From staff reports
The seventh annual Pennsylvania Firefly Festival will be held June 22 at the Black Caddis Ranch and B&B in Kelletville.
The $5 parking donation will benefit PAFF and AmVets Post 113.
The synchronous firefly is unique in that its flash patterns are in synchrony with each other, so they appear to be a string of Christmas lights hanging in the forest.
The only other confirmed habitat in North America is in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.
The festival will feature twelve hours of live music, nature exhibits, arts and crafts, food trucks and kid activities.
Firefly viewing activities will begin at dusk. Four levels of opportunities, from a two-hour VIP experience to casual viewing, will be available for guests. Pre-registration is required and available online at Brown Paper Tickets.
PAFF will also host several other remote firefly programs and viewing opportunities at various in sites in Forest County on weekends and select weeknights in June and early July.
Pre-registration for these events is also required.
Award winning festival
The Pennsylvania Firefly Festival, Inc. was honored last year with the Pennsylvania Wilds Group Conservation Stewardship Award for its work in bringing worldwide attention to the need to protect the unique firefly population (Photinus carolinus, also known as the Synchronous Firefly) located in the Allegheny National Forest.
Founded in 2013, PAFF is an organization dedicated to the science of fireflies, the identification and conservation of firefly habitat, and educating the public about these magical beetles. Fireflies are an indicator species: their presence tells us about the health of their habitat.
Their annual Firefly Festival brings in thousands of visitors to the Pennsylvania Wilds from across the USA and abroad. PAFF was recognized as a champion of the PA Wilds for its multi-faceted conservation work, which includes innovative partnerships, training and education, youth involvement, the usage of grant funding to support conservation initiatives, educational marketing and events, collaboration with conservationists and researchers, habitat preservation, and more.
These tireless advocates launched, and have continued to sustain and grow, a wholly unique conservation stewardship initiative in the Pennsylvania Wilds with global and regional impact that will carry for generations to come.