Middle Creek unveils new wildlife viewing platform off Chapel Road

Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area unveiled a new viewing platform on June 6, so visitors have a good vantage point to observe Risser’s Wetland off of Chapel Road.

There is a stone walkway leading to the platform. The structure is lifted several feet off the ground, and it has benches for seating, a roof for shade, and magnifying scopes to get a better look at nearby wildlife.

Read More: Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area building new wildlife viewing platform

A killdeer (a large plover) welcomed guests walking up the pathway, making warning noises as she protected the eggs she’d laid in the nearby stones.

Pete Sussenbach, southeast region director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, mentioned the mother bird at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“That bird really highlights the need for wild places and, honestly, sound wildlife management, which is what is done here at the wildlife management area, but it’s also done around the state by the Pennsylvania Game Commission,” he said.

Risser’s Wetland is separate from the main lake in Middle Creek, but still attracts waterfowl species such as tundra swans, snow geese, multiple species of ducks, and migratory shorebirds.

Sussenbach said the almost 6,000-acre area sitting on the border of Lebanon and Lancaster counties is one of six globally important bird areas in Pennsylvania. He said it’s home to 105 documented breeding bird species, and at least 250 species pass through each year.

Steve Smith, executive director of the Game Commission, thanked the crowd for braving the hot June weather and talked about the importance of maintaining natural places for wildlife.

“I think the fact that we are able to get such a turnout like this on a Friday morning in June just speaks to what we know, what the local community knows, what those hundred-thousand people who have come through here every year know, and even the wildlife knows, is that Middle Creek is a special place,” Smith said. “It’s unique, it’s beautiful, and it’s certainly worth the effort that we’ve taken over the past couple of decades now to preserve it, to manage it, to create opportunities like this.”

He said part of managing wildlife is also creating opportunities for the public to engage with it, which is why they wanted to make a platform so people could easily view this water impoundment.

At the new platform, creating opportunities also means having an ADA-accessible ramp and color blindness-enhancing scopes. He said accessible parking will be along the other side of Chapel Road.

“The more opportunities there are to connect with wildlife, the more the public will appreciate wildlife, and the more they’ll understand it,” Smith said. “And the more they understand and appreciate it, the more they’ll support what we do to manage it, and we’re going to need that support if we’re going to be able to preserve places like Middle Creek for generations to come.”