Spotted Lanternfly inBlair County, PASPOTTED LANTERNFLY GUIDE

Blair County — confirmed for SLF in 2018 — is the gateway to the Allegheny Mountains along the I-99 corridor, with Altoona as its county seat and railroad heritage city. The county sits at a critical geographic chokepoint where freight and vehicle traffic crossing the Allegheny Front ridge has historically carried invasive species westward from the established Pennsylvania infestation zones. Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark — the engineering marvel that carried Pennsylvania Railroad trains up the Allegheny slope — is a major tourism destination whose visitor traffic creates SLF dispersal risk. The Juniata River headwaters and the Allegheny Front ridge approach roads are priority SLF monitoring zones as populations continue to push westward through the Allegheny Mountain corridor.