Rare PA Natural Plant Communities: From Peatlands to Upland Forests
- This workshop explores the diverse natural plant communities of Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands through guided hikes in upland forests and wetland ecosystems.
- It is designed for participants with some botanical knowledge who want to deepen their understanding of local ecology and plant identification.
- Attendees will engage in fieldwork to observe ecological processes and unique plant species in various habitats.
About this event
Instructors
Ephraim Zimmerman, Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program Director, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Noah Yawn, Natural Heritage Program Ecologist, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Workshop Limit: 20 participants. Full-time student rate is available. Register early!
We will take a deep dive into the plant communities of the Laurel Highlands to learn more about them and the ecological processes that drive their composition. We will meet at Linn Run State Park, near Rector, PA and hike through several forest and woodland communities including forests of sugar maple, beech, red oak, and mountain laurel.
We will have lunch at the picnic shelter at nearby Laurel Summit State Park. After lunch, we’ll pull on our rubber boots and trudge (carefully) into the wetland communities of the Spruce Flats Bog and Wildlife Area, a high elevation wetland ecosystem supporting carnivorous plants, cotton-grass, and peatmoss.
We will be outside even if there is light rain. Dress for fieldwork, with both sturdy boots for the uplands and rubber boots for the wetlands. Make sure to bring sun protection, and a raingear. Expect limited restroom access during the day.
This will be an intermediate botanical workshop. Attendees should have some experience identifying plants. If you are not familiar with trees, shrubs, and herbaceous species of Pennsylvania, you are welcome to attend, but you will want to do some homework before the workshop.
Please download iNaturalist and Flora Quest: The Northern Tier onto a mobile device. iNaturalist is free to download, but Flora Quest is $19.99. Both are useful in the field and Flora Quest is excellent dichotomous keys using currently accepted taxonomy (tending to a “splitty” philosophy). It runs on Apple devices as well as Android devices. ncbg.unc.edu/research/unc-herbarium/flora-apps/
Lunch Options
Plan ahead for your lunch, as there will not be time to travel.