UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sometime between now and the the middle of May, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will complete two prescribed fires within the boundary of the Penn State Stone Valley Forest in northern Huntingdon County. With approval from Penn State's Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, the Game Commission will be conducting these two low-intensity prescribed fires to improve the midstory and understory habitat conditions of the forest area, while providing a field site to demonstrate and display the use and effects of prescribed fires to University students, staff and faculty, as well as the general public.
The prescribed fires will be staffed and completed by Pennsylvania Game Commission professionals. The Game Commission staff plan to complete the prescribed fires in compliance with Pennsylvania House Bill 262, as well as with the Pennsylvania Prescribed Fire Standards. Lake Perez and Stone Valley, located 17 miles south of the University Park campus, is home to the 6,775-acre Penn State Forest.