By: Mollie J. Byrne, Wildlife Disease Biology Technician, Pennsylvania Game Commission
Fifteen years ago, a fungal disease swept through Pennsylvania, devastating the state's hibernating bat population. We recently had a chance to sit down with Mollie Byrne, a Wildlife Disease Biology Technician with the Pennsylvania Game Commission who travels across the Commonwealth inspecting...
March can be a challenging month for gardeners in the mid-Atlantic region. Spring is in the air, but wet soils and frost warnings make it a tricky time to complete many of the spring gardening tasks we are eager to check off our lists. One thing that can be done in March (and all throughout...
If you ever go for a walk in the woods during—or soon after—an extended rainfall, you might find an interesting spectacle: Numerous trees foaming at the base! Although an odd sight to behold, it is actually a visual representation of a process called stemflow. Stemflow is the act of water...
By: Melissa Reckner, Penguin Court Program Manager
Groundhog Day is a fun celebration for us humans each year, as we dream of spring, yet often cling to winter’s rest. But in nature, the real Groundhog Day is a serious matter for male groundhogs, who leave their winter dens in late February to scout out females and ensure other males are not...
By: John K. Jackson, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist at Stroud Water Research Center
The American palate has developed a taste for salt, not only in our diets—to the detriment of our blood pressure—but also, in standard consumeristic fashion, in a cornucopia of markets that promise to make our lives easier. We soften our household water with salt, coat our crop fields and pastures with salt-laced fertilizers and compost, and deice our roads, bridges and parking lots with rock salt and brine. The widespread and intense use of salt is now threatening our streams and rivers, marshes and ponds, and even groundwater—freshwater resources that were never meant to be so salty.
Japanese knotweed spreads aggressively and forms dense thickets. It quickly creates a monoculture, crowding out native plants and nearly all other vegetation. Once established, it is persistent and challenging to eradicate.