Special Habitat Areas
Heritage Forest
The Preserve’s Heritage Forest is home to our most diverse and oldest tree specimens. It stretches from the Medicinal Trail on the westernmost part of the property, through the Pidcock Creek valley, all the way to the Mill house at the eastern edge of the Preserve along River Road. It includes the roughly 30-acre “Foresters Forest,” which was dedicated in 1957 to honor the distinguished members of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association.
The forest’s primary purpose is to provide an area that portrays the interrelationship between all forms of life—from the soil-building properties of lichens to the life cycle of the canopy trees that dominate the forest structure. Since its inception six decades ago, minimal human interference has occurred so as to not interrupt the area’s continual natural progress toward a “climax” forest.
