YORK COUNTY, Pa. — The Lancaster Conservancy announced Tuesday that a new nature preserve is officially open to the public.
Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve is ready to welcome the public with two recently completed looping trails and a parking area while stewardship efforts continue, according to the Conservancy.
The 200-acre nature preserve was acquired from the Boy Scouts of America in 2019. Since then, the over 50-year-old nonprofit land trust's Stewardship Team and volunteers have worked resolutely to remove invasive species from the preserve and prepare trails for visitors.
Restoration of Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve has been a priority for the Conservancy for the greater Hellam Hills Conservation area. When the land was first acquired, the unhealthy forests were suffering canopy collapse due to unchecked invasive plants and insects.
The Conservancy's Stewardship Team worked to remove the invasive species. Staff and volunteers 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.
In 2023, the organization implemented the first-ever prescribed burn on a Conservancy preserve at Wizard Ranch to further manage the invasive plant growth.
“With the recent success of the prescribed burn, we are now ready to provide the first iteration of access and trails, which includes two loops of a planned 5-mile trail system," said the Senior Vice President of Stewardship at the Lancaster Conservancy Brandon Tennis.
"These trails will allow the public to enter, traverse, and experience the significant management changes at Wizard Ranch that have taken it from a heavily compromised ecosystem to now a nature preserve well on its way to restored habitat and recreational trails through robust investments of me, materials, and expertise by our staff, contractors, and volunteers," he continued.
However, the Conservancy’s work stewarding Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve is not done yet. More trails and amenities to assist in community education and engagement efforts are being developed at Wizard Ranch, and restoration efforts, including intensive work to restore the preserve’s wetlands, will be ongoing.
Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve is part of the Hellam Hills Conservation Area, which runs from north of Wrightsville to Codorus Creek and is the largest contiguous forest in the triangle between the cities of York, Lancaster, and Harrisburg.
