Offer a voice for vulnerable species with public comment on proposed 2025-2035 Wildlife Action Plan by Sept. 19

​It didn't take long for middle-school students at each of four Camp Chillisquaque day camp programs to catch on. 

Early in each program day, intern Maggie Yonkin would share a PowerPoint overview of endangered and threatened species in Pennsylvania. Each slide offered a quick overview of the species and various reasons it was struggling to survive in our state. 

In two words, the least common denominator that could be tied to most every species' decline: Habitat loss.

The American bittern depends on the specialized marshes and wetlands for which it is perfectly designed to thrive in -- but those habitats have declined by more than 50 percent.

The piping plover, common tern and other beach-dwellers are struggling as their sandy nest sites are over-run by tourists and other threats. 

Grassland species such as the Northern harrier, sedge wren and dickcissel all have drastically declined as changes in agricultural practices led to earlier haying of fields in which they are still trying to raise young. 

Sensitive waterway species, such as the Eastern hellbender, has seen as much as 95 percent of its required clean water and sediment-free habitat lost across the Susquehanna River watershed, according to local hellbender expert Dr. Peter Petokas. 

Despite these and numerous other examples, we are at a critical juncture for our struggling species. Habitat is being threatened by changing policies and politics. Data center proposals are popping up across regions that hold key habitat for these species. 

In the midst of all this, our state officials are looking to put out the next 10-year Statewide Wildlife Action Plan. This plan is an extensive review of key species of conservation need, addressing topics like statewide protections and efforts to be made over the next 10 years to help keep the species from disappearing completely. 

Now, through Sept. 19, 2026, the public is invited to offer feedback on the plan. This is your one major opportunity to provide an extra voice for vulnerable species that may be lacking. 

Of course, it is extensive and overwhelming to take it all in. There is an overview on public feedback and participation in the Wildlife Action Plan as well as instructions and the actual feedback form itself. 

As far as specific species that have actual plans in place for the upcoming decade are accessible by species type, in which you can access directly below:

• Mammals
• Birds
• Amphibians and Reptiles
• Aquatic and Terrestrial Invertebrates
• Fishes

It is best to make sure comments you share are specific, avoiding broad topics or opinions that may not be grounded in factual information that helps drive the next step of action. If you have any questions or need help, please reach out to us via email at [email protected]

For the record, our association's feedback on the plan will include a variety of things, including the following:

1. Make the plan more publicly digestible
As mentioned earlier, the plan is massive, covering a wide number of species, threats and potential actions that can quickly be overwhelming to everyday people who aren't immediately studying these species. Perhaps that is the plan - to weed out seemingly uneducated feedback from the process.

However, if the goal is truly to make this an opportunity for ALL people to provide meaningful feedback, there needs to be a better representation of the plan's main points and specifically changes and improvements since the previous 10-year plan. 

These are offered in the current plan, but it is not user-friendly. Information is dense and written by someone obviously skilled in representing this to the science community, but not necessarily the general public. It is recommended that those connected to the Wildlife Action Plan partner with groups and individuals who are skilled at breaking down complex information into prioritized digestible overviews with bullet points vs. narrative. 

This doesn't mean you are watering down the plan, the research behind it or its potential impacts ... you can simply embed the necessary links for those who want to delve into the deep end on each main topic or species.

2. Consider elevating protections for the Eastern hellbender
A species of which we are heavily involved is the hellbender, not only through assisting with independent research of the species across our watershed with renowned experts, but also as one of five nonprofits that legally challenged a lack of protections nationally by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency eventually changed its position, recommending the species be listed as endangered federally in December of 2024.

After that recommendation, public comment periods were opened through February of 2025 and then there was no update or action. Changes in the political landscape paused any further momentum on this effort.

However, a major part of the push that led the US Fish and Wildlife Service to change its stance was based on information we shared out locally from three renowned experts on the species: Dr. Peter Petokas, Matt Kaunert (with Lycoming College) and Dr. Mizuki Takahashi (Bucknell University). All three shared their concerns about the species' status in our state, and all three independently urged a more robust level of protection. 

However, there seems to be no real change on efforts with hellbenders in the new Wildlife Action Plan outside of a wait-and-monitor (and hope for the best) approach. However, while more time passes to collect information, the species faces growing threats, especially as natural gas developers continue to disrupt key habitat for expansion. That process is likely to only expand more as hyper scale data centers become more of a reality.

According to Takahashi, the first thing that should be done is a "compilation of current and historic data into a single database, which includes literature reviews." Then, he recommends identifying watersheds for species abundance monitoring and distribution to assess population trends.

"The report says the hellbender populations in PA are relatively stable. I am not sure what evidence they used to reach this conclusion," he said.

Obviously if populations are "relatively" stable, there may not seem to be a need for more protections, however, from each independent hellbender researcher we work with, there is growing concern about sedimentation and general pollution erasing prime habitat. It is obvious the state agencies need to do more to incorporate the work already being done by these year-round hellbender experts ... perhaps that will fill the gaps of information that are suggested as missing in the draft of the new Wildlife Action Plan.

Waiting 10 years to gather information before adding a protection may be too late ... let's at least consider proactively protecting the species until more is conclusively known.

3. Consider adding the muskrat to the greater plan
While most aquatic mammals in our state have seen a steady improvement in population size (mink, otters, beavers, etc.), the muskrat has historically declined over the past few decades according to PA Game Commission biologist Thomas Keller. 

"If we look at some of our indices that we track species with, there’s been this steady decline from the 70s until now and it doesn’t seem to be letting up. To me that is very alarming," he said for a story on the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper blog. 

Our association put out a survey, encouraging people who would have access to muskrat more prevalently to share their opinions. An overwhelming number of those responses indicated a sizeable reduction in the species. Numerous conversations with members of the PA Trappers Association have led to similar concerns.

However, the muskrat is nowhere to be found in the extensive amount of species information in the proposed Wildlife Action Plan. We don't know enough to know if the species is dwindling to a point of requiring more stringent protections, but at the very least, it should be a focal point of more research and efforts proactively before it is too late.

4. Make a more intensified effort to understand emerging threats
Emerging contaminants in our waterways have included microplastics, PFAS (forever chemicals) and pharmaceuticals ... and while each has received a certain amount of research and attention, there is much more to know, especially in better understanding the impacts they have collectively with each other and other pollutants in our watershed. 

However, a bigger threat looms in the massive spike of proposed hyperscale data centers in Pennsylvania specifically. We are thankful that the Wildlife Action Plan highlights the data center situation as an emerging threat, and there are some specifics of how they could negatively impact vulnerable species, but there should be a more extensive deep dive into these concerns.

We recommend the plan advocates for specific funding for targeted research not only on how data centers can impact prime habitat, but also how the extra light, sounds and other things emanating from these structures could negatively impact species that are uber-detailed in their communication and awareness of their environment.

Studies in states where data centers are more robust suggest a loss of bees and bats ... and considering these are species of concern already (especially the bats), there needs to be a task force to better understand the reasons and ways to avoid impacts to vulnerable species, regardless if they live locally or migrate through. 

We would like to see this as a high-priority effort especially as small communities try to develop ordinances that restrict these centers from excessive sounds, light and other impacts. 

If you have any further questions about this feedback, please contact us directly at [email protected]

Below are slides from intern Maggie Yonkin's Camp Chillisquaque presentation on vulnerable species.