It is TRUE – this False Spiraea came to us from the Ural Mountains of
West Central Russia, a particular range that marks part of the boundary between
Europe and Asia.
It is TRUE that this plant is False Spiraea. True Spiraea plants have
toothed single leaves up to two and one half inches long on their plant stems.
False Spiraea has leaves that are at least a foot long, made up of thirteen to
twenty-one toothed leaflets that each grow to four inches long.
This long compound leaf is made up of 21 leaflets!
It is TRUE that the leaves of False Spiraea are very similar to the long
feather-shaped or pinnately compound leaves of American Mountain Ash, (Sorbus
americanum), a native tree that can grow to thirty feet tall. Consequently,
its scientific name, Sorbaria sorbifolium, means it has leaves like
Sorbus. Both are members of the Rose Family.
It is TRUE that False Spiraea , a perennial growing to eight feet in
height, can and does spread aggressively sideways in loose soil. This can be a positive quality because it
helps control erosion on banks and slopes likely to get washed away. I found
Ural False Spiraea on Dunwoody Road driving along Bear Creek. It has its work
cut out for it, as this road has been washed out quite a few times!
What caught my eye were the lovely four to ten
inch tall, steeple-shaped clusters of tiny, white flowers. They form on the ends of new wood in early
summer and leave dry, brown steeples when the blooming is finished.
I like lichens- that’s what Smooth Rock Tripe (Umbilicaria
mammulata) is – an amazing example of mutualism between a species of fungus
and a species of algae or cyanobacteria.
Smooth Rock Tripe
This relationship creates fascinating possibilities for
both organisms!
Fungus is the bulk of a vegetative body that provides
shape, form and protection from total desiccation, while it receives nutrients
in the form of sugars photosynthetically
created by the algae or cyanobacteria layered inside. This is a win-win
arrangement that allows them both to occupy extremely adverse environmental
habitats, like Arctica, Antarctica, and deserts where they grow on many
surfaces.
I found a lot of it growing on the rocks at Canyon Vista.
Smooth Rock Tripe is one kind of leafy lichen that grows from a single
attachment at its center, like a navel. It has a disc-shaped thin body called a
thallus that is gray to reddish-brown to greenish when wet on top, but black
and bumpy underneath. It may grow to the
size of a dinner plate under optimal conditions, but it will take decades at a
growth rate of 2 to 5 millimeters a year, less than a quarter of an inch!
Stories tell of soldiers at Valley Forge during the
winter of 1777 – 1778 and various
explorers, trappers, and adventurers having been saved from starvation by
eating rock tripe, a practice probably handed down from Native Americans.
Presoaking to remove bitterness and boiling for hours are said to soften its
leather-like texture into softer, edible protein that contains one-third more
calories than an equal amount of cornflakes. I’ll take the cornflakes. I like
lichens a lot – and am hoping I won’t be required to eat any of them!
Approximately 35 members of the
Army Reserve’s 333rd Engineering Company based in Reading, PA arrived
in Proctor on Sunday, August 1, 2021. The unit trains to build roads,
airstrips, and bases, but will spend their summer training removing an earthen
berm along Plunketts Creek.
The project began nearly 3 years
ago when the Pennsylvania Game Commission was evaluating management needs on
State Game Lands 134. PGC personnel recognized that the berm was no longer
needed since propagation activities had ended. They saw the opportunity to reconnect
the Creek to its floodplain and recreate the habitat that once would have been all
along the stream.
Around the same time the
Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy had received funds for a project to help
improve or maintain water quality in Lycoming County. The site along Plunketts
Creek seemed idea. The stream is already designated a High Quality-Cold Water
Fishery with a naturally reproducing trout population (the best of the best),
but there was concern the water quality could be changing due to the stream
becoming wider and more sediment entering the system from sliding hillsides and
streambanks.
As the Pennsylvania Game Commission
and Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy were looking at options for the site
at State Game Lands 134, they learned about the military’s Innovative Readiness
Training program. The program allows communities to submit potential projects that
could be used as a training exercise.
Over the next couple of weeks the
333rd will be working with Pennsylvania Game Commission employees
from the Food and Cover program to remove the berm and improve Camp Mountain
Road. The Unit is getting experience in a real world situation, the
Pennsylvania Game Commission is getting help to improve the State Game Lands
along Plunketts Creek and improve access to State Game Lands above the Creek, the
residents nearby and downstream should receive less damage during high water
events, and Plunketts Creek will be able to better access its floodplain.
August 1, 2, and 3 were spent
getting equipment on site, jockeying equipment on the site, installing the silt
sock for erosion and sedimentation control and building a wash rack to be able
to rinse mud and dirt off the trucks and equipment before it leaves the site.
August 4 the work will begin to remove the earthen berm, and it’s scheduled to
wrap up on August 20.
Members of the 333rd discuss with the Pennsylvania Game Commission Food and Cover crew logistics of moving equipment from the berm removal site along Plunketts Creek to the road project site on the mounatinside
I
am a curious sort…purposefully looking at things and thinking about
them…pondering. Sometimes I sit at my desk to write, look out the window
toward the maple tree, and ponder. When will the seeds be ready to take flight?
Seedfall is coming soon to your neighborhood maples
When
it rains, watching the soil absorb the wet under my muddy boots. Can this
wetland remain here and be vibrant next year?
nde This wet area holds the promise of some very interesting plants
Bird
feeders down and cloroxed to stave off an unknown bird epizootic. Will our
feathered friends be able to return?
Morning
fog both cloaks things from our view and surprisingly, reveals others at the
same time. Like spider webs in the grass or looking up, the air webs hanging
between the parallel phone and electric lines, hundreds of them, spun to snare
flying insects, and brought into visual discrimination by clinging moisture.
Will they last or be pulled down by the wet, to be respun tomorrow?
Cloudy web covering the grass
Ephemeral:
here today and gone tomorrow.
Folks
talk about “rewilding”- the intentional practice of restoring native
plants in various rural, suburban and urban settings to reverse habitat loss,
support ecosystems, and bring nature back into our daily lives.
That’s
great! But in the process, let us hope that we can actually rewild our brains:
to really see when we look, to be curious when we think deep thoughts, to be
thankful when we enjoy, to take care of each other and those life forms sharing
the planet as they take care of us. We all are, in reality, ephemeral!
An Army Reserve Engineering Unit will be conducting their summer training on State Game Lands 134, Proctor in August 2021. The soldiers and their equipment will begin arriving on August 1 and be working through about August 20.
The
Unit is partnering with the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Northcentral
Pennsylvania Conservancy to remove an earthen berm along Plunketts Creek at the
site of the former propagation farm. The berm was built sometime between the 1930s
and 1960s to protect the birds being reared at the site from flood waters.
Since the propagation program is no longer underway at the site, the berm is being
removed to restore Plunketts Creek’s connection to its floodplain.
Several members of the Unit visited the site in April for a discussion on logistics and to review the site plan.
Some
of the material from the berm is going to be used in a road improvement project
taking place along Huckle Run. Members of the Army Reserve Unit will be moving
the material in military equipment using Hoppestown Road to travel from the area
along Plunketts Creek to the road project on Huckle Run. Residents in this area
and people who travel Hoppestown Road should expect increased traffic and much
of the traffic to be military vehicles.
By
removing the berm from along Plunketts Creek and allowing the Creek to use its
floodplain during high water, the impacts from flood events should be reduced
downstream, along Plunketts Creek, and even Loyalsock Creek.
As part of the April tour, the group also visited the road project on Huckle Run Road.
What an enjoyable afternoon we had at the top of Highland
Mountain, gazing toward the horizon across Sullivan County and being serenaded
by American Towhees with their “Drink your tea” songs! If that wasn’t
great enough, looking across the clearing, I spied lots of small yellow flowers
on squat shrubby-looking bushes. A new plant to explore…one whose name I did
not know. It is Yellow Wild Indigo, with the scientific name of Baptisia
tinctoria, from Latin verbs baptiso
(to dip or dye) and tingo (to soak in dye).
Check out the bluish foliage
I had met its cousin before, the true “of
India” Indigo, the well-known dye plant in the same Pea Family, FABACEAE.
Here was a plant, native to Pennsylvania, used by Native Americans and
colonists as a blue dye plant, as well as for medicine. The inch and a half
long pea-like flowers were being pollinated by bees. Pods created by that
interaction will look like short, fat peapods that turn brown as they mature.
The leaves attached to the stem are in groups of three like clover, another
relative. The bluish-green color of the young bushes sets them apart visually
from the other greens of the field. The whole plant will turn black rapidly as
it dries out, making it a stand-out among the fall colors, too.
See how their clover-like leaves turn black when dried.
I was happy to discover Yellow Wild Indigo is a host
plant to some of our native butterflies…they evolved together! Check out
Clouded and Orange Sulphurs, the Eastern Tailed-Blue, and, most especially, the
Wild Indigo Dusky Wing – its own very special butterfly!
A quote we use frequently is from Margaret Mead
– “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” It reflects the many
board members who over the years have helped the Northcentral Pennsylvania
Conservancy along the way.
At the June annual membership meeting we said
goodbye to four long time board members and welcomed four new board members.
Thank you Gail Zimmerman, Carl Barlett, Phyllis Reynolds, and Roy Siefert for
all your help!! (although, we will still be asking you for help) Welcome Mary
Blondy, Chris Kenyon, Stephanie Radulski, and Julie Weaver!!
Getting a forkful at Forksville this week, afforded me
the opportunity to visit several of my favorite Sycamores, AKA Planetrees. that
live along Loyalsock Creek.
In Pennsylvania, some have matured to absolutely huge
proportions when left alone to keep growing: one in Philadelphia County is over
149 feet tall; Delaware County has one 404 years old; one in Chester County has
a circumference at breast height of over 30 feet. Amazing – see why I love
Sycamore Trees – such potential!
As they grow, their less than elastic bark cracks and
sloughs off to reveal lighter under-bark creating an easy to identify blotchy
camouflage pattern of gray, brown, cream and tan that any hunter would be proud
to wear. These native trees are common along waterways and low woods, where
once established, they appear to be drought-resistant.
American Sycamores along Loyalsock Creek
Sycamores’ leaves may resemble maple leaves, but they are
much bigger – five to nine inches
across, with prominent yellow veins, and furry undersides. And, they are not
related to maples at all, but are members of the Planetree Family (Platanaceae)
that has only eight known living species in the world. The family has been
around for over one hundred million years, making some paleobotanists consider
our modern Sycamores to be living fossils.
Reproduction takes place in the spring when inconspicuous
male and female flowers in hanging bunches are pollinated by the wind, just
about the time the leaves begin to sprout. The seeds develop in round spikey
balls, green turning to brown, that hang on for about a year before falling to
the ground. Pick one up and pull it apart to find the individual seeds
surrounded by long hairs – they float in the air and on the water, a second
dispersal mechanism. No wonder they are so successful!
American Sycamores pushing up through the rocks along Loyalsock Creek
These elegant-looking perennial ferns, preferring acid soil and partial shade, are likely to be found on wooded slopes and ravine bottoms that are moist. They “brown-up” early in summer when they are too dry. Northern Maidenhair Fern or Adantium pedatum is the Eastern North American native of this genus growing world-wide that has nearly two hundred different species in it. I love looking for their circular patterns of horizontal fronds and bright green leaflets divided into little fan shapes! They are lacy and delicate. The shiny black stems holding them all together are a great clue when trying to identify Maidenhair Fern, and thus, the name. And they are tough! They were used by Native Americans in their basket-making. With many other ferns, there is an observable difference between fertile fronds carrying spores and non-fertile fronds without them. Not so with Maidenhair! Their foliage looks the same until you turn one over and find little sori curled up on underside edges behind the vein tips of the leaflet. Though tiny and tucked away, wind will disperse the spores to grow into heart-shaped gametophytes responsible for sexual reproduction and creation of the next generation of ferns. Over time, they will grow into colonies, spread by their underground rhizomes. In spring, look for the pinkish-brown crosiers or shepherd’s crooks pushing up. Return trips are a must…to see them gracefully unfurl!
The Pennsylvania Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Secretary Cindy Adams joined the
Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy (NPC) and local supporters for a
dedication ceremony at the Phelps Mills Canoe Launch on Pine Creek in the
Tiadaghton State Forest in Pine Creek Township, Clinton County just across the Creek
from the borough of Jersey Shore.
The moment the ribbon was cut! (photo credit: Wesley Robinson)
“The story of the Phelps Mills
Canoe Launch is a testament to the power of collaboration and the impact it can
have providing recreational opportunities in our communities,” Dunn said.
“Thank you to NPC, its volunteers, George and Shirley Durrwachter, and everyone
who helped make this project a reality.”
The ceremony formally welcomed
Phelps Mill Canoe Launch on Pine Creek under the Bureau of Forestry umbrella.
Although the canoe launch has been a managed as a part of Tiadaghton State
Forest since late 2019 when DCNR purchased the property from NPC, the obeservance
on June 25, 2021 allowed the project partners to come together and celebrate
what they achieved.
Thank you to everyone who helped make the project possible and came out to celebrate! (photo credit: Wesley Robinson)
NPC was able to purchase the
property and conduct environmental assessments due to a generous donation from
Dr. George and Shirley Durrwachter.
This photo from before the improvements show the path down to Pine Creek with just a bit of the gate in the lower left corner.
“Having this boat launch available
to local residents will allow them to traverse the creek and the river to
downtown Jersey Shore,” George Durrwachter said. “Creating recreational
opportunities closer to where people live is important not only because of time
constraints but it will also reduce congestion on the highways.”
In addition to the donation from
the Durrwachters to acquire the land, NPC secured grants and support from the
Western Pennsylvania Canoe Access Fund and the Clinton County Tourism and Recreation
Fund to support improvements at the canoe launch.
The improvements were completed in
August 2020 and helped stabilize the canoe launch, improve the walking surface,
improve the parking lot, and replace the gate with a bollard to make it easier
to carry canoes and kayaks down the path.
By October 2020 the site improvements were complete and the pathway was easier to use and navigate, especially if carring a canoe or kayak.
The black lab who showed up just
as the group photo was wrapping up wasn’t planned, but was perfectly timed. The
lab had his stick and headed straight to the water, running down the improved
pathway, and launched into the Creek.
Thank you again to George and
Shirley for their support that made this possible! Thank you also to Carl
Barlett for speaking on behalf of NPC and Commissioner Jeff Snyder for his remarks
on behalf of the Clinton County Tourism and Recreation Fund and the Clinton
County Commissioners.
The unplanned black lab who demonsrated how to enjoy the Creek. (photo credit: Wesley Robinson)
We hope you enjoy rivers all summer long! If you want to check out this access, the address is 1019 E. Central Ave., Jersey Shore, PA (but you’re on the west side of the Creek/the Avis side, not the east side of the Creek/the Jersey Shore side).
