Community Conservation Partnerships Program
This program has been restructured to combine the following funding sources that were previously administered by the Bureau as separate grant programs: Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund (Key '93), the Environmental Stewardship and Watershed Protection Act (Growing Greener), Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the Pennsylvania Recreational Trails Program. The grant program components funded by these sources includes Community Recreation, Land Trusts, Rail-to-Trails, Rivers Conservation, and Recreational Trials. The Community Conservation Partnerships Program can provide funding and technical assistance for biodiversity-type projects like the ones listed below:

Smart Conservation
Smart Conservation is an electronic model used to identify, describe, and evaluate natural resources. The information gathered from this model would help identify conservation priority sites. Evaluations take place on a desktop computer using mostly public data and input from a one-day site visit. A GIS system and worksheets are used to generate results using a decision making software package. The benefit to this technique is the ability to quickly and inexpensively screen potential conservation or restoration sites to establish relative site conservation value priorities-so that government agencies and conservation groups can make better, more informed decisions about where to direct limited staff and financial resources.

Aquatic Classification Study
Although still in the proposal stage, the Pennsylvania Aquatic Community Classification Project will entail the development and application of standardized aquatic ecosystem classification and reference conditions. The classifications will enable conservation planners to identify, characterize, and map existing locations of freshwater plants and animals and their habitats and assess their relative conservation priority. Currently, Pennsylvania lacks a system for defining and classifying aquatic communities. An aquatic community classification system would establish a rational framework for identifying aquatic ecosystems in the Commonwealth.

Growing Greener: Conservation by Design
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, through a cooperative effort with the Natural Lands Trust and other state agencies, has developed the Growing Greener: Conservation by Design approach to the subdivision and land development design process. Growing Greener: Conservation by Design is a package of techniques used to connect and conserve open space in communities. The approach helps communities improve residents' quality of life and helps accomplish conservation objectives by the creation and protection of greenways and interconnected networks of open space, improved water quality and quantity conditions, increased opportunities for recreation, protection of wildlife habitat, and increased property values.

Important Bird Areas
The Bureau of Recreation and Conservation has partnered with the Pennsylvania Audubon Society to identify Important Bird Areas throughout the state. One of the main goals of this long-range partnership is to develop individual conservation management and master plans for each of the designated Important Bird Areas.

Education and Training Initiatives
Through a partnership with a newly energized Pennsylvania Land Trust Association (PALTA), the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation is developing education, training and outreach programs for land trust conservancies. Biodiversity issues are taking top priority in this partnership. Through a grant given to the Environmental Fund of PA, the department will receive some exposure on the Greenworks TV Show. The first program is focusing on Rivers, other biological diversity themes to follow.

Large Landscape-type Planning Projects
By providing grant money to fund large landscape-type planning projects, the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation has an indirect impact on the conservation of natural diversity. Greenways projects provide habitat and corridors for wildlife. Watershed and rivers conservation groups work to link the state's aquatic resources. Creating partnerships is the key contribution the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation makes toward the conservation of lands not owned by the state. By supplying the funds for community and regional conservation projects, the Bureau impacts biodiversity planning and protection.

Kittatinny Ridge Plan
This plan to protect the entire Kittatinny Ridge, a mountain ridge which runs from Maryland to New Jersey, is the most comprehensive plan to date for the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation. Partnering with the Pennsylvania Audubon Society and a coalition of many state agencies, non-profit groups and public officials, the plan will encompass protection and maintenance of a major bird flyway, and address the recreation, tourism, land acquisition, biodiversity protection, and education issues of the ridge.

Internal Biodiversity Inventory: Bureau of State Parks

Park Resource Management Plans
For the past 16 years, the Bureau of State Parks has been working on the creation of a Resource Management Plan for each of its 116 state parks. The Bureau recognized early on the importance of providing a variety of habitats for the livelihood of park plants and animals. The Bureau also began to look outside of park boundaries, at the landscape surrounding the park, to better understand the relationships of the park's ecosystems to the region. Adaptive management practices (being able to respond to changing natural conditions) and principles of biodiversity are being integrated into the resource management planning process.

State Parks Natural Areas
A natural area is an area of unique scenic, geologic, or ecological value that will be maintained in a natural condition by allowing physical and biological processes to operate, usually without direct human intervention. These areas are set aside to provide locations for scientific observations of natural systems, to protect examples of typical and unique plant and animal communities, and to protect outstanding examples of natural interest and beauty. There are 22 natural areas in the State Park System.

State Parks Special Management Areas
A special management area is an area of special scenic, historic, cultural, geologic, or ecological value that will be managed for the character for which it was designated, with management guidelines specific to each site. Special management areas do not meet the rigid standards of a natural area. Special management areas require some form of human intervention/management to maintain the special feature that is the reason for designation. There are currently 11 special management areas in the State Parks System.

Old Field Management Program
The purpose of the old field management program is to provide and maintain diverse habitats throughout the State Parks System. Park managers have recognized that state parks should be representations of the surrounding natural landscapes. With this in mind, the Bureau of State Parks has implemented the Old Field Management Program. Meadow ecosystems provide a unique array of plants and wildlife. Warm season grasses are being established not only to reduce mowing and provide meadow landscapes; but also 1) to re-introduce native plants into the landscape and 2) because native grasslands are a rare (but vitally important) ecosystem in PA. Warm season grasses provide critical habitat for grassland nesting birds and mammals and a food source for others (including native species). Butterfly trails have been built at some state parks to allow visitors an educational experience associated with the preservation of old fields.

Park Construction Precautions
In an effort to maintain and protect the plants, animals, and habitats found within the state parks, the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory is checked on all park construction projects to ensure that a negative or harmful impact will not result from groundbreaking.

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