By Steve Mohr Jr., Senior Preserves Manager
The Lancaster Conservancy was founded in 1969 by a small group of hunters and anglers, who saw the open, wooded, and wild spaces they cherished quickly disappearing and wanted to protect those ever-fewer spaces that remained. Over the years and decades since, the Conservancy has preserved over 10,000 acres and now manages 50 individual nature preserves, each of which is open to the public 365 days a year. In 2024, hunters and anglers are still among the Conservancy’s most active supporters and preserve visitors, and with good reason.
When we set management priorities for lands that have been preserved by the Lancaster Conservancy, a primary goal is to improve habitat in support of healthy local and migratory wildlife populations. Another priority is to create sustainable public access for wildlife-related activities like hunting, fishing, and birdwatching. As a result, our meadows and forests are some of the best places in Lancaster and York counties to spot or pursue white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, and the occasional black bear, along with a variety of small game species from squirrels to woodchucks (you might know them as groundhogs or whistlepigs), and a wide range of game bird species from non-natives like European starlings to migratory species like Canada geese.
In total, the Conservancy is proud to allow public hunting access in pursuit of regulated game species on nearly 6,000 acres at more than 30 nature preserves, all supported by enrollment in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Public Hunting Access Cooperator program. In 2024, we have enrolled three additional York County preserves into this program: Wizard Ranch, Wilton Meadows, and Reist Nature Preserves – nearly 700 acres open to public hunting access for the first time. We are working with PGC to create even more access opportunities, so keep an eye on our website for updates as we continue to open new preserves to public hunting.
For hunters, those 6,000 acres provide much more than an opportunity to pursue and harvest game species. On Conservancy lands, hunters can commune with the natural world, ponder the puzzling peculiarities of life, spend time afield with friends, and create lasting, intergenerational memories with family. When blessed with a successful harvest, hunters can connect themselves with healthy, sustainable food and reduce their grocery bill in the process. For those who successfully hunt deer on our preserves, we ask that you also consider donating venison to Hunters Sharing the Harvest through participating local butcher shops.
Hunting plays an important role in the management of local wildlife populations, which can otherwise grow to unhealthy levels due to the modern absence of important predator species and the relative glut of agricultural food sources, among other factors. With some species, like white-tailed deer, the use of hunting as a population management tool provides several ecological and local economic benefits. Without hunting, large populations of browsing deer can be devastating to the regeneration of native hardwood species within a forest, and they can also damage crops on surrounding farmland. Through public hunting access, those negative impacts can be sharply reduced. The management of white-tailed deer populations through hunting also helps to reduce the frequency of vehicle-deer collisions on local roadways, and it helps to reduce the spread of highly communicable pathogens like those that cause Chronic Wasting Disease. In addition to local benefits, harvest reporting from hunters provides much of the data that is used to model wildlife population trends and monitor for disease among game species in the commonwealth.
The great diversity of species found on our nature preserves is a product of the wide diversity of terrain and habitat types that we protect: from fields to forests, rolling hills to rocky gorges, tiny streams to the mighty Susquehanna River. As a result, some hunting areas are very challenging to access, while others are considered universally accessible. As part of the Conservancy’s dedication to equal access to the outdoors for everyone, including those who wish to hunt, additional universally accessible hunting opportunities are being developed.
If you choose to hunt on Lancaster Conservancy nature preserves, keep in mind that all PGC rules, regulations, seasons, and bag limits apply and are enforceable by PGC Wildlife Conservation Officers. Check out the Conservancy’s “Where to Hunt” page for a full list of preserves open to public hunting along with additional rules and color hunting maps.
Some additional Conservancy rules are also enforced, including but not limited to:
- No hunting is allowed after dark.
- Follow Leave No Trace principles. If you pack it in, pack it out. Being a good steward of the land we all share helps to ensure the future of access for everyone.
- Please do not cut or remove vegetation to create trails or shooting lanes.
- Hunters may utilize tree stands and ground blinds where hunting is permitted on Conservancy preserves. Those stands and blinds may be placed on preserves beginning two weeks before the start of Archery Deer Season and must be removed from our properties no later than two weeks after the end of the Late Archery Deer Season. Stands and blinds not removed by that time will be considered abandoned property and may be seized. Blinds may also be used on properties that permit spring turkey hunting during that season. Tree stands and blinds may not be secured to trees using nails, screws, or any other hardware that damages the tree beneath the outer bark.
- All stands and blinds must be tagged with the hunter’s name, phone number, and PGC-issued hunter identification number. We strongly encourage all hunters to wear a safety harness when hunting from a stand. Hunters let unsupervised property on Conservancy preserves at their own risk.
- Due to concerns for the privacy of our other preserve visitors, we do not allow the use of game cameras.
- Hunters should be considerate of other preserve visitors by keeping firearms and crossbows unloaded when in our parking areas, in any marked or unmarked Safety Zones, and on our hiking trails.
- While we encourage hunters to utilize our trail systems to access their hunting location, we do recommend staying at least 50 feet from any hiking trails while hunting. In addition, we insist that hunters never shoot towards, onto, or across hiking trails.
- Respect our neighbors by staying at least 50 feet away from any property boundaries when placing stands and blinds, never shooting into a neighbor’s property, and never entering any private property to pursue game without first getting permission from the owner.
Some tips for non-hunters during hunting season:
- Everyone should wear bright orange when visiting preserves open to hunting.
- Dogs are always to be kept on leash at Conservancy preserves, and this is extremely important during hunting seasons to help keep our pets safe, and to keep those pets from chasing wildlife or otherwise interfering with hunting activities, which is illegal in Pennsylvania.
- Stay on the marked hiking trails and supervise children closely.
- Consider visiting preserves that are closed to hunting like Climbers Run Nature Center, and consider visiting preserves open to archery hunting only like Texter Mountain Nature Preserve during firearm seasons.
- If you witness what you believe to be reckless or illegal hunting activity on any of our properties, please report that activity directly to the PGC’s Centralized Dispatch Center at 1-833-PGC-HUNT (1-833-742-4868) or 1-833-PGC-WILD (1-833-742-9453).
