The four-petaled, pure white flowers on this perennial vine may have been responsible for the common name of this plant, along with the fact that it grows upward, winding itself over bushes and trees to form a shaded shelter or bower. Virgin’s Bower, Clematis virginiana, is a member of the Buttercup Family. There are over 250 different species of Clematis in the world; this one is a native of North America. It ranges from Manitoba to Nova Scotia southward and from New England to Georgia. There are two other native Clematis in PA. Both have purple blooms rather than white.
The cascading seed heads of Virgin’s Bower.
This time of the year, you won’t find any pretty white blossoms or three-part leaves. What remains is very recognizable, however, along roads or low areas near streams where it likes to grow. It will be sprawled over the tops of small trees and thickets that have lost most of their leaves. The female flowers have morphed by now into cascading, snowball-like clusters of silvery-gray, feathery hairs, each holding a dry, one-seeded fruit that doesn’t split open at maturity – it just hangs on and floats away in the winter wind. Of course, Virgin’s Bower has received another common name from this characteristic, Old Man’s Beard! Itchy! Scratchy! Not the beard part of the plant, but rather, the fresh green foliage, which can cause dermatitis and blistering of the skin! And that, in turn, is very strange because the early settlers used the plant to treat itch and skin diseases!
Feathery haris each holding a single seed of Virgin’s Bower.Thank you to Evergreen Wealth Solutions for supporting the blog!
NPC has been working with the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), local landowners, county conservation districts, and other partners to plant trees along streams.
Trees were planted along streams in Columbia County, Union County, and Centre County this fall.
The sign installed as part of the riparian buffer plnating project along Roaring Creek at the Southern Columbia School District’s campus
While most of the trees went in on private properties. Through outreach by Native Creations Landscape Services Southern Columbia Area School District and Berwick Area School District signed up for trees along the streams on their properties.
Southern Columbia Area School District has property along Roaring Creek. Students joined in helping with the planting and teachers are excited to have an area to take students to look at trees and learn about not just the tree species, but the “jobs” trees have.
Trees along streams aren’t just pretty. The trees roots help hold soil in place and prevent it from washing away. Think about standing in sand and wiggligng your toes. Your toes can dig down into the sand and the sand sticks between your toes. As roots grown down and out, you’ll see that they can hold soil on the streambank and help reduce the dirt/sediment washing into the creek.
Trees also provide shade over the stream. Cooler water is needed by trout and the macroinvertebrates/water bugs the trout eat. Those leaves hanging over the stream drop into the stream in the fall and provide food for macroinvertebrates.
Thank you Evergreen Welath Solutions for supporting the blog!
A couple years ago the Northcentral
Pennsylvania Conservancy facilitated a donation to the Pennsylvania Game
Commission. The property in Montour County became part of State Game Lands 115.
The only block of State Game Lands in the County.
Bob Stoudt (Director, Montour Area Recreation
Commission) and Van Wagner (Danville-area historical expert and musician) both
live close the State Game Lands and began exploring.
They are very excited to share what they’ve
found. They’ve invited us to join them for a challenging seven mile hike to the
historic Liberty Iron Furnace site on Montour Ridge in PA State Game Lands #115
(Liberty Township, Montour County).
We will be hiking to charcoal production
sites, row home ruins where furnace workers lived, and locating huts where
colliers lived beginning in the 1830’s.
This approximately seven mile-long hike will
cross challenging, rocky terrain. Portions of this hike will be rugged and only
experienced hikers should consider participating. This hike is not recommended
for small children or those with limited mobility.
Pre-registration is not required. This event
will be held regardless of weather conditions. Participants should wear sturdy
footwear and weather-appropriate clothing and bring adequate water, snacks, and
other supplies as may be needed for a roughly 3.5 hour-long wintertime outing.
Since Bob and Van are leading the hike please contact Bob Stoudt at RStoudt@MontourRec.com with questions or for more information. If you’re on Facebook, you can also use the link below to “follow along” and stay up to date on announcements.
…and will the real coral fungus please stand up! Do you
remember the old television show that used that line? So, which one would you
pick as a photo of coral fungus?
Which is the real coral fungus???
There is a fungus that grows in North America on the
ground under mixed hardwoods and conifers. It is not your ordinary mushroom
that resembles an umbrella. This one looks like coral, the kind that lives in
warm, southern waters, and may, depending on its species, build up large coral
reefs of calcium carbonate.
White coral fungus has an upright growth pattern not
unlike its undersea look-alike. Its spreading branches are white on its many
tiny, flat, tooth-like tips. Its middle part can be beige or pinkish before
returning to white near its base.
The one I discovered near Essick Heights is Crested Coral
Fungus or Clavulina coralloides. There are several different species of
fungus in PA that resemble coral – white crowns with cone-shaped points, yellow,
violet to purple, deep pink, with some stems pointing up and some down, growing
singly or in bunches. The lovely white color of coral fungi can become gray to
black at the bottoms of their branches when they are parasitized by another
type of fungus growing in the soil around it. With a hand lens, you can see the
little black dots as they invade their way upward on the stems.
(The real Crested Coral Fungus is #1)
Crested Coral Fungus or Clavulina coralloidesThis installment of Underfoot is brought to you by Evergreen Wealth Solutions
Written by Allyson Muth, Director, Center for Private Forests at Penn State
Fall hunting seasons have begun in Pennsylvania. Which means for hunters and non-hunters alike, if you’re out in the woods, you should be wearing a significant amount of blaze orange to keep yourself safe.
Hunters and woods enthusiasts have always tried to be safe in the woods, but a few accidents led to concerns about helping those folks be more visible so they wouldn’t be mistaken for the wildlife they were hunting or watching.
Thank you to Purple Lizard Maps for sharing a photo of non-hunter wearing their blaze orange during hunting season.
In 1959, Jack Woolner, a Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Game’s information officer, conducted visual tests of different colors in wide variations of light and weather conditions to attempt to determine what colors were most visible in the woods. Greens, of course, too closely resemble leaves in the spring and early fall. Blues, purples, and reds appear black in low light conditions. Even yellow, then touted as a preferential color, appeared off-white in the angled sunlight of early morning and late afternoon – a little too close to some of the colors on animals hunters are seeking. Bright orange was the most easily distinguished from the background of the greens, yellows, and browns of the woods.
The first the hunting public ever heard of the color was in 1960 when Field & Stream magazine ran an article entitled “Hunter Orange – Your Shield for Safety” by the writer Frank Woolner, brother of Jack.
Subsequently, the practice of wearing blaze orange began in Massachusetts in 1961. Now forty-three out of fifty states in the U.S. require hunters to wear blaze orange during the season and the practice is required (or at least strongly encouraged) for non-hunters in the woods during hunting seasons.
Blaze orange, also known as safety orange or OSHA orange, is government-regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It’s use extends beyond the woods, with safety orange used to distinguish objects from their surroundings, particularly in contrast to the color of the sky (on the color wheel, azure is the complementary color of orange, and therefore there is a very strong contrast between the two colors).
In Pennsylvania the first requirement for hunters to wear orange occurred in 1980 and it’s undergone revisions since then. The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s current requirement is: hunters in deer, bear, and elk firearms seasons, small game season, and those hunting coyotes during daylight hours within deer, bear, or elk firearms seasons, must wear, at all times, 250 square inches of “daylight fluorescent orange” (blaze orange) material on the head, chest and back combined, visible 360 degrees. Woodchuck hunters must continue to wear a solid fluorescent orange hat at all times.
Please remember that in 2021, as in 2020, several Sundays are now open for hunting during the firearms seasons for bear and deer.
If you’re a non-hunter on Game Commission lands during these seasons, you are required to wear the same amount of blaze orange on your person. And of course, it’s a good idea wherever you are to make sure you’re visible during hunting seasons.
The Pennsylvania Forest Stewardship Program provides publications on a variety of topics related to woodland management. For a list of publications, call 800-235-9473 (toll free), send an email to PrivateForests@psu.edu, or write to Forest Stewardship Program, The Pennsylvania State University, 416 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA 16802. The Pennsylvania DCNR Bureau of Forestry, USDA Forest Service, Penn State Extension, and the Center for Private Forests at Penn State, in Partnership through Penn State’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, sponsor the Forest Stewardship Program in Pennsylvania.
It’s November (already). If you own
or manage a woodlot it’s a great time to be thinking about regenerating your
forest, the boundaries of what you own, and checking for invasive species.
Trees drop their seeds and new
trees grow. Sounds pretty simple. It’s not. While those new trees are growing
you need to keep them undamaged and growing up towards the sky.
This is an example of natural regeneration on a conservation easement in Tioga County
Research has repeatedly shown that
Pennsylvania’s deer population is one of the factors preventing Pennsylvania’s
forests from regenerating. The deer are eating the seedlings and damaging young
trees.
This deer on a conservation easement in Clinton County was enjoying a meal
There are many reasons to want trees to regenerate or be concerned about deer damaging trees. Organizations that study birds are concerned about how high deer populations are impacting bird habitat.
One tool in controlling deer
populations is hunting. In some places deer hunting is a tradition with time
spent at deer camp with family and friends, time off from school, and
processing the venison into bologna to share. In other places, hunting is
viewed differently.
If you think about deer hunting as a forest management tool that you need to use in your woodlot, but you don’t hunt consider working with a responsible hunter or group of hunters on your property.
As the trees drop their leaves
it’s easier to see in the woods. That makes November also a good time to check
your boundary lines and “freshen things up.” Re-paint your boundary lines, check
any signs you have on the boundary line, and verify you can still find any pins
or markers at corners.
Here’s an example of the posted signs commonly used and the new purple paint.
Knowing where your boundary lines
are is important for many reasons. If you’re managing the property foresters,
loggers, and other forest workers will want on the ground markers to help them
know where your property is. It helps neighbors, and potential neighbors when a
neighboring property is for sale, know where your line is.
While you are out and about in your woods and the leaves are down look for any signs of trespass. This could be walking trails people are using without your permission and knowledge, to hunting stands being put up on your property, to motorized recreation happening on your forest roads. Keep an eye out and communications with your neighbors open.
If you keep your boundaries well marked and want people to ask permission before using your property you could put up “No Trespassing” signs or use purple paint. The “purple paint law” passed in Pennsylvania in early 2020. Landowners who use a specific shade of purple (the guys at the local hardware store or paint store will know what you’re talking about) as their boundary marking are notifying the public that this is the boundary and there should be no trespassing.
November through March are also a good time to check for gypsy moth egg masses. Gypsy moth were originally brought to the United States in an attempt to create a better silk producing moth. However, they are not native to the United States and are BIG eaters.
Gypsy moth caterpillars eat a lot
of leaves. They can often eat enough leaves that the tree dies. Trees need
their leaves.
Gypsy Moths on Oak tree – The orange-ish blob under the white moth is an egg mass. Thank you to DCNR for the photo!
By looking for egg masses and
treating them (scraping them and soaking the egg masses in soapy water, or
using specialty products) you can reduce the number of caterpillars that will
be eating the leaves of your trees.
Special thanks to the Pennsylvania Forestry
Association and Gerald Hoy with DCNR for providing the monthly ideas for
woodland stewardship!
Thank you to Evergreen Wealth Solutions for supporting the blog!
Regional Organization Working with National Land Trust Advisor
With the support of a capacity building grant from the Williamsport Lycoming Community Fund at the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy is working with a national land trust advisor to understand its current membership base, how that base compares to other land trusts across the country, and develop strategies to communicate with and recruit potential members.
At a recent Zoom Board Meeting, David Allen joined the Board and staff to present an overview of his findings. He’ll be back at a future Board meeting to answer questions about his report and discuss next steps and the path forward.
“We are very excited to have fresh eyes, familiar with land trusts, look at our current membership program and offer suggestions on how to not only improve what we are already doing, but expand our membership base,” said Board Chair Tiffani Kase.
Vice-Chair, Jonathan Bastian added, “As a regional organization conserving and enhancing the land and water in this region it’s important to have members from across the region. Those members help the Board and staff understand what the conservation needs are in their community. If our programs can help a community with its needs we rely on our members to help us build the partnerships to move projects forward.”
NPC staff have been learning from David Allen for years (we won’t try to figure out how many) at conferences. Being able to work with him one on one is an exciting opportunity to build on and improve what is already being done.
The Foundation works to improve the quality of life in north central Pennsylvania through community leadership, the promotion of philanthropy, the strengthening of nonprofit impact and the perpetual stewardship of charitable assets. FCFP strives to create powerful communities through passionate giving. For more information visit www.FCFPartnership.org.
Thanking to Evergreen Wealht Solutions for supporting the NPC blog!
Virginia
Creeper is a native, woody vine belonging to the VITACEAE, or Grape Family.
Surprised?
You have
probably seen many of them clinging to the sides of trees. They are versatile,
growing in any kind of soil, partial shade to full sun, in fields, woods, or
flood plains, from Maine to Florida. Virginia Creepers are good cover for
erosion control as they…well…”creep” along on the ground. But, if
there are trees around, up they go, growing to fifty feet in a year.
Virginia Creeper beginning its journey upward.
Their leaves
are compound, made up of five, coarsely-toothed, six-inch leaflets that meet in
the middle resembling fingers spread out on the palm of a hand. Small white
flowers blooming in late spring may be difficult to see among the leaves.
Fleshy, purple berries grow from the pollinated flowers and hang on red stems
in branching clusters, remaining hidden until after their bright red to purple
autumn leaves fall.
Fall red leaves of Virginia Creeper.
How do Virginia
Creepers hold on to the trees as they climb? The answer to this question is a
clue to their identification. They have many branched tendrils with adhesive
disks or holdfasts produced on the plants’ stems opposite from the leaves. I
carefully removed a piece of stem to investigate and found the tiny,
three-sixteenth of an inch disks pushed down in the cracks and craters of tree
bark in such a way, they were difficult to pull off. There were eight small
disks on the tendrils, and with them came small hunks of bark. I read somewhere
that allowing Virginia Creeper to grow up the side of a house can ruin painted
surfaces, damage stucco, and the mortar between bricks. Those holdfasts are
small, but mighty. Before checking out this feature for yourself, make sure the
plant you are examining has five leaflets per leaf. Poison Ivy of “leaves
of three, let them be” fame are climbers, too. Their holdfasts are more
like hairy rootlets, however.
And just
because Virginia Creeper is a member of the Grape Family, don’t think that you
can eat the berries or leaves. You cannot – they are toxic, containing calcium
oxalate crystals. Let them for twelve species of songbirds, squirrels,
raccoons, opossums, and skunks to eat!
This blog post sponsored by Evergreen Wealth Solutions
The 2021 “stream season” started
in January with a stream crossing (and ice on the water) and wrapped up this
week with our annual project review meeting (the only ice was in an ice chest
with soda and water). The stream partnership, made of up of NPC, DEP, PA Fish
and Boat, and the County Conservation Districts in the region, meets twice a
year as a group. We meet in the spring to review what is planned for the year
and in the fall to review what actually happened.
Do you see the ice shelf on the right side of the photo? The ice shelf is at the edge of the stream by the brown grass. The existing crossing was backing up water. The ice formed on top of that water. The ice stayed as the water flowed away.
The fall meeting allows each
County Conservation District to review a project in their County. While DEP and
the PA Fish and Boat Commission are at all the projects, the District staff
often only get to see projects in their county. Sharing photos as well as any “lessons
learned” or “if I could do it again, I’d do this differently” helps everyone
learn more and often generates new ideas.
The partnership is always evolving
as staff changes occur in the partner organizations. We took an opportunity
this year to ask one of the new staff to explain a technique we use when we
can. As the equipment operator breaks the ground, it’s broken up in chunks. The
sod is saved and set to the side. The sod is then replaced. The sod will recover
more quickly than grass seed will germinate and fill in.
A project along Limestone Run in
Northumberland County had the sod technique used. Several large rain storms
came through this year. The site made it through the storms, but provide a couple
of photos that are a great contrast so you can see the sod versus seeding.
In the photo ont he right, you can see the grass seed is trying to establish and off to a good start, but it’s not “thick” as the existing sod. The roots below the surface only get as deep or long as the vegetation on the top. The shorter the grass, the shorter the roots. Short roots don’t hold as much soil and long roots.
After looking at photos and maps
of projects from the 2021 season, the group toured a project. The landowners
has been managing the property for a number of years. They allow neighbors and
friends to use the property for picnics and birthday parties. The day we
stopped a high school hockey team was going to be visiting for a season wrap-up
party (including pumpkin decorating).
The landowners recognized the
eroding streambanks were a problem and tried fixing it themselves. They
realized it was helping, but wasn’t doing enough. The stream partnership worked
with the landowner (who is an equipment operator and did the work) to install a
series of log structures. Over the series of rain events, some of the topsoil
from the final grading washed away, the structures held and are doing great.
The stream partners are already
talking about and planning for 2022. Now, if it’s a mild winter and there isn’t
a lot of snow, there might be more crossing work and fencing done. You never
know.
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is THE native
shrub I love to find while taking nature walks with kids, especially in the
fall when its leaves are starting to turn yellow and its spicy berries (drupes)
have ripened to a bright red. The squeezing and the sniffing of berries,
leaves, and twigs make for a great multi-sensory experience.
Early fall berries before the leaves turn yellow.
The Laurel Family, of which Spicebush is a member, also
gives us Sassafras, locally, as well as tropicals like Cinnamon and Sweet Bay.
Hooray for this fragrant family! There is also a similar species of Spicebush
(with finely hairy twigs) growing in the southeastern U.S., where it is
endangered from habitat loss.
Spicebush leaves turn yellow before they fall.
Our Spicebush is three to seven feet tall and commonly
found in moist woods or in the understory along stream banks. To identify it in
the spring, look for clusters of tiny, one-eighth inch yellowish flowers,
attached directly on the twigs, usually during March and April. They begin
blooming before the two to five inch, egg-shaped leaves appear. In the
autumn, look for peeks of red shining through the leaves to find the berries.
Sometimes this can be a difficult task because Spicebush is dioecious with male
and female flowers on separate plants, requiring the pollen to move quite a
distance to pollinate the female flowers. If it doesn’t get there, no berries.
You may have to identify it by the lemony fragrance of a crushed leaf…not an
unpleasant task!
Spicebush has many culinary and medicinal uses, like the
rest of its family – tea from leaves and twigs, spice from dried and ground
berries, extract from leaves and bark for inducing perspiration to break a
fever or as liniment for rheumatism and bruises or a tonic for colds.
