Lancaster, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania · 6,000 acres
Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area Hunting 2026: Species & Access
Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area covers 6,000 acres near Kleinfeltersville in Lancaster, Lebanon County. A managed lake and wetland complex surrounded by fields in the Furnace Hills, built and run first for waterfowl — it's the site of the largest single wildlife spectacle in the Mid-Atlantic, with up to 100,000 snow geese and thousands of tundra swans stopping over during spring migration.
01 — What you can hunt here
| Species | Notes |
|---|---|
| Waterfowl | Duck and goose blinds are lottery-selected through PGC Special Hunt Applications, not open access. |
| Deer | Lottery muzzleloader and quality-deer hunts run in the controlled area on top of general statewide seasons in the open Public Hunting Area section. |
| Small game | Covered under general statewide seasons in the Public Hunting Area section, same as any Pennsylvania State Game Land. |
02 — Access rules specific to this WMA
- The Public Hunting Area section is open during all statewide open seasons under ordinary Pennsylvania rules — no extra permit for general hunting.
- The Controlled Area and Propagation Area run on a separate lottery system: apply through the PGC's Special Hunt Applications for a waterfowl blind or a special deer hunt.
- Once a hunter has drawn and hunted a duck or goose blind, they're no longer eligible for another blind at Middle Creek for the rest of that season.
- Scouting inside the wildlife management area is prohibited ahead of a scheduled hunt, to keep other controlled hunts undisturbed.
03 — Where this WMA differs from the statewide rules
- Closed to all waterfowl hunting during the early Canada goose season, even though that season runs statewide elsewhere.
- The Wildlife Drive (viewing, not hunting) runs March 1–Sept. 30 only, and the Visitor Center closes from Thanksgiving through the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Day.
04 — Facilities
Camping: Not available on the WMA. No shooting range on-site.
Built as a visitor destination first — an interactive visitor center, over 20 miles of hiking trails and three picnic areas (Sunfish Pond, Red Rock, White Oak). Non-motorized boating is allowed on the lake May 15–Sept. 30, outside the peak waterfowl-hunting window.
05 — Where to go next
Middle Creek runs a fundamentally different access model than almost every other Pennsylvania State Game Land: instead of open walk-in hunting everywhere, the best waterfowl and deer opportunities sit inside a Controlled Area reached only by winning a PGC lottery drawing, capped at one blind per hunter per season. That's the trade-off for hunting one of the continent's great goose-migration spectacles — come without a drawn permit during the controlled hunts and you're a visitor on the Wildlife Drive, not a hunter in the field.
Pennsylvania hunting license costs and permits →
Verified · Pennsylvania Game Commission · Last verified 2026-08-08
Publisher's note. Read from PGC, retrieved 2026-08-08. Review due 2027-08-01. WMA-specific rules and closures can change between seasons — confirm before you hunt.