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DVOC 2001 CONSERVATION GRANT
Valley Forge Audubon

Jan and Ken Gordon - Co-Chairpersons

Support for habitat maintenance and restoration at the Meng Sanctuary in western Montgomery County.

Several years ago the original Meng property (west of route 29, between Schwenksville and Collegeville) was deeded to the Valley Forge Audubon Society for operation as a wildlife sanctuary. Natural Lands Trust considers the habitat so important for conservation that they raised the funds necessary to join two noncontiguous pieces belonging to VFAS for the purpose of creating a much larger sanctuary, some deeded to the local township, but all administered by VFAS. At that time DVOC contributed a small sum to the acquisition by Natural Lands Trust.

Since that time VFAS has actively administered the property, improved trails using volunteers and obtained help from an outside source toward restoration of a former wetland. Alan and Carol Gehret have been banding regularly at Meng and report very rich spring and fall migrations.

They also report that there are large populations of breeding woodthrush, veery and ovenbirds and probably hooded and blue-winged warblers and red-breasted nuthatches are nesting there as well. A population of black-capped chickadees may nest as well. There has been no predation by cowbirds, probably because the off-trail vegetation is very dense.

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