events Archives - Cook Forest Conservancy

Plant Propagation – Woody Natives

Many of the most popular decorative (and practical) landscape plants—shrubs, vines, and fruits—can be propagated by the simple technique of rooting a piece of a “parent” plant. Improve your gardening skills while saving money, by learning simple plant propagation techniques. One source plant – already in your yard or your neighbor’s – can produce hundreds of identical offspring, at little to no cost!

Clone your Favorite Native Plants:

Join Ty Ryen, DCNR Bureau of Forestry Service Forester and Certified Arborist, for this FREE indoor event – a hands-on demonstration with hardwood cuttings, plus tips on timing your cuttings and mixing soil:

<< Saturday, 19 March 2022 – 11 am – 1 pm >>

This free event is open to all. The DCNR Cook Forest State Park office has generously donated their conference room for the gardening seminar – the address is 100 PA-36, Cooksburg, PA 16217, and the google maps code is 8QMR+59 Cooksburg, Farmington Township, PA.

Now approved for 2 Continuing Education Units for ISA Certified Arborists!

Still Free! RSVP to save your seat – space is limited – via Facebook, or via

& here’s a link to the flyer, in gdrive.

HWA Seminar for Landowners

Learn more about the threat posed by Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), and how to treat your own trees. Scientists are making advancements in establishing populations of bio-control agents – the natural predators of HWA – but, for now, landowners should proactively protect their trees. We’ll show you how:

HWA Seminar for Landowners

This event is free to all – held at 5 pm on Thursday, 7 October 2021, at the new Cook Forest State Park office, 100 Route 36, Cooksburg, PA 16217.

Join specialists on invasive insects from the PA Bureau of Forestry for information on at-home treatment for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), including:

the importance of hemlock trees
the reduced cost of treatment (far less than removing dead trees!)
different treatment methods, including:
- overview of available pesticides;
- which is best for a given situation; and
- the best seasons for treatments

followed by an on-site session during which attendees can actually apply the treatment – this single application should protect each target hemlock for seven years!

We’ll be walking along the Clarion River for the HWA treatment field work. Please wear long pants and closed shoes; gloves will be provided.

HWA kills trees - Protect your Hemlocks!

Attendees may be able to loan equipment from the PA Bureau of Forestry for treating their private hemlock stands – more details at the event.

Japanese Knotweed Treatment Seminar

Japanese Knotweed, a non-native invasive plant that spreads aggressively, degrades property values as much as it degrades native ecosystems. Forming a ten-foot tall ever-spreading mass, Fallopia japonica prevents native plants from growing, yet provides little to no benefit to wildlife. Japanese Knotweed is difficult to dissuade, let alone eradicate. Yet hope remains – learn what to do, and when to do it, at our first Japanese Knotweed Treatment Seminar:

Why it’s imperative to control Japanese Knotweed

Like other aggressive invasive plants, Japanese Knotweed must be actively managed. Japanese Knotweed quickly forms a monoculture, reducing biological diversity and lowering the quality of our streams and rivers. Once Japanese Knotweed establishes itself, habitat degrades in quality, streambanks erode, and species diversity declines.

Once well established, control requires a well-timed plan of annual treatments for up to five years. If control is not attempted, Japanese Knotweed will spread to the exclusion of all other species.

Japanese Knotweed – Landowner Assistance Project

One landowner, working alone, contributes to the health of the ecosystem by combatting invasive plant species – but neighbors working together, and combining efforts with environmental and municipal entities, can accomplish massive improvements. The CFC will coordinate a several-years’ program to connect parcels together, and to advocate for and assist with control treatments. This October’s Japanese Knotweed Treatment Seminar is the first step to improving the health of our Wild & Scenic Clarion River.

Landowner Participants benefit from:

expert information and guidance, including creation of a treatment plan, and recommendations on chemical formulations;
access to high-quality equipment, or the option to hire vegetation management contractors in a block;
help monitoring progress and reporting local infestations; and
advice on re-establishing native habitat

Please join us for this first round meeting – and bring a neighbor!

Tuesday, 5 October 2021 – 5 pm >>
add event to your google calendar

We’ll be at MacBeth’s Store & Cabins, located at the Route 36 bridge in Cook Forest State Park, at the Clarion River. Google maps addresses: 15361 PA-36, Cooksburg, PA 16217, or 8QHR+VG Cooksburg, Pennsylvania.

This Japanese Knotweed Treatment Seminar is free – no registration required. We’ll be outside, but please bring a coronavirus mask if you wish. NB re CORONAVIRUS: By attending, participants assume responsibility for any and all risk due to possible exposure to COVID-19. Please DO NOT attend if you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the last 2 weeks.

This event is a collaboration of the Cook Forest Conservancy, Penn State Extension, the Clarion County Conservation District, the DCNR of Cook Forest State Park, and the McKean County Conservation District, as part of their work on invasive plant management under the Allegheny Forest Health Collaborative

Remind yourself about the event via Facebook, and send us any questions:

Firefly Forest Walk

Let’s Explore: Cook Forest Firefly Walk

Over a dozen species of fireflies have been identified in the region. Join scientists and the CFC at twilight to search for several species of fireflies inhabiting Cook Forest’s various ecosystems. This hike may possibly include the wondrous and elusive synchronous firefly, verified to inhabit the forests of the Pennsylvania Wilds only recently. Learn about fireflies, and how to help protect their habitat.

Following an educational presentation, we’ll be walking in the dark over uneven terrain, so bring your flashlights – red-light capable if possible. There will be supplies to make a custom, removable red-light filter, so you can see better at night and disturb wildlife less. Please also wear closed-toe shoes, and have a light jacket and a water bottle along.

This event is FREE and open to all – however, this night hike is not ideal for children younger than middle-school age. Donations will support the CFC and its Dark Sky initiatives. To that end:

>> Please, no photography, including cell phone cameras <<

Both fireflies and our eyes are photo-sensitive, and any white light is disruptive. Help us protect firefly habitat and their mating season by keeping all light to a minimum.

Firefly Forest Walk: 8 pm, Monday, 21 June 2021

in beautiful Cook Forest State Park, Pennsylvania. The firefly walk is likely to last about three hours.

This event is limited to 25 attendees – RSVP is required, either via the Facebook event linked here, or via email to info@cookforestconservancy.org. The firefly walk meeting location and approx. GPS coordinates will be sent to registrants. Thank you!

>> Weather Warning & Rain Date <<

Rain doesn’t deter fireflies, so the event will carry on as scheduled unless thunder & lightning occurs. If there’s a thunderstorm on Monday, we’ll reschedule for 8:00 – 11:00 pm, Wednesday, 23 June 2021, at the same location.

Temperature, however, does affect lighting bug lighting, so cooler temperatures mean less firefly activity. Below about sixty degrees, we may not see any – so hope for a clear, warm, dark night.

NB re: CORONAVIRUS – By attending, participants assume responsibility for any and all risk due to possible exposure to COVID-19. Please DO NOT attend if you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the last 2 weeks.

This event is a collaboration of the Cook Forest Conservancy; the DCNR of Cook Forest State Park; and Bruce Parkhurst, a very generous firefly specialist.

Bats & Moths & Synchronous Fireflies!

UPDATE: Please bear with us 🙂 – the event is now limited to 25 attendees, per PA guidelines on COVID-19 – – RSVP is req’d via 814-744-8407 or cookforestsp@pa.gov, & please bring your masks & respect social distancing ** Please DISREGARD Facebook attendance indicators, as we’re not using that system **
Our apologies, but as this is the first event in the park following its reopening, and as several state entities are cooperating in its production, we just got the word that we need to collect registrations for the event. We appreciate your understanding!

Wielding microphones and sheets and wearing headlamps, bat biologist Amber Nolder and entomologist Tim Tomon will survey bats and moths, educating onlookers as they monitor this aspect of forest health. We’ll begin with some presentations, move into the field, and learn about these important Cook Forest residents. Here’s a recap & gallery from last year’s stellar bat & moth event – but, this year, it’s

Bats & Moths – and then Synchronous Fireflies!

Our annual program has happily added a (hopeful) appearance by the rare and elusive synchronous fireflies! Once the Photinus carolinus & friends have emerged (probably around 10 pm), we’ll walk up nearby Tom’s Run Road a short distance into the darkness, and enjoy their silent light show. Allegheny National Forest & Cook Forest State Park are among the only places to see these little fellows in America – they’re so famous in the Smoky Mountains there’s a lottery to see them!

Since the primary threats to fireflies are habitat loss and light pollution, the “lightning bug” portion of the program will be pitch black, so they can communicate. The dirt road is somewhat uneven – if you have a headlamp or flashlight with a red lamp function, please bring it along for the trek in toward the firefly swamp.

Friday, 19 June 2020 – 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm >>
add event to your google calendar

We’ll be at Shelter #2 off Forest Road in Cook Forest, approx. coordinates: 41.346609, -79.218915, and the google maps code is 8QWJ+JC Cooksburg, Pennsylvania.

This event is free – no registration required. Please bring a coronavirus mask, a light (headlamps with a red or green night-vision filter are best) and a refillable water bottle – we’ll have bat & moth eyemasks for the kids to color. NB re CORONAVIRUS: By attending, participants assume responsibility for any and all risk due to possible exposure to COVID-19. Please DO NOT attend if you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the last 2 weeks.

This annual event is a collaboration of the Cook Forest Conservancy, the PA Game Commission, the PA Bureau of Forestry, and the DCNR of Cook Forest State Park

Remind yourself about the event via Facebook, and send us any questions:

& here’s a link to stylish 2020 Bats & Moths & Synchronous Fireflies flyer, in gdrive.

Cathedral film at Clarion University

A short documentary on how & why the State Park is protecting the Hemlock trees of Cook Forest from the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) – and what it would mean if we lost that battle. Hemlock is a keystone species, irreplaceable. Eastern hemlock trees filter sediment and prevent stream bank erosion, and its evergreen boughs are integral for keeping streams cold enough for trout – hemlock streams average ten degrees cooler than waterways without hemlock.

The film is 22 minutes long, will be followed by a short Q & A session.

At 7 pm, all are welcome to attend a general meeting of the Iron Furnace Chapter #288 of Trout Unlimited, featuring speaker Ryan Borcz, DCNR park manager for Cook Forest & Clear Creek State Parks, discussing an in-progress stream habitat improvement the chapter is orchestrating in Clear Creek.

Both events are in Room 120 of the Grunenwald Science and Technology Center (STC), Clarion University of Pennsylvania – GPS Address: 909 E Wood St. Clarion PA, 16214. Free parking is available slightly downhill & across the street.

Hosted by the Cook Forest Conservancy, Iron Furnace Chapter #288 of Trout Unlimited, & Clarion University – film courtesy of Wild Excellence Films.

Plant Propagation

Clone your Favorite Native Plants:

Saturday, 14 March 2020 – 11 am – 1 pm >> add event to your google calendar

Now approved for 2 Continuing Education Units for ISA Certified Arborists!

Still Free! RSVP to save your seat – space is limited – via Facebook, or via

& here’s a link to the flyer, in gdrive.

Penn’s Parks for All – DCNR Plan

Please take a few moments to review the DCNR’s draft “Penn’s Parks for All” report which features recommendations for managing Pennsylvania state parks for the future, based on public comments gathered the past two years. The report acknowledges that DCNR is “operating 121 parks with decreasing resources,” while visitation pressure increases, facilities age, and the forests themselves are beset by invasives, disease, and encroachment.

There will be a meeting for Cook Forest and Clear Creek State Parks on 5 December 2019, 6 pm at the Cook Forest State Park Office – all are welcome and encouraged to attend – share your concerns, priorities, and questions for the future of our beautiful, wild spaces, locally and state-wide.

DCNR needs "more than $500 million due to the appropriated budget for state parks not keeping up with inflation, and due to a reduction in staff, requiring higher costs for contracted labor.
The condition of state park facilities is deteriorating, with some facilities being shuttered, and some recreation activities no longer available — while demand for park use is higher than ever before."

According to a Penn State report, Pennsylvania’s state parks support 12,630 jobs (part-time and full-time), and contribute $400 million in labor income, and $1.15 billion in sales annually. For every $1 invested in state parks from the state’s General Fund, $12.41 is returned to Pennsylvania’s economy. Yet only 0.16% of the state’s General Fund budget goes to state parks.

It’s not only trails, campgrounds, and pavilions that need funding – the forests themselves are under assault from multiple threats that can’t be handled passively. The parks face “declining forest health from invasive plants and animals, declining plant and animal diversity, and fragmentation impacts from roads, trails,” and utilities. DCNR needs funds to acquire inholdings and boundary properties, to to implement “projects that will mitigate the effects of climate change and that address habitat resiliency, riparian buffers, and lake and stream restoration.”

Survey respondents were generally in favor of all these projects – land acquisition, water quality improvement, habitat protection – and “the vast majority agreed or strongly agreed (87%) that visitors to state parks should expect a quiet, natural, and/or wild experience.” Report recommendations also include the establishment of a night sky management program, expansion of educational programs on sustainable and leave no trace practices, and outreach to middle and high school students to create the next generation of stewards of the state park system.

To accomplish this, DCNR will need to meet another of its goals – “ensur[ing] that conservation funding (e.g., the Keystone Fund and the Environmental Stewardship Fund) is used for stewardship purposes to repair and improve park resources.” To keep our parks healthy and fully functioning, DCNR will need your support, too – in making public lands a priority for legislators.

This report is only the draft – comments will be accepted until 31 December 2019. Please attend a meeting, or submit comments online.

Citizen Scientist Training

HWA (Hemlock Woolly Adelgid) kills trees – and it’s here. Invasive plants such as Japanese barberry and tree of heaven are threatening the regeneration of important species, while providing little to no habitat or food for wildlife. But, with your help, we can protect our valuable old-growth forest.

Join us for Citizen Scientist training to learn about imapinvasives, a free tool that you can use to track infestations. We’ll also show you how to identify the invasive pests and plants – then you just report back data whenever you’re in the field. Together we can keep our forest healthy!

Wednesday, 2 October 2019 – 6 pm >> add event to your google calendar

This Free event is open to all, and is co-sponsored by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History as a project of the Allegheny Forest Health Collaborative. The Gateway Lodge generously donated meeting space – the address is 14870 PA-36, Cooksburg, PA 16217.

HWA Hemlock Seminar Recap 2019

A solid group attended this year’s Bureau of Forestry seminar on Hemlock Woolly Adelgid – its life cycle, the dangers it poses and the importance of Eastern (Canadian) Hemlock to our biodiversity, and the currently available treatment options – at the Cook Forest State Park office. Following the classroom session, we trekked a short distance along beautiful Birch Trail, where Forestry scientists illustrated the soil injection method of tree inoculation, which will protect the treated trees for an estimated seven years.

As you may know, many of our ecosystems depend upon hemlock to filter our water and contain our streambanks, shade these streams for trout and the aquatic insects they feed upon, clean our air, and create the singular micro-climate that no other tree can reproduce, and on which many species depend.

You can protect your hemlocks at home:

minimize stressors by keeping them watered in droughts and not compacting their soil, and
monitoring them closely for health – watch the crown for thinning, and always check wind-blown limbs for evidence of HWA infestation, as they tend to colonize the top half of the tree.

View the entire photo gallery here – and please join us next year, as we hope to make the HWA Treatment Seminar an annual event! The Cook Forest area hemlock are relatively healthy now, and by keeping Pennsylvanians aware and proactive, we can ensure their survival for the good of the woods, waters, and people of the coming decades 🙂

a Quick Walk for the Woods – 28 Sept 2019

Before the WIN Wildlife Courier Training, before the hour of relaxing yoga on the lawns along Tom’s Run, before a peaceful lunch in the park – walk with the CFC for a brief tour of the hemlocks and cold-water streams they protect. Saturday, 28 September, 2019, 10: 30 am, meeting at the new Cook Forest State Park office, 100 Route 36, Cooksburg, PA 16217.

No fee or registration required – just bring a water bottle, and your patience 🙂 for the CFC director’s first public tour of the forest. We’ll try to cover the importance of hemlock, why Cook Forest is the best old-growth stand to protect, and how to help do it. Our hellbenders, warblers, and the future is counting on us to do so!

Learn more & let us know you’re attending on the Facebook Event here

then join Soul Blossom Yoga of Erie for a refreshing 60 minutes of Yin Yoga amongst the hemlocks – bring your mat and a water bottle – Donations only, generously collected by Soul Blossom to benefit the CFC 🙂

WIN Wildlife Courier Training

Save some Critters!

Learn how you can help injured wildlife – Saturday, 28 September, 2019, 1 – 3 pm at the new Cook Forest State Park office, 100 Route 36, Cooksburg, PA 16217. Join a retired wild animal rehabilitator for information and instruction on becoming a volunteer wildlife courier – learn about:

the mission and goals of WIN Emergency Response of PA, Inc.
PA Regulations
possible dangers to you and to wildlife
safe practices and common sense
how to assist a Capture and Transport (C & T) Permittee
how to safely transport an animal
what equipment you’ll need to help save injured animals

WIN (Wildlife in Need) Emergency Response of PA is fulfilling a desperate need by dispatching a network of trained volunteers to make sure injured animals are delivered to PA-registered wildlife rehabilitators, quickly and safely. To expand its volunteer base, WIN is partnering with the Cook Forest Conservancy to train transport responders in and around Cook Forest State Park. Those interested in the next level – wildlife capture – can find out more at this session.

The seminar is $25 per person, and requires pre-registration to ensure we meet the five-person attendance minimum. Please contact Sue DeArment, WIN Director, by 24 Sept via 814-425-7731 or sdearment @ windstream.net (remove spaces). Thank you for making Pennsylvania a better place for wildlife!

Download a printable copy of the event PDF here

HWA Treatment Seminar – 14 Sept 2019

HWA kills trees - Protect your Hemlocks!

Learn more about the threat, and how to treat your own trees. This event is free to all – held at 2 pm on Saturday, 14 September, 2019, at the new Cook Forest State Park office, 100 Route 36, Cooksburg, PA 16217. It will follow the member’s picnic and history walk hosted by the Woodland Owners of Clarion-Allegheny Valley.

Join specialists on invasive insects from the PA Bureau of Forestry for information on at-home treatment for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), including:

the importance of helmock
the reduced cost of treatment (far less than removing dead trees!)
different treatment methods, including:
- overview of available pesticides;
- which is best for a given situation; and
- the best seasons for treatments

followed by an on-site session during which attendees can actually apply the treatment – this single application should protect each target hemlock for seven years!

We’ll be walking along Tom’s Run for the field work – please wear long pants and closed shoes; gloves will be provided. Attendees may be able to loan equipment from the PA Bureau of Forestry for treating their private hemlock stands – more details at the event.

Download a printable copy of the event PDF here

a WOCAV event: Herbicides for Invasives

FREE seminar & field workshop – Saturday, 24 August 2019 – nine to noon @ the Rimersburg Rod & Gun Club. Join the WOCAV, with experienced forestry heribicide specialists Dave Jackson of Penn State Extension & Bryan Rose of ArborChem for information on how, when, and why to treat some of our most problematic plant species. Agenda:

Silvicultural Considerations: Competing vegetation impacts. Why do we have so much of it? When is treatment necessary? Why Herbicides?
Products and equipment, labels, & required PPE – How to protect yourself from exposure.
Overview of Application Methods – Broadcast applications (Band), spot treatments, hack and squirt, basal bark, and stump treatments, recommended rates, and calibration for band treatments
In woods demonstrations: competing and invasive plant control applications

442 E Rod and Gun Club Rd, Rimersburg, PA 16248

Bats & Moths 2019 Recap

The turnout at Tom’s Run – seventy people and six bats – is a happy increase over last year for both groups, and it’s important to track bat densities to determine whether they’re rebounding following the decimation caused by White Nose Syndrome. PA Game Commission scientist Amber Nolder said that, “after the devastating losses due to white-nose, there does seem to be some stabilization of affected bat populations. However, it could take over 100 years for complete population recovery (assuming enough bats can continue to survive white-nose and other threats), because of the low reproductive rate of most of these cave hibernating species, which have only one pup per year.“

Moths, which, along with butterflies, make up one of the most diverse orders of insects, also are a large proportion of the diet of birds and bats. Tim Tomon, scientist with the Bureau of Forestry, noted that they can also be useful indicators of plant presence.

You can help bat & moth populations at home:

help keep your skies dark, and
consider hanging PAGC-approved bat houses on your property (visit the “wildlife home plans” or “wood products order form” at Howard Nursery).

View the entire photo gallery here – and please join us next year, as we’re planning to make Bats & Moths night an annual event!

events

Clone your Favorite Native Plants:

<< Saturday, 19 March 2022 – 11 am – 1 pm >>

Now approved for 2 Continuing Education Units for ISA Certified Arborists!

HWA Seminar for Landowners

HWA kills trees - Protect your Hemlocks!

Tuesday, 5 October 2021 – 5 pm >>add event to your google calendar

Remind yourself about the event via Facebook, and send us any questions:

Let’s Explore: Cook Forest Firefly Walk

>> Please, no photography, including cell phone cameras <<

Firefly Forest Walk: 8 pm, Monday, 21 June 2021

>> Weather Warning & Rain Date <<

Bats & Moths – and then Synchronous Fireflies!

Friday, 19 June 2020 – 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm >>add event to your google calendar

Remind yourself about the event via Facebook, and send us any questions:

Clone your Favorite Native Plants:

Saturday, 14 March 2020 – 11 am – 1 pm >> add event to your google calendar

Now approved for 2 Continuing Education Units for ISA Certified Arborists!

Wednesday, 2 October 2019 – 6 pm >> add event to your google calendar

Save some Critters!

HWA kills trees - Protect your Hemlocks!

Tuesday, 5 October 2021 – 5 pm >>
add event to your google calendar

Friday, 19 June 2020 – 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm >>
add event to your google calendar