades prior, the area was a hay field that was cut and bailed multiple times a year, offering little habitat value because of the harm to ground-nesting birds and small mammals during the hay cutting process. By transitioning the field into a native grassland meadow, the Conservancy created a large area of productive habitat suitable for ground-nesting and migratory birds, large and small mammals, and a wide array of pollinator species.

During the restoration process, the Conservancy also installed a half-mile natural surface trail that winds through the meadow, so visitors can explore the wildflowers and observe the pollinators up close. The project was specifically designed to provide habitat for five pollinator species identified as species in need of critical care in the Pennsylvania Wildlife Action Plan: the American bumblebee and the regal fritillary, columbine duskywing, frosted elfin, and monarch butterflies.

Thirty-two species were included in the seed mix, developed in consultation with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Pheasants Forever. The custom seed mix was produced by Ernst Conservation Seeds using local ecotypes. Pennsylvania Game Commission provided the drill seeder that was used for the planting.

In the first year after the meadow was planted, species blooming included switchgrass, big bluestem, foxglove beardtongue, common yarrow, black-eyed Susan, partridge pea, narrowleaf mountain mint, common milkweed, purple coneflower, wild bergamot, and plains coreopsis. The species blooming each year will continue to shift as the meadow becomes more fully established. Even in dormancy, the meadow will provide habitat for insects in leaf litter and the hollow stems of dead plants, and dried seed heads will provide a winter food source for birds and small mammals.

In addition to the meadow species, 7 acres of the restoration area were planted with native trees and shrubs, provided through the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership, which will offer nesting and roosting habitat for turkeys, cover habitat for large mammals, and forage for species like white-tailed deer. The trees and shrubs also provide perches for a wide range of bird species.

The Conservancy acquired Safe Harbor Nature Preserve in 2019 as part of a nationally recognized landscape protection project known as the PPL Project. Power delivery infrastructure remains on-site, with a right-of-way retained by PPL. Working with PPL, the Conservancy sought to develop a planting strategy that incorporated native species and meaningful habitat without interfering with the transmission lines that cross the field, balancing infrastructure needs and important wildlife habitat.

The restoration project at the preserve was funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

The preserve is located in the Susquehanna Riverlands Conservation Landscape, a landscape that was designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and includes the municipalities that border the Susquehanna River in Lancaster and York counties. The native grassland and trees planted at Safe Harbor Nature Preserve help to protect the quality of water flowing into the Susquehanna and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.

Safe Harbor Nature Preserve is available for visiting from dawn to dusk as well as archery-only hunting during Pennsylvania Game Commission hunting seasons. Visitors are reminded not to pick the wildflowers growing on Conservancy nature preserves. Leaving the flowers where they are ensures that wildlife continues to have access to the food and shelter the plants provide, both now and in future seasons.

For more information, visit http://www.lancasterconservancy.org.