Hillcrest Wildlife Area

Hillcrest Wildlife Management Area

By Rob Hilliard

Now I know what Romeo must’ve felt like.

I’ve always considered myself lucky in love. I’ve got a beautiful wife who can match my passion for sports, play for play, and who is at least tolerant - occasionally even encouraging - when it comes to my hunting pursuits. I can’t imagine setting my sights any higher.

But last week I was struck once again by Cupid’s arrow. Smitten; love at first sight. From that initial moment, I admired the colorful nature and the graceful curves. What was the name of this golden siren that beckoned me to abandon all reason and plunge in? The Hillcrest Wildlife Management Area (WMA), all 2,212 acres of it.

In talking to Gary Foster, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife Biologist for District 1, I found that I was obviously not alone in my enthusiasm for Hillcrest. “It’s really a unique Wildlife Management Area for West Virginia,” said Roberts with noticeable pride. I had to stifle a pang of jealousy at his interest in the site.

What makes Hillcrest distinctive as a WMA is its habitat. Quite simply, it’s a farm. Well, it’s not really a farm anymore, but it was once. According to Roberts, the WMA was created in 1991 from the former 1500-acre Rugh Hillcrest Farms, a beef cattle operation, and another 700 acres was added in 1993 from Hillcrest Farms, an apple and peach orchard. From some background information provided by DNR, I found that this effort actually reunited farm property that had all been owned from 1917 to 1953 by real estate and oil magnate C.A. Smith.

While so much habitat management on public land is about forest management, DNR’s work at Hillcrest is all about keeping farm habitat intact. “West Virginia is one of the most forested states in the East, with about 80 percent forest cover statewide,” said Roberts. “Only Maine and New Hampshire have a higher amount of forest cover east of the Mississippi. Our long-term plan is to maintain the open lands [at Hillcrest].”

One look at Hillcrest is all it takes to tell you it’s working. The site stands out precisely because it turns the statewide averages upside down; about 75 or 80 percent of Hillcrest is open fields and grassland, while the rest is forested with a few small wetland pockets sneaking in here and there. Roberts notes that the forested areas do contain “a good population of deer and turkey,” as well as “a decent population of grouse,” but it’s the grassy fields that are the real stars.

Even though my trip to Hillcrest was more than two months before the rabbit season opener, I swear I could hear the baying of beagles drifting across the fields. The field border cuts - created by trimming back into the forest edges along fields - undertaken by DNR have created the kind of thick scrub that rabbits adore and the adjoining fields give them the feed and cover from overhead predators that they need. The only cutting done in most of the fields are narrow strips that section off the openings into neatly huntable pieces.

Other areas of the WMA have more active habitat work underway. The Panhandle Chapter of Pheasants Forever has worked with DNR on grassland management at the site. Roberts described this effort as “trying to convert existing grasslands to warm season grasses, which provide better habitat especially in winter when you have snow.” Roberts estimated that 40 to 50 acres of warm season grasses have been planted at Hillcrest in the last five years, and there are more to come. He also noted, however, that there is no pheasant stocking done at the WMA, so don’t expect to empty a box of shells if you’re bird hunting there.

Speaking of emptying a box of shells, did I mention that my new love comes with its own public shooting range with seven sheltered benches? How many spouses can make that claim? The range has backstops at 25, 50, and 100 yards and allows handicapped access.

During my all-too-short tour of the site, I kicked a half-dozen deer out from different hiding spots, and there were active trails and grassy beds too numerous to count. Since habitat management at the site includes planting sorghum, corn, and wheat, the forest edges overlooking these fields should make a bonanza during archery season. That’s not even mentioning the hundreds of apple trees - left over from the time when Hillcrest Farms shipped 250,000 bushels a year across the entire US - that are still producing their sweet, red fall crop.

Deer won’t be the only species benefiting from those grain plantings. One of the key management species at the site is mourning doves. Roberts pointed out that, while most of the fields are left standing, a few are mowed for the doves to use. “The long-term plan is to maintain the open lands,” said Roberts. The plantings, mowing, and even occasional controlled burns are on-going efforts to achieve this goal.

For those of us in the Ohio Valley, Hillcrest’s location is exceedingly convenient. Just a couple of minutes off of PA Route 168 or WV Route 8, the WMA lies adjacent to Tomlinson Run State Park. The park allows tent camping and more comfortable facilities can be found just a couple of minutes away in the cities of Chester, WV, or East Liverpool, OH. There are a number of restaurants and sporting goods stores in those towns as well.

Now, just to prove that love is not completely blind, I do have to mention that Hillcrest may have a few small blemishes. For starters, it’s playing under a different set of rules, literally. There are special regulations in effect at the site for pheasants, antlerless deer, and the WV "bucks-only" season. So to be safe, consult your 2002-2003 WV Hunting and Trapping Regulations Summary before you head out.

Some other slight criticisms are that the lack of mowed fields might make shooting difficult, whether it’s for groundhogs or deer (some of that grass was pretty darn tall), and there seemed to be a lack of convenient parking spots near some very inviting fields, especially along Gas Valley Road. But those are minor critiques really, like an untied shoelace on a supermodel.

As I strolled aimlessly across the open fields at Hillcrest, I finally found myself perched atop a rise that gave me a commanding view of hundreds of acres. Perhaps it was even the very hilltop that had given the site its name. I mused what the view would have looked like from this spot 70 years ago. Prize bulls grazing in the pasture below me, row after row of cornfields being worked by horse-drawn pickers or maybe even the very latest in farm technology, the steel-wheeled tractor. Along the edge of the ridge crews of apple pickers, with their bags slung over their shoulders, balancing atop their ladders, would be plucking the first ripe fruit of the year.
I wondered, with that scurry of activity gone, and the wind in the grass and the red-tailed hawk in the sky creating the only movement in sight, had Hillcrest lost something? Did it seem forlorn and sad at this transition? At just that moment, a doe unconcernedly ambled out of an abandoned fencerow and began to pick her way along the mowed edge of the field below me.

"No", I answered my own thoughts. Hillcrest looks lovely.