Mark Nale
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Nature’s Ways: Wild Grapes, Native Fruit of the Vine
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A few narrow-minded foresters might still refer to wild grapes as a detriment to the forest, but they actually are a great benefit. This perennial woody vine provides cover, food and nesting material for many Pennsylvania bird and mammal species and adds diversity to any forest. Grapes, all originating as wild species, have been important…
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Nature’s Ways: Norway Spruce — A Stately Naturalized Tree
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Norway spruce (Picea abies) is Europe’s most valuable conifer. It favors cooler climates and higher altitudes. This spruce is widely planted in North America — so much so that it has become naturalized in Pennsylvania and other northern states. It is very common to see a pair of the tall spruces standing guard in front…
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Weekly Treks with OLLI
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A raven called, as if to greet the group of 16 eager hikers gathered at the trailhead parking lot across from the Greenwood Furnace State Park office. It had rained earlier in the morning, but clearing skies promised a beautiful day. After brief introductions, hike leader John Collins outlined the morning’s trek, and we were…
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Nature’s Ways: The Mallard Duck — Common but Beautiful
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If it quacks like a duck … Actually, if it “quacks,” it is almost certainly not just any duck, but a mallard duck or a white domestic duck (which was derived from mallards). Mallards, Anas platyrhynchos, are the most numerous and best-known ducks in the United States. While most people associate them with wetlands, mallards are…
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Nature’s Ways: Closed Gentian, the Flower That Never Opens
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Easily overshadowed by the showy asters and goldenrods at this time of year is the beautiful and rather unique closed gentian. The plant is also known as bottle gentian because its flower is bottle-shaped. Closed gentian, a favorite of mine, is the flower that never opens, or so it seems. Its blue-violet petals point straight…
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Nature’s Ways: The Great Blue Heron — a Super Angler
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Humans aren’t the only anglers to wade area trout streams hoping to land a trophy catch. One of the most efficient anglers in the state wears feathers instead of hip boots and never worries about what size of tippet to use. This two-legged fisherman is the great blue heron (Ardea herodias). Herons are equipped with…
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Nature’s Ways: Red-Headed Woodpecker Is a Rare Local Find
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With its striking red, black and white plumage, the red-headed woodpecker is easy to identify. However, it is the rarest of all Pennsylvania woodpeckers. More numerous Keystone State woodpecker species include the pileated, downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers, as well as the northern flicker and the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The pileated woodpecker is our largest species…
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What to Know as Trout Season Gets Underway This Weekend
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Brooks, browns and rainbows — trout, that is — are the stars of the annual show getting underway on April 1. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will stock a couple million trout statewide before the big day. More will be stocked as the season progresses. When the white trucks stop rolling, about 3.2 million…
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Nature’s Ways: Sycamore, the Streamside Sentinel
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Sycamore trees stand like tall sentinels lining sections of Penns, Spring and Bald Eagle creeks — protecting their banks from erosion, shading the stream and providing cover for wild brown trout. In fact, stately sycamores guard all of Pennsylvania’s rivers and larger streams. Sycamores have been protecting streams for a long time. Fossil records indicate…
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Nature’s Ways: Bracket Fungi Are a Visible Part of the Landscape
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Winter is a great time to look at certain elements that are more difficult to see in the forest when all of the trees have their leaves. One of those might be fan-shaped or shelf-like growths that on the sides of trees and stumps. These growths are actually a type of fungus called shelf or…