Thank you for visiting Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve! The Lancaster Conservancy acquired this property in the Hellam Hills Conservation Area in 2019, and we were excited to open it up to our community in 2023 with the first two trails installed and several more to come. Learn more about this nature preserve by clicking the buttons below. We hope you are enjoying your hike!

Invasive species have the ability to dominate an ecosystem. These are usually organisms not originally from the geographic area where they invade. Their populations can explode because the normal controls that keep their numbers in check — like diseases or predators — are not present. This allows invasive species to outcompete native species, which results in a monoculture of the invasive organism, fewer native organisms, and overall reduced biodiversity.

Volunteers participate in a workday at Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve | Photo by Peggy Eppig

Invasive species enter ecosystems in several ways, but one of the most common is ornamental plants that escape into the wild. Something we can all do to reduce the spread of invasives is plant native species in our own gardens.

When the Lancaster Conservancy acquired Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve, the unhealthy forests were suffering canopy collapse due to unchecked invasive plant and insect species. Our Stewardship Team got to work right away to remove those invasive species. Stewardship staff and volunteers have trimmed and pulled plants like multiflora rose, bittersweet, and bush honeysuckle and used forestry mowers to reduce the impaired forest to a savanna-like habitat with native species such as oak, hickory, and pawpaw. And in 2023, we implemented the first-ever prescribed burn on a Conservancy preserve at Wizard Ranch to further manage the invasive plants growing there.

→ HELP US MANAGE INVASIVE SPECIES! JOIN A VOLUNTEER WORKDAY AT WIZARD RANCH NATURE PRESERVE

Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve Meadow Trail | Photo by Brandon Tennis

Grasslands such as meadows and savannas – which are ecosystems that are dominated by grasses and sparse trees – were once common in southeastern and central Pennsylvania. They are now one of the most imperiled ecosystems on the planet. Temperate grasslands host high biodiversity, so as we lose grasslands, we lose the diverse species who live there as well as all the ecosystem services, such as pollination, those species provide.

If left undisturbed, grasslands will revert to forest over time. Historically, disturbance included large grazing mammals and fire that burned woody plants and favored grasses and forbs. Meadows have been lost to agriculture, development, and the encroachment of forest. The meadow at Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve will be planted in native warm season grasses and forbs that support a variety of insects that, in turn, support a diversity of birds and bats. It will be maintained as a meadow by applying a disturbance every 3-4 years, which may include mowing or controlled fire.

Fire is a natural part of terrestrial ecosystems. Prior to 20^th century fire suppression, brushfires were frequent in central Pennsylvania. They were typically low to moderate in severity, and they were often used by indigenous peoples as management tools.

Ecosystems that were adapted to fire dominated the landscape and included fire-tolerant trees such as oaks and pines (the forest here at Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve was dominated by oaks). Additionally, fire maintained an open shrub layer.

The more recent lack of fire changed the composition of forests in Pennsylvania from fire-tolerant oaks to fire-intolerant maples and tulip poplars. Fire control also encouraged the thick growth of shrubs.

Controlled fire is being used to help restore ecosystems to their fire-tolerant species composition. At Wizard Ranch, we implemented a prescribed burn in 2023 to reduce the slash created when the invasive tree species that dominated the preserve were ground up during forestry mowing. Another goal of the controlled burn was to reduce the invasive seed bank.

“Prescribed fire is an extremely versatile land management tool with a long history of use in Pennsylvania. Historically, prescribed fire was used frequently through the 18th century by the indigenous people of Pennsylvania to accomplish a wide variety of land management objectives. The reintroduction of prescribed fire to the landscape at Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve represents the first use of fire as a management tool in the 50-plus-year history of the Lancaster Conservancy,” said Lancaster Conservancy Forester Eric Roper.

The 18-acre prescribed burn prepared the soil for planting native understory and canopy trees while killing off the invasive species seed bank, allowing the Conservancy to now turn the corner to reforestation. We are looking forward to tree plantings on the preserve in 2023 and 2024.

→ LEARN MORE ABOUT STEWARDSHIP WORK AT WIZARD RANCH NATURE RPESERVE

In a healthy stream/floodplain system, the stream surface is close to the level of the surrounding land so that when the creek rises, the extra water easily spills onto the floodplain where it can recede and slowly seep in. Pocket marshes form in the floodplain, which leads to high habitat diversity and in turn supports high biodiversity. Floods reset the successional clock. The floodplain ecosystem depends on these periodic floods, and the stream system depends on these places for water to go to lessen the severity of floods and decrease the damage they can cause.

Stream at Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve | Photo by Christian Przybylek

The historic agricultural land use of Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve caused sediment deposition that disconnected the stream from its floodplain. The stream surface shifted a few feet below the surface of the surrounding floodplain, the size of the floodplain ecosystem was reduced, and it became a less diverse and healthy floodplain ecosystem. The change to the waterway has also resulted in serious downstream flooding because the excess flood water has nowhere to go but downstream. This innocent-looking small stream took out a house and two roads in 2018 and caused more than $1 million in damage.

The Lancaster Conservancy’s restoration project here will hydrologically reconnect the stream with its floodplain, which will restore the biodiverse floodplain ecosystem and its ecological function of absorbing flood waters, helping to keep downstream residents safe.