Northcentral Pennsylvania was colder than average yesterday, November 18, 2014. Depending on the weather site/forecaster you follow we were somewhere around 20 degrees colder than normal without factoring in the windchill.

A hearty group of volunteers that didn’t let the cold weather deter them. : – ) Tom, Alice, Butch, Jerry, Mel, Mark, Zach, Lily, and Dennis trudged around a property with Charlie and me (Renee’). To provide comments and feedback on the property’s conservation values – the water resources, wildlife habitat, forest resources, and scenic resources.

The photo at the top of the page were taken along the stream. It’s a small unnamed stream. There is also a wetland on the property and several seeps.

While it wasn’t the ideal time of year to look for macroinvertebrates (bugs), Mel still did. : – ) Taking his gloves off, he started picking up rocks to look at their bottom side.  Many macroinvertebrates attach, in some way, to rocks on the stream bottom.

He also looked at what kind of rocks and woody debris are on the bottom. The rock type will determine what kind of macroinvertebrates (macros) can live there, and also what other aquatic wildlife can live there. The woody debris is a food source for many macros.

Here’s why Mel was looking for macros:
+Macros are affected by the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the stream.
+Since macros live in the stream they show the effects of short-and long-term pollution events, as well as the cumulative impacts of pollution.
+Macros are pretty close to the bottom of the foodchain and are a critical part of the stream’s foodchain. The macros present, help you understand what larger aquatic wildlife may be in the stream.
+Macros are easy to sample and identify (some of Mel’s students may disagree with the second part of this).

Thank you to Mel and everyone else for coming out on a cold day. There wasn’t a single complaint about being cold!! There were a few comments on Charlie’s hat, but that’s to be expected. : – )

There aren’t any lions on any of NPC’s conservation easements.  There may be some lambs from time to time, but I don’t have any photos.  The best I can do for the first day of March is give you the Lyon’s Farm Conservation Easement.

This conservation easement is in far eastern Lycoming County, almost Columbia County.  In addition to the scenic beauty of the property, it also provides for groundwater re-charge, filters rain water with its riparian buffers, and its forests help filter air.

If you’ve never heard the March-Lion-Lamb folklore, here’s a poem by Joyce P. Hale that should explain it.

March – Lion and Lamb
by Joyce P. Hale

MARCH has tumbled on the scene,
exits mild, but enters mean…
Winter waves a fierce goodbye,
while robins promise Spring is nigh.

Daffodils are peeking through…
forsythia is budding, too.
Clouds are racing, sun is cool,
in like a lion is the rule!

Birds all seem to know it’s time
to answer Mother Nature’s sign;
they listen to an innate command,
and there goes March, out like a lamb.

Don’t miss the article in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette highlighting the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy’s success in conserving over 11,000 acres in the region!

http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/598369/Keeping-it-Green.html?nav=5013

Even if you don’t have school age kids, chances are you are well aware that the new school year is either set to begin or just underway.  A property under conservation easement with the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy is the site of a former one room school house.  It seemed like the perfect time (and season) to share that story.

The Robwood Mountain conservation easement is almost all woodland now, but 100 years ago almost every acre that could have been farmed or pastured was without trees. Stone walls and old foundations speak to the agricultural community on the mountaintop. But life was hard; it is said that the only crops that could be regularly grown were potatoes and buckwheat and much of the land was devoted to pasture. And so the families gradually moved away to make new lives elsewhere, their farms allowed to revert to forest and the transition helped in places by the current landowner and his father who planted trees in some of the old fields. The photo above, taken in 1914, is of the students at the Robwood Mountain school – the school stood on the protected property along the road that the families traveled as they abandoned their farms.

Don’t you wonder what happened to those kids?

by Renee’ Carey

In 2007 I was in Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland, the day before the Kenmare Hillwalking Festival started.  My nieces and I signed up for a 10 kilometer (about 6 mile) hillwalk.

The next day we filled out our registration forms, paid our fee, and climbed on board the school bus.   A gentleman in a Kenmare Hillwalking Club hat asked if he could share the bus seat with me.  As the bus began to pull away we began to talk…what’s your name, where are you from, how long have you been in Ireland…the normal questions.  Then, he asked, what do you think of Ireland?

I told him the things that struck me were the unending shades of green and the fact that there weren’t many trees.  The hillsides were almost all grass. He replied that my ancestors (remember, my last name is Carey) came over from England, cut all the trees down, and sent them back over to “Henry” in the 1400s.

My nieces were shrinking down in their seat.  I knew they were mentally telling me, “Let it go.  Just let it go.”  But, I couldn’t.

I smiled and said, “Yeah, but it doesn’t take 600 years to plant trees.”  My nieces’ eyes were huge and they may have been holding their breath.  He laughed.  They exhaled and sat up, a little.

I told him I was doing my best to make up for my ancestor’s past wrong doing and worked for a land trust in Pennsylvania.

While my ancestors’ legacy in Ireland may be pastoral hillsides and trees “exported” to England (by the way, I haven’t researched his claims, so this may not be an historically accurate fact), I hope my legacy is a landscape of farm fields, meadows, forests, wetlands, and creeks.  I hope it’s a legacy that produces natural resources for at least the next 600 years.  It’s places where people walk, and fish, and hunt, and just sit and think.  It’s places that grow food, and flowers, and animals.  It’s places that are conserved, and being used.

That’s what I hope my legacy is.

What will your legacy be?  August is Legacy month.  It’s a great time to start thinking about your legacy.

Summer means different things to different people.  For some, it’s a break from school.  Others think of a vacation at a lake or ocean side beach.  For many of the Watershed Specialists in our area, summer means construction of in stream habitat devices.

The winter is spent selecting sites and designing projects.  Landowners are contacted, agreements are signed, and partners lined up.

Spring is when contractors are lined up and any baseline sampling work is done.  The photo to the right, Bob and Dianne work on a bug count at the Wilson Creek site.  The numbers from this bug count will be compared to future counts done at the same site to help measure the project’s effectiveness in creating habitat.

Summer is when the plans are put in action and work takes place.  To the left is a “finished product” from this week’s construction on Wilson Creek.  There’s a log vane deflector sticking out from the bank, and jute mat holding the stream bank until the seed takes off and plant material fills back in.

Are you interested in learning more about how these stream restoration projects work?  Join NPC, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Northumberland County Conservation District, Little Shamokin Creek Watershed Association, and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection during our July Field Days!  Learn more at NPC’s website.

Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy Members Hold Elections to the Board of Directors

Plankenhorn (standing, left) and Hannis (seated, right) were recognized for their service, while Churba (seated right) and Schopfer (standing, left) were elected to the Board for first terms.

At the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy’s annual membership meeting on May 1, 2013 the members present elected three directors to a second term and two directors to first terms on the Board of Directors.  Andra DeHart-Robbins (Lycoming County), Andrew Harris (Lycoming County), and Romey Fagnano (Lycoming County) were completing their first three year term and agreed to serve a second three year.  Carmalene Churba (Lycoming County) and Steve Schopfer (Lycoming County) were both elected to a first three year term.

Churba, her husband, and their four children live in Loyalsock Township.  Prior to staying home with her children, she worked in Vail, CO as a meeting and conference manager.  Churba coordinated travel as well as meeting arrangements for Fortune 500 companies holding trainings, meetings, and conferences at Vail’s resorts.  She moved East and worked for Sparks Exhibits helping clients, such as Motorola, with their trade show needs. 

Schopfer and his wife, Dorothy, live in the Cogan Station area.  He spent 29 years working for Lycoming County Government.  Schopfer first served as the Operations Manager for the Department of Emergency Services and then became the Deputy Director of Resource Management Services.  Over the years he has served on a number of boards and in a number of leadership positions, such as with the local Red Cross Chapter. 

Rotating off the Board were Bonnie Hannis (Clinton County) and Charlie Plankenhorn (Lycoming County).  Both served NPC’s board as the Chair.  Additionally, Hannis worked on the Board Development Committee and assisted at the organization’s Spring Fundraiser.  Plankenhorn has been involved with NPC’s membership program as well as community outreach.

Okay, so the photo to the right is not of jelly beans.  It’s deer scat.  Or, if you prefer, and aren’t offended by it, deer poop.

Scat, poop, droppings, feces, whatever you call it, the material can help you identify animals you may never see, but are sharing your favorite trail with.  Heck, maybe you’re sharing your yard with them.

Wildlife biologists also use scat to help them calculate population estimates.  With deer, one procedure used is a pellet count.

In the spring, after the snow melts, researchers will set up a transect, establish their plots along the transect, and get to work counting the piles of deer pellets in each plot.  As with most research methods there are protocols to follow.  One set of protocols only allows piles with 10 more more pellets to be counted.  Any piles with less than 10 pellets aren’t included in the data.

Deer populations, like any population, impact the ecosystem they inhabit.  Often, it’s what, and how much deer eat that causes the impact.  Foresters, landowners, and other land managers can often make better management decisions if they know the size of the deer population on their property.  This is one tool, of many, used in making good conservation decisions.

My grandfather was a rural mail carrier for many years.  He loved his job.  Well, he loved his job except for one aspect – the spiders.  I’m sure more than one spider lost its life at my Pop’s hands.

I’m guessing he didn’t realize all the good things spiders do.

For instance, spiders like the Golden Garden Spider (shown in the photo at the PPL Wetland conservation easement), arigope aurantia, eat insects.  This helps maintain populations of pests like mosquitoes.  Maintaining lower levels of mosquitoes can help keep diseases, like West Nile Virus, from spreading.

Spider venom is also being studied for use in medicine.  Medical researchers are looking at whether specific peptides in some species’ venom could be used with heart attack and stroke patients to lessen damage to the heart and other muscles.  Other researchers are looking at peptides that may help with neuro-muscular conditions.

Spiders also help scientists like Dr. Brian Mangan, King’s College.  Dr. Mangan is studying the pathways of mercury in the aquatic and terrestrial food chains and the Spined Micrathena is helping him do this.

Small insects ingest mercury from a number of sources in their environment.  The Spined Micrathena then ingests the small insects after trapping them in its web (it’s a pretty impressive web) and the mercury from their prey accumulates in the spider’s body.

Dr. Mangan has documented mercury is present in the spiders and has noted higher levels in spiders near coal-fired power plants that release mercury to the environment.  He’s also working to compare mercury levels between riparian and upland areas to see if mercury is leaving rivers like the Susquehanna in the bodies of aquatic insects that fly from the river and are perhaps captured in spiders webs.  By capturing Spined Micrathenas from both areas and comparing the mercury levels between the two groups he can see if spiders that tend to eat bugs near the river have more mercury in their bodies.

If you want to learn more about spiders in Pennsylvania, visit Penn State Extension.  They have information on “Spiders Commonly Encountered in Pennsylvania and the Northeast” (http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/commonly-encountered-pennsylvania-spiders).