The Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy is partnering with Little Pine State Park (DCNR Bureau of State Parks), the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and Lycoming County Conservation District on a project to address eroding streambanks along Little Pine Creek within Little Pine State Park. Using log and rock structures approximately 1,600 feet of the streambank will be stabilized and some floodplain access restored.

Thanks to the Coldwater Heritage Partnership the project took one step closer to implementation. The Coldwater Heritage Partnership recently announced their spring grants and the project at Little Pine was awarded!!

If you’re familiar with the Park we’re looking at the stream stretch starting around the shooting range going downstream. Little Pine Creek is a Cold Water Fishery that is attaining for aquatic resources. The project site is in a stretch of the stream that also has naturally reproducing trout and is a Keystone Select trout stream.

Little Pine Creek’s streambanks are eroding, creating bank heights of 8 to 10 feet from water’s edge to the top of bank. The sediment from the eroding stream banks is entering the stream system and depositing in the area of this proposed project and down stream.

To give you some idea of the amount of sediment coming into the system we can use the location of the swimming buoys at Little Pine State Park’s lake which is downstream. The buoys are placed where there is 4.5 feet of water depth. In 2020 the buoys were placed approximately 75-feet from shore, in 2021 they were placed approximately 125 feet from shore. The buoys had to move further out because of the sediment filling in the lake.

As you will see in the aerial photos (below) comparing the site from 1995 (on left) to 2015 (on right) sediment is filling in the lake at Little Pine State Park. The sediment is from the eroding stream banks.

By working to eliminate sources of sediment and restore access to the floodplains the hope is Little Pine Creek can remain a Cold Water Fishery and continue to be attaining for aquatic resources as well as meet these other designations.

Jason Detar is a fisheries biologist for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and serves on the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture. He conducted a habitat analysis of Little Pine Creek. When asked by email his thoughts on this project he responded with:

“Substantial streambank erosion is occurring throughout the proposed project reach on Little Pine Creek. This has resulted in significant sediment transport downstream in the greater Pine Creek/West Branch Susquehanna/Susquehanna River watersheds impacting water quality and habitat. The Little Pine Creek stream channel is becoming overly wide and shallow from the bank erosion.  Little Pine Creek is unique in that it is a large stream that supports a wild Brook Trout population throughout the project reach. Brook Trout are intolerant of sediment and elevated water temperature. Completion of the project will improve water quality by reducing erosion and sediment deposition and improve habitat for wild Brook Trout.”

Thank you to the following organizations for their help with the application!

• Lloyd Wilson Chapter of TU
• Lycoming County Conservation District
• Pine Creek Preservation Association
• Pine Creek Watershed Council

We’ll be posting project updates here and on NPC’s social media account!

It’s not “why did the chicken cross the road?” it’s “how did the cow cross the stream?”

This Northumberland County landowner had eroding stream banks. He tried fencing the cows out of the stream (good move on his part), but the erosion already had a good foot hold.

The Conservation District had the stream partners look at the site. A crossing design and streambank design were completed.

The stream crossing was the first step. The stream team went out and did this on a Friday, so the “typical” streambank work could begin the next Monday.

The photos are from the about halfway point. The far bank is the before and hasn’t been worked on yet. The near bank is almost after (still a little work to be done).

Now, the cows will be crossing the stream using a stabilized stream crossing. Having a stable surface will not only reduce sediment and improve water quality, but it’s also safer for the cows.

Thank you to NPC’s members for their help in making these projects and cleaner water possible.

By Susan Sprout

You know that smell – digging in the soil, when rain is on the way or just over, that earthy, musty, spring-like scent coming your way on a breeze. It is petrichor, Greek for stone and blood of the gods, AND there is chemistry involved! A combination of geosmin, (C12 H22 O) an alcohol released by dead microbes, PLUS ozone, an ion of oxygen produced by lightning and other atmospheric gases, PLUS the aromatic oils of living and dried plants EQUALS petrichor! That wonderful, standing out on the porch and sniffing the air, “It’s sprinkling out” smell! I didn’t know it had a name. The word “petrichor” was just coined in 1964 by two chemists, although people have been smelling it forever. 

The major component of petrichor that we need to know more about is the geosmin, or earth smell, which provides the scent of dead soil bacteria. When raindrops fall on a porous surface like dirt, aerosols are released that carry the smell created by bacteria, like streptomyces, in those small bubbles, up, up and away on the wind. We humans appear to be extremely sensitive to geosmin, a trait we may have picked up and kept on our evolutionary journey to now. This may have come about due to our ancestors’ need to find water sources in order to survive. Certainly rain had a very important impact on their food sources as well.

We can smell and taste the geosmin molecule in other places besides the air. In fact, some folks don’t like where it occurs. For example, in community water supplies, especially those places that depend on surface water; the skin and dark muscle tissue of fish; the taste of mushrooms and root vegetables like beets and carrots. Researchers have found that using an acid in or on some of the above will decompose the geosmin molecules into odorless substances.  Can you make the connection…lemon slices in the water served by restaurants…lemon juice squirted on fish and other seafood…the use of vinegar to “pickle” beets and other root veggies…Got it?

Humans do seem to like the smell, however. Chemical companies actually create synthetic versions of geosmin that are used in perfumes, air fresheners, scented candles, and a lot of other places we may not know about. The bottom line is that odors can trigger both positive and negative emotions because they are associated with specific memories. What memories come to you in the rain or on a mushroom laden pizza?

Would you want to try fishing with the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy?

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) and the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy (NPC) are hosting an afternoon of FREE fishing at Rose Valley Lake!

No license, equipment or bait is required. We’ll provide all the tackle, bait, and rods. Registering for the event (every participant adult, young adult, or child should be registered) is your license for the event.

After a quick overview of what fish eat, how to tie a basic knot, and some casting practice, we’ll get everyone tackle and bait and let you fish the afternoon away. Volunteers will be on hand to help and make sure there’s a photo of you with the trophy fish you catch.

The May 15, 2022 program begins at 12:30pm. You can fish as long as you want, but we will wrap up by 4:00pm. Please pre-register for the event .

You can register online at the PA Fish and Boat Commission’s website.

Please be sure to bring sunscreen, sunglasses, water, and snacks. The event will be held rain or shine, so bring an rain jacket or maybe an extra sweatshirt (May can be chilly at times).

The Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy is enrolled in PFBC’s Fishing Tackle Loaner Program. What is the Fishing Tackle Loaner Program?? Through the FTLP, the public can go to the locations identified and borrow rods, reels and a tackle box full of hooks and other terminal tackle. This equipment is borrowed in much the same way books are borrowed from a library. Those wanting to borrow gear complete a form and the loan is made. At the end of the loan period the equipment is returned to the site. The FTLP program is a partnership between the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the American Sportfishing Association, and multiple other sponsors. The program is designed to make it easy for anyone to access fishing tackle. This equipment may also be loaned to groups conducting angler education programs in the community.

By Susan Sprout

“On the Movements and Habits of Plants” is a book written by Charles Darwin and published in 1875. It was based on an essay he wrote ten years earlier. His passion for the design of plants and the diversity of their powers of movement are amazing to me – the little girl who was taught that animals were different from plants because plants couldn’t move! Ha! Their adaptations as climbing vines has carried some plants to new heights. Their “leafage” in forests can account for 40% of a forest’s leaf mass. Biomass – not so much – just 5%. What this tells us is that the thin vines sprint skyward for light and create huge numbers of leaves to absorb it. Climbing vines aren’t all in the same family, either. This key innovation evolved independently in different families, with different climbing methods. Their success may be based on the fact they don’t have to use their energy to grow big, heavy trunks. They use the backbones of trees, buildings, fences, cliff faces, other plants. Check out trees (or other items) with vines  growing up them on your next walk. See if you can determine their special modus operandi for getting to the top.

Here are some of the ways they may use, with reference to the plants I wrote about in earlier blogs.

Aerial rootlets with adhesive discs that glue the growing plant to its support – Virginia Creeper.

Twining and wrapping their stems around a support – Bittersweet – It only twines counterclockwise.

Scrambling or shooting out long stems that arch out and loop over the backs of others – Tear Thumb. This plant also has thorns that help it hold on.

Tendrils or specialized shoots that coil and/or branch – Prickly Cucumber

Trailing over the ground to cover as much territory as they can – Ground Ivy

A new vine came to live at my home this winter, brought from a much warmer clime. It is Piper nigrum, the Black Pepper Vine, the species of plant that provides us with over a million tons of pepper yearly. After growing up to 13 feet for about four or five years, a pepper vine will produce flowers on hanging spikes that turn into small pungent fruits, maturing from green to red to black. Picked while unripe, the berries are boiled and dried before being sent on their way from the twenty-five countries that produce them –  the world’s most traded spice!

The projects with the northcentral stream partnership got underway the week of March 7. The first day was a little chilly to start, but sunny, and comfortable in the afternoon. However, it’s March. We’re in Pennsylvania. Yep. On day 2 of the stream construction season, it was cold and snowing. The team worked on.

The weather isn’t done with us. Logs were delivered last week for a project that was scheduled to start today (Monday, March 14), but the weekend snowstorm required a delay. The ground is no longer frozen, so all the moisture from the snow will make things pretty muddy and we don’t like to generate more mud than necessary. We’re working to clean up water remember, and generally mud doesn’t help.

The team is keeping busy looking at potential project sites, re-visiting sites that were designed last year to see how they changed over the winter, and re-vising sites that had work done in prior years. Looking at streams, comparing them over time, and seeing how they respond is all important for learning and understanding.

The partnership will be back to projects soon!

March is here! March is one of those months where it can still be winter (think about some of the record snowfalls that have happened in March) but we’re starting to see signs of spring.

Skunk cabbage is one of the first wildflowers (yes, it’s considered a wildflower) to appear in the spring. Through a chemical process the flower generates its own heat which can melt snow cover and allow the flower to poke through.

Take a walk in your woods (or on a public forest) and look for the reddish-brown spathe. Inside the spathe is the spadix and the flowers are on the spadix. As the flowers wilt, the leaves begin to unfold.

Skunk cabbage isn’t the only thing that starts to come back to life in March. If you are treating invasives on your property now is a good time to look at the treatment schedules. Penn State Extension’s “Invasive and Competing Plants” page is a great place to go to find information on invasive and competing plants as well as treatments to help remove the plants.

If you’re interested in citizen’s science you might want to check out Project Budburst. The Chicago Botanical Garden’s administers the program that allows citizens to report when trees reach certain phases in bud development and leaf-out. The page also has activities for families and kids to learn more about the trees around them and how trees grow.

Black bear will start to emerge from their dens (if they haven’t already) and their new cubs will start to wander out with mom. Red fox kits and opossum young are born in March.

Other species are starting the mating process. Keep an eye out for the aerobatics of the American woodcock and ear out for woodcocks drumming. Also known as the timberdoodle, the American woodcock lives in young forests and shrubby old fields. The bird walks slowly probing the forest floor with its long bill searching for earthworms.

As the days start to warm up and the amount of daylight increases you may be looking for things to do outside. It can be a great time to cut firewood. Downed trees may be easier to get to before other plants sprout and leaf out. The ground may still be frozen and easier to maneuver on.

If you are treating invasives on your property now is a good time to look at the treatment schedules. Penn State Extension’s “Invasive and Competing Plants” page is a great place to go to find information on invasive and competing plants as well as treatments to help remove the plants.

If you can avoid, the urge to “clean up” your flower beds and yards. Various pollinators use what we view as “yard debris” to overwinter. If you clean it up too soon, you’ll loose those pollinators. A general rule of thumb is wait until daytime temperatures are consistently 50°F.

By Susan Sprout

It is winter – time to snuggle down with a good book. My taste generally runs to books that teach me something, make me think, help me be a better person. People and plants have done that for me, too, by teaching me something I needed to know at a particular point in my life. One friend, whose name you may recognize as a former NPC board member, educator, and naturalist, is the late Tom Paternostro. What he explained to me has stuck ever since the very beginning of the conservancy for which I write. His lesson, simply put, was Attention, Education, Appreciation, and Action. If you need people to do something, you really have to get their attention first; give them interesting facts and information about it; increased appreciation of it will occur in those who listened and understood; finally, they may see the usefulness and necessity of an action or commitment on their part.

Those four words have guided me in many endeavors, especially as I share with you information on plants and trees living in our area. “Hey, look at this plant!  Here’s where and how it grows! These are its benefits to us and other organisms! Love them and do what’s right for them!”

So, when spring has sprung, get out there and do something: join a conservancy, weed out an invasive, raise your own plants and flowers to eat and admire, compost and enrich your soil, don’t harm pollinators, don’t waste food and other resources, make a discovery, stop activities harmful to life…grow where you are planted!

But, until then, it is wintertime. Snuggle down with a good book!

By Susan Sprout

Quite often while hiking in the woods, I will find clubmoss popping up out of piles of leaves or snow. I have always liked the Lycopodiaceae Family, especially the Lyco part; perhaps I feel a sympatico connection with the name, as an old Lyco graduate. My first introduction to clubmosses came during a botany class field trip. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship with all things “plantly.” 

Plants in the Clubmoss family originated during the Early Devonian Period about 380 million years ago and reached their peak during the Carboniferous, growing to one hundred feet in height and three feet in diameter. Their fossil remains, well, remain here in PA, above or below or mixed in the coal seams. Today, these herbaceous plants rarely grow taller than six inches with their rhizomes creeping above or just below the leaf litter. They are NOT mosses, but a step above because they have a vascular system with xylem and phloem which transports nutrients, water and photosynthesized food throughout.

Princess Pine  (Dendrolycopodium obscurum) may have received its common name because the small plants look like immature trees with shiny needle-like leaves growing tightly to their branches. They put up an amazing yellowish-tan fertile shoot called a strombile that holds spores, and then you know it is not a baby tree! It may take up to twenty years for a new plant to grow from a released spore whose size is only 0.0013 inches. Thankfully, they can also spread by their underground runners. Repeatedly walking near the plants can compact the soil and damage or kill new plants beginning to grow underground. It can even keep the spores from germinating.

Another clubmoss found in our area is Common Running Clubmoss or Ground Pine (Lycopodium clavatum). Their horizontal stems run almost on top of the ground, covered by leaves or other small plants. Tiny green leaves are spirally arranged on the stems and shoots, giving them a rather furry look. Each leaf will have a single, unbranched vein in it that runs almost its entire length. Their fertile shoots start thinner at the bottom and widen as they ascend, giving them that classical club shape for which clubmosses are named. 

The dry spores of clubmosses have had many uses, from treatment for wounds and nosebleeds to powder for chafed skin. They have been utilized in a study to test the behavior of aerosol-released biological agents, in fingerprint powder, pill coverings, and as an ice cream stabilizer! When mixed with air, the spores are highly flammable which made them useful as photographic flash powder in the past. It is still used for theatrical special effects in plays and magic shows. People have been pulling large amounts of the thirteen different kinds of clubmosses growing in PA out of the ground for years to make Christmas decorations like wreaths and garlands.

“Shazam! Poof! They are disappearing.”

While Punxsutawney Phil predicted 6 more weeks of winter, the northcentral stream partnership is preparing to “open” the stream season in 5 weeks. We are in the phase of the season where all kinds of things are happening at the same time. It can seem confusing or overwhelming the first time you participate in the project planning.

Throughout December and January the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection Watershed Manager visited possible sites with staff from the County Conservation Districts. The weather prevented a couple of visits from happening when they were originally scheduled, so the group will be continuing to visit possible project sites throughout February.

The group pays attention to things like the height of the eroded stream banks, the size and shape of the rocks on the stream bottom, how much vegetation is growing along the stream, where the fences are (if there are fences), and how wide the stream is.  All of that and more go into deciding if a site “fits.”

Once the group decides a site “fits” the stream partnership’s program, a design is sketched out on site. By sketched I mean usually a black or red marker is used to make notes on a printed out aerial photo of the site. That field design is taken back to the office and finalized. The finalized design is used to start the permitting process and generate a supplies list. All of these things – design visits, design finalization, permitting, supplies – are happening at the same time for anywhere from 5 to 15 sites.

Additionally, conversations to determine what projects need to get done this year and when to schedule the projects are taking place. Things that go into the scheduling include farming operations and access to the fields, if a site lays wet or dry, vacation plans for any number of people, and when other projects the Conservation Districts are working on will be active.

The permit applications for the first couple of projects in March will be submitted in the next week or so, and then things will really start ramping up. Stay tuned for more updates on water quality improvements in the region!

And if you’re concerned about instream work happening in March, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission staff are equipped with insulated waders and there are enough people to rotate in and out of the stream that hypothermia shouldn’t be an issue.