Pa Game Commission announces partnership to help design and build new outdoor amphitheater
Artist's rendering of Pa Game Commission Amphitheater
PDF of Amphitheater Rendering
Link to images to support this story
PDF of Hawk Mountain Master Plan
March 16, 2012
Kempton, Pa—Carl Roe, Executive Director for the Pennsylvania Game Commission today announced that the state’s highest authority on wildlife will provide a lead gift of up to $250,000 to help design and build the Pennsylvania Game Commission Amphitheater at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.
Hawk Mountain is the world’s first refuge for birds of prey, an international center for raptor conservation and operates a 2,500-acre wildlife sanctuary that is open to the public year round. Welcoming an average 70,000 visitors each year, the Sanctuary is famed as one of the best places in northeastern North America to watch the annual autumn raptor migration.
“A partnership between Hawk Mountain and the Pennsylvania Game Commission makes sense,” explains Sanctuary President Jerry Regan. “For more than 77 years, Hawk Mountain has successfully promoted wildlife watching, in particular bird watching and hawk watching, and birding is the fastest-growing outdoor pastime in the nation.”
The partnership also helps the Game Commission reach a general public audience, a new goal in its strategic plan. “We want Pennsylvania citizens to appreciate our role in enhancing the quality of life by managing and protecting our wildlife resources,” says Executive Director Carl Roe.
Hawk Mountain is ideal because it aggressively promotes the Sanctuary as an outdoor destination and encourages visitors to explore the rich diversity of wildlife both in the air and on the ground. The large majority of people visiting Hawk Mountain will also visit the Outdoor Amphitheater, providing a critical opportunity to connect more people with the Game Commission’s mission and its importance.
For Hawk Mountain, the partnership is another step forward in its four-phase, $10 million capital improvement plan. Phase I is well underway at the Sanctuary’s educational headquarters, The Common Room, where Hawk Mountain is expanding and renovating the building to bring it up to ADA standards, provide safe bus entry, include new technology features for classroom use and to replace outdated exhibits.
Phase II is the Outdoor Amphitheater where Sanctuary educators present live raptor programs and school groups gather.
“The current amphitheater is completely underutilized because it offers no sheltered stage area and the wooden benches retain moisture. Early plans call for a timber framed, covered stage with proper sound and lighting, and a setting that not only make programs more enjoyable for the audience, but also will open up more opportunities for programming,” says Sanctuary President Jerry Regan.
The final two phases will include a scenic gateway project to address parking, visitor flow and to develop a sense of arrival, and finally, to open a truly green building at its Visitor Center.
About Hawk Mountain
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association, based in the Appalachian Mountains in central Pennsylvania, is the oldest and largest, member-supported raptor conservation organization in the world and operates a 2,500-acre sanctuary open to the public year-round. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association’s mission is to conserve birds of prey worldwide by providing leadership in raptor conservation science and education, and by maintaining Hawk Mountain Sanctuary as a model observation, research and education facility. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Learn more or donate to Hawk Mountain at www.hawkmountain.org
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FOR QUOTES:
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary President Jerry Regan
717-648-7472 (cell) or 610-756-6000 x213
Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl Roe
717-787-6540 (office)
FOR ADDITIONAL IMAGES:
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Director of Communications Mary Linkevich
610-756-6000 x213 or Linkevich@hawkmountain.org (if voicemail, follow up with email)
FOR INFORMATION ON RAPTORS:
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science
Keith Bildstein, Ph.D., 570-943-3411 x108 or 610-781-7358 or bildstein@hawkmtn.org
Senior Monitoring Biologist Laurie Goodrich, Ph.D.
570-943-3411 x106 or Goodrich@hawkmtn.org
Recent Research Blogs: The Vulture Chronicles
A Johnny Rook poses for a close-up
Visit our blog and read updates from the field about Hawk Mountain's long-term and far-ranging research on vultures and other species, including Striated Caracaras. Latest post is from our own Dr. Keith Bildstein in the Falkland islands after spending a month in this isolated area studying the near-threatened Johnny Rooks.
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