Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania (ASWP) has a long history of environmental stewardship in the Buffalo Creek Watershed and Important Bird Area (IBA). Our work includes conservation, providing recreational opportunities, environmental education, community engagement, planning, and restoration activities. ASWP's conservation efforts in Buffalo Creek started with the preservation of Todd Nature Reserve, our oldest and largest nature reserve. Most recently, ASWP secured $1.7M for education and conservation efforts in the watershed, opened Buffalo Creek Nature Center, and founded the Buffalo Creek Coalition. In 2023, we launched a new website dedicated to Buffalo Creek to further raise awareness of this unique ecological asset and showcase the work of ASWP and other Buffalo Creek Coalition partners. Learn more below and here: https://buffalocreekcoalition.org/
Buffalo Creek is the largest tributary on the west side of the Allegheny River between Franklin (French Creek) and the Ohio River. Its a High-Quality (HQ) watershed and Audubon-designated IBA that drains 171 square miles in Armstrong, Butler, and Allegheny Counties in Western Pennsylvania. Interested in more info about the watershed? Start with this watershed story map, then continue to read about the IBA.
ASWP, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the Porter Lab at Duquesne University recently conducted water quality, biological, and chemical monitoring to assess the overall health of the watershed. All of the data collected has been submitted to WATERS (Watershed Assessment Tool for Education & Research Studies), a free platform for managing water quality data collected by organizations in the upper Ohio River basin. View a Water Quality Data story map here.
The Buffalo Creek Coalition (BCC) is a collaborative effort between public, private, and nonprofit organizations and residents. The group believes that working collaboratively maximizes the impact of conservation efforts in the watershed—including environmental education, farmland and forest conservation, habitat restoration, ecological surveys, and water quality monitoring.
Buffalo Creek Valley Important Bird Area (IBA)
Did you know that Todd Nature Reserve falls within an Important Bird Area? Learn more about what this means by viewing our IBA story map. ASWP has an ongoing commitment to protect this amazing area. The Buffalo Creek Valley IBA contains exceptional bird habitat, is an area of high biological diversity, and is home to many species of conservation concern.
The IBA is made up of the Buffalo Creek high-quality watershed and Harrison Hills Park, covering 171.5 square miles in Butler, Armstrong, and Allegheny counties. The area is a mixing zone between southern fauna such as Yellow-throated Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, and Yellow-throated Vireo—and northern fauna including Magnolia Warbler, Brown Creeper, and Purple Finch. It contains extensive areas of northern hardwood-conifer forest communities along steep and narrow ravines and large wetland areas in areas such as the floodplain of Little Buffalo Run. It even contains portions of two Important Mammal Areas!
ASWP is proud to help protect and preserve the quality and character of the Buffalo Creek Valley IBA.
