The Clinton County Solid Waste Authority donated a conservation easement on a portion of their Wayne Township Landfill as part of a permit application. The Conservation Easement area includes a large wetland complex. The wetlands are holding water this spring.
Remote Intelligence recently flew a drone over the Cavanaugh Access to give a better idea of the extent of the wetlands. The photo is created from a series of photos stitched together electronically. It will be helpful to land managers to have this photo to compare to past aerial/satellite images and to look at going forward.
Annual Membership Meeting Set for May 2, 2017
NPC Annual Membership Meeting will be May 2, 2017 at the Peter Herdic House. The Meeting will begin after dinner and dessert. There will be a report on 2016’s accomplishments, the election of directors, and take any questions from the members present.
The cost is $35.00 per person. Reservations are required by April 28, 2017. Refunds will not be given after this date.
On the menu that evening, Liz Miele will be preparing:
*Simple Green Salad made with locally raised greens
*Chicken Breast in a Champagne Cream with Mushrooms, Grapes and Toasted Almonds
*Chocolate Mousse Cake
*Coffee and Tea Included
A Vegetarian Option is available, please be sure to mark the appropriate line on your reservation form
Celebrity Waiter Night Tonight!
Dinner plans tonight? It’s not too late. Gloria is willing to fit a few more reservations in at the Peter Herdic House for tonight’s Celebrity Waiter. The Celebrity Waiters and bartenders will be earning tips to benefit the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy’s land protection program. To make your reservations, call 570-322-0165.
Celebrity Waiters…
Susan Durrwachter, CNN/Turner Broadcasting
Jason Fitzgerald, PennStrategies
Dr. Steven M. Hawley, UPMC Susquehanna
Rick Mason, Photographer
Tony Nardi, Fish Real Estate
Peachie O’Connor, Community Volunteer
Amie Penfield, Berkshire Hathaway HomeService
Dr. Zachary T. Ritter, UPMC Susquehanna
Mark Shuman, I Heart Radio Media
Jerry Walls, Community Planning Consultant
Raise Up Land Conservation
Beginning at 6:00pm on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania’s Raise the Region 2017 will allow you to make a donation and have your donation “stretched.” By using their online portal, you’ll make a donation to FCFPP earmarked for NPC. The Foundation will then “stretch” your donation using funds from the Alexander Family of Dealerships and others.
To make a donation during the event visit our online giving page at “Raise the Region.” Please note, the link won’t work until 6:00pm on March 8, 2017 and will stop working at 11:59pm on March 9, 2017.
A Look Back at the Townsend Acquisition
At the end of the month, the National Park Service is turning 100 years old. While your support of NPC hasn’t resulted in any acreage being added to National Parks it has resulted in over 6,000 acres being added to Pennsylvania’s State Forests, State Game Lands, some acreage going to a municipal park, and another conservation organization maintaining a property for public recreational use.
The Townsend Acquisition was 117 acres in Lycoming County. It was the first project NPC’s members made possible. With the help of those early members NPC purchased it at a tax sale in 1991.
It is quite a property. It bordered the Tiadaghton State Forest on three sides and has three-quarters of a mile of frontage on Pine Creek on the fourth side. This made this property more or less an inholding to the State Forest. When inholdings are for sale, the Bureau of Forestry will try to acquire them if there are other conservation attributes to the property.
The Townsend property did. It had an old field from the time generations ago when the bottomland was farmed; the steeper areas have always been wooded, and remain so today. The property is also within the viewshed of motorists on PA Route 44, canoeists and fishermen on Pine Creek and users of the Pine Creek Rail-trailNPC’s members helped protect this property to help maintain the pastoral character of the Pine Creek valley. NPC transferred the property to DCNR’s Bureau of Forestry in 1992; it is now managed as part of the surrounding state forest.
Proving It Works
The northcentral Pennsylvania stream restoration partnership is in its seventh year of working together, and third year of collecting fish and macroinvertebrate information at select sites before construction takes place.
On June 1, 2016 the team from Susquehanna University’s RK Mellon Freshwater Research Initiative (SUFRI) and a student from Lycoming College’s Clean Water Institute electrofished and collected macroinvertebrates from the David Jones property along Warrior Run in Northumberland County.
The data on fish species found and mactoinvertebrates present will be forwarded by SUFRI to Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s unassessed waters staff. It will also be used by in comparison with data collected 1-year and 2-years post construction. This will allow the SUFRI researchers to determine if the log vanes, mudsills, and random boulders are decreasing the sedimentation and increasing fish habitat.
Construction began June 6, 2016. It is anticipated the work will take 3 to 4 days, and will result in a stable stream bank, a stabilized Ag. Crossing (the landowner’s daughters horseback ride), and a wider buffer.
After walking the site and reviewing where the fish habitat/stabilization structures will be placed, Dr. Niles had David 
and James collect some basic information – the water’s temperature and conductivity (this helps them understand how to set the electrofishing backpack).
After Dr. Niles provided instructions, assigned jobs, and started the electrofishing backpacks, they were underway. James tied off the tape measure so they would know when they had complete their 100 meters.
Ali and Quentin worked the backpacks. They would send an electric charge into the water to stun the fish, and James, Bennett, David, and Dr. Niles would scoop up the fish in nets.
After the entire 100 meter stretch was electrofished, the team gathered back at the sorting bin. They began taking the fish out, one by one, and identifying them.
The trout were also weighed and measured. David returned the trout to a deep pool above the sampling area as soon as possible to reduce the stress on the fish.
After the fish were tallied, the students collected macroinvertebrates using kick nets. The samples were jarred up and taken to the lab.
Construction was underway Monday morning with pre-construction sampling done!
The Ash are Dying! The Ash are Dying!
This may sound a bit like Paul Revere warning about the British, but it’s actually about the wave of dying trees, white ash and green ash, that’s sweeping across northcentral Pennsylvania. It’s not the loggers or arborists that are killing the ash trees;they’re just salvaging or removing the dying trees before those trees are totally worthless or pose a danger to people or property.
Which brings the question“Why are the ash trees dying?”The trees are dying because they’re being attacked by the emerald ash borer, an insect less than an inch long and is well named since it is, indeed, emerald green. It was introduced in packing material in shipments from northeast Asia. First detected in Michigan in 2002, it has since spread to many other states killing an estimated 50 million ash trees as it has moved east across the range of native ashes.
Six or seven years ago ash trees began showing light patches on their bark. Those light patches are created when woodpeckers flake off the outer bark’s ridges as they search for emerald ash borer larvae. The woodpeckers’ feeding doesn’t harm the tree; it’s the beetle larvae feeding on the trees’ cambium layer and inner bark that actually kills the trees. When there are a lot of larvae the tree will die–and there are a LOT or larvae.
When the emerald ash borer attacks a tree the tree usually dies in about three years. Once the emerald ash borer moves into an area until almost all the ash trees are dead usually takes less than ten years. So, it’s not the loggers or arborists that are killing the trees, it’s that pretty little beetle.Adult emerald ash borers emerge through tree’s bark through“D”-shaped holes, usually in May or June. They then mate and females lay their eggs on the bark of ash trees in July. When the eggs hatch, the larvae bore through the bark and begin feeding, which continues through the fall.The larvae over-winter in the tree, pupate and metamorphose into adults to begin the cycle again.
Landowners are salvaging their ash trees as they die or even before, as dead ash trees deteriorate very quickly and become worthless. Since the trees deteriorate so rapidly, affected ash trees in urban and suburban settings quickly become a threat as branches and large limbs break off and fall.There is no spray that can reach larvae beneath the bark. Although there are insecticides that can be injected into valuable individual ash shade trees or applied to the soil beneath the tree, the treatments must be applied repeatedly. These are not practical and much too expensive to use in woodland. There are some promising biological controls being tested, these are primarily insect parasites of emerald ash borers eggs or larvae.
Toms, Hens, Flying and Running
A few more turkey facts as you prepare for your holiday…
The wild turkey is native only to the North American continent. The eastern wild turkey is what lives in PA.
Gobblers or toms, are the adult males. They stand 2½ to 3 feet tall, are 3 to 4 feet long and average 16 pounds. They have spurs on the backs of their legs. These sharp bony protrusions are used in fighting. Gobblers also have rough, black “beards.” These hair-like feathers called mesofiloplumes, protrude from their breasts. These beards grow quickly for their first few years, then more slowly. The ends may break off, though, so beard length isn’t a reliable indicator of age.
Hens, or the females, are about one-third shorter and weigh about 9 to 10 pounds. Usually, hens have neither spurs nor beards.
Turkeys are estimated to fly 40 to 55 mph. They can cover more than a mile while airborne. PA’s many waterways aren’t an obstacle. A turkey can swim too. But turkeys usually rely on their feet to escape danger. The strides of chased gobblers have been measured at 4 feet and their top running speeds are estimated at 18 mph.
Nearing the End
Most tree leaves will fall by the end of October, but some species’ leaves turn color and are held much longer than others. Now the last of the yellow leaves stand out on the hillsides. Some of the aspens, both quaking and bigtooth, are gleaming yellow but now the brightest yellow leaves are borne on the tulip-poplars. Rare in the northern counties of NPC’s area, but fairly common on moist fertile soils in the southern portion, tulip-poplar is often the tallest tree in the woods. It’s named for its tulip-shaped flowers and its leaves which resemble a tulip flower in profile.
Also turning color now are the various oaks: red, white, black, chestnut, pin, and scarlet. There are other oaks in northcentral Pennsylvania, but those six are by far the most common. Some merely turn a drab yellowish-brown, but red and scarlet oaks can often display a rather striking red. Many oaks, particularly young trees, and American beech don’t form a good abscission layer (the corky layer that develops at the base of the leaf’s stem that cuts off water flow to the leaf and later breaks to let the leaf flutter to the ground) resulting in leaves that hang on the trees late into the winter and sometimes until spring.