Pennsylvania Wildlife

The forests of Pennsylvania provide recreational opportunities (e.g., hiking, biking, birding) and important plant and wildlife habitat, and can help offset the region's heat-trapping emissions by capturing and storing carbon. As temperatures climb, the character of Pennsylvania's forests is expected to change. Suitable habitat for Pennsylvania's state tree, the hemlock (a common shade tree lining forest streams and keeping waters cool for native fish), is projected to shrink as much as 50 percent in part of the northeast under the higher-emissions scenario. Loss of hemlocks would mean trouble for the state fish, the native brook trout, and other coldwater fish that rely on the shade provided by hemlocks to survive hot (and growing hotter) summers.