Hawk Mountain
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Hawk Mountain is a mountain ridge, part of the Appalachian Mountains, located in central-eastern Pennsylvania near Reading and Allentown. It is a part of the Blue Mountain Ridge. It is primarily known as home to the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Located along the Appalachian flyway, the Sanctuary is a prime location for the viewing of kettling and migrating raptors with an average of 20,000 hawks, eagles and falcons passing the lookouts every year. The birds are identified and counted by staff and volunteers to produce annual counts of migrating raptors that represent the world's longest record of raptor populations. These counts have provided conservationists with valuable information on changes in raptor numbers in North America.
The River of Rocks is visible and accessible from the Sanctuary. The boulders were formed by periglacial processes in the Pleistocene epoch, or "ice age."
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[edit] History
In 1929, hunters were offered $5 for every goshawk they were able to bring down during migrating season, as the birds were thought to be more pests than anything. As the conservation effort was just getting off the ground, photographer Richard Pough came to Hawk Mountain and photographed the carnage resulting from the massive slaughter of the birds. His photographs were seen by, among others, New York resident and conservationist Rosalie Edge.
In 1934, Edge leased 1,400 acres (5.7 km²) of property on Hawk Mountain and hired wardens to keep the hunters away. The wardens were Maurice Broun and his wife Irma Broun, bird enthusiasts and conservationists from New England. Almost immediately, there was a noticeable retrieval in the raptor population. In 1938, the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association was incorporated as a non-profit organization in Pennsylvania, and Edge purchased the property and deeded it to the association in perpetuity.
As the world's oldest wildlife sanctuary exclusively committed to the protection and observation of birds of prey, Hawk Mountain holds a unique place in geographic and scientific history. It is not owned or financially supported by the state; it remains entirely self-sufficient. In 1965 the sanctuary was registered as a National Natural Landmark.
Famous visitors to the sanctuary include Rachel Carson[1] and John Denver, whose name is inscribed on a memorial bench at South Lookout.
The sanctuary partners with a few of the local colleges, such as Kutztown University and Cedar Crest College, to provide higher-level classes for students in relevant fields of study. They also offer programs, seminars, and volunteer opportunities to the public. The sanctuary is extremely popular as a destination for birdwatchers and hikers; there are nine hiking trails of varying difficulty, as well as four major lookouts and several smaller lookouts from which to observe nature; at the North Lookout, visitors can see as far as seventy miles in clear weather.
In 2007, the sanctuary lost one of its dearest friends and the most generous benefactor in its history, Sarkis Acopian, an industrialist and humanitarian. Through his philanthropy, the sanctuary was able to open the Acopian Center for Conservation Learning in 2001, where students come from all over the world to participate in work-study internships, learning about ornithology, environmental science, biology, and related fields.
In 2009, the sanctuary will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Rosalie Edge's original efforts.
[edit] Scouting and Civil Air Patrol at Hawk Mountain
The mountain is also home to the Hawk Mountain Scout Reservation and Hawk Mountain Camp (two Boy Scout camps) and the Civil Air Patrol's Colonel Phillip Neuweiler Ranger Training Facility. Also known as the "Hawk Mountain Ranger Training School," the school molds cadets into highly effective members of a Search and Rescue team, as well as teaching them survival skills, confidence, dedication, discipline and teamwork. The school's summer curriculum runs for nine days and simulates the conditions which will be encountered on a mission; a winter program is held over the course of a weekend and focuses on cold-weather operations.
[edit] References
- ^ Broun, Maurice. Hawks Aloft: The Story of Hawk Mountain.
