The Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy (NPC) is a land trust devoted to conserving and enhancing the lands and waters of Northcentral Pennsylvania to support the environmental well-being and recreational needs of local communities.
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News
By Susan Sprout The sunny and bright-blue Thursday afternoon last week had me convinced – spring had sprung! Exploring creekside to see which plants were erupting from sand tucked around the beach rocks, I was amazed and delighted by an aerial bombardment of the riffles there. Yes! And I made all the appropriate vocalizations to go along with that surprising display – a downward “eeeerow” … Continue reading Underfoot: SPRING HAS SPRUNG!
Underfoot: Hibernaculum – A Tent for Winter Quarters
By Susan Sprout Another Latin word in my ever-expanding vocabulary of all things botanical and biological…a place where a creature seeks refuge. Lots of different animals – insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals like bats and rodents and bears – require shelters to overwinter. Recently my hibernaculum was in Fort Myers. We just returned to Pennsylvania in time for a lovely snowy day and a chance, finally, … Continue reading Underfoot: Hibernaculum – A Tent for Winter Quarters
2023 Conservation Easement Site Visits Begin
When our members support working with landowners to conserve property with conservation easements, NPC is taking on a perpetual duty. As an organization we need to ensure the terms and conditions of the conservation easement are being honored. NPC staff visit each conservation easement property a least once a year to walk the property and answer landowner questions. The lack of winter weather has allowed … Continue reading 2023 Conservation Easement Site Visits Begin
Underfoot: RuBisCO – An Enzyme We Can Count On!
By Susan Sprout The great enjoyment I get by writing this plant blog is sometimes overshadowed by the amazing things I learn while doing it: how plants grow and where, their uses over time, their development and evolution. Questions always appear in my mind that make me want to dig a little deeper. So I jot them down, making lists of ideas, quotes, plant names … Continue reading Underfoot: RuBisCO – An Enzyme We Can Count On!
By Susan Sprout It’s Sphagnum Moss, for Pete’s sake! And when it has been decayed and dried, it is called “peat moss.” I found some, alive and well, growing in quite a few places in my lawn and wondered if living on what used to be an old creek bank had anything to do with the moss’s being comfortable (successful and expanding) there. I found … Continue reading Underfoot: Sphagnum Moss