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Lights Out for Wildlife


CFC - Lights out for Wildlife

Lights Out for Wildlife!  Your exterior lighting directly affects the health of birds, bugs, and wildlife, and it’s easy to improve it.  It’s also healthier for us humans, and stargazers will appreciate your dark sky efforts.

You’re likely already aware of the danger artificial light presents to migrating birds — brightly lights and light-polluted skies cause travelling birds to become confused, lost, and exhausted.  Light-dazzled birds often suffer collisions.  BirdCast is a good place to find current maps of migrations, which occur both spring and fall – it’s especially important to minimize lights and maintain dark skies when migrants are in your area.  Here’s more on why, and how, and when, to switch to Lights Out for Wildlife.  

Light pollution also dims our stars and befuddles our bugs, preventing moths from mating and making caterpillars for next season’s banditry of chickadees.  The header image is a long-exposure photograph of moths circling light, rather than mating and pollinating and accomplishing other moth tasks. 

Fireflies can’t respond to the females dimly glowing in the grass, and their population diminishes.  Night light disrupts bats, stymies owl hunts, and negatively affects the health of many mammals (including us humans) in a multitude of ways — the good news is that it’s the easiest pollutant to remediate.  

How to Help Keep Skies Dark:

Simple changes can significantly improve your home’s dark sky friendliness: 

  • Keep exterior lights to a minimum year-round, and off during spring and fall migrations, and when fireflies are active in your yard.  
  • All exterior lights should be as “warm” (2700 K or lower, i.e. more amber-yellow than white-blue) and low-lumen as possible, and ideally motion-activated.  
  • Bulbs should be fully shielded, such that light only spills downward, and none upward or horizontally.  
  • Curtains keep interior lights interior, and warm temperature bulbs are better for human health, too.  
  • Consider talking with neighbors who may not realize their lighting scheme constitutes trespass, or to your municipality about transitioning to dark-sky approved street and shop lighting.  
  • Many Audubon and International Dark Sky (IDA) chapters sponsor Lights Out programs during migratory peaks, and both organizations have further information on light pollution mitigation.  

This article adapted from one written for the Fall 2025 newsletter of the Seneca Rocks Audubon Society, all back issues of which are available here:  https://www.senecarocksaudubon.org/newsletters

Lights Out for Wildlife Read More »

Japanese Knotweed: Why & How to Control this Invasive

Identify these non-native invasive plants, learn why to minimize knotweeds, and how to do so — timing, technique, and resources. With consistency and cooperation, control of knotweed in NW Pennsylvania is possible — please get involved!

Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) degrades water quality, native habitat, and reduces property values due to its perennial, spreading habit.  Japanese Knotweed ruptures through concrete and foundations, and in some countries (e.g. Britain), render afflicted properties unsellable.  The three varieties of Japanese Knotweed in Pennsylvania contribute nothing to our ecosystem, but can all be dealt with in the same way:  consistent chemical treatment over several years or seasonal sessions.  Once under control, landowners should overplant with competitive native plants, and continue monitoring and maintenance. 

Useful links and contact information for our presenters, who can advise on or perform Japanese Knotweed control:

This video was produced in conjuction with the Penn State Extension Renewable Natural Resources Team and funded by a grant from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.  Filmed and edited by Wild Excellence Films, who also partially donated services.  Thank you to all involved for supporting this project!

Japanese Knotweed: Why & How to Control this Invasive Read More »

Clarion River Brewing Native Seedlings

Every backyard is part of a larger ecosystem, and every plant you plant can make a difference – for wildlife, for clean water, for climate change.  Join the Clarion River Brewing Company in its inaugural drive to help locals plant more native trees & shrubs!  Here’s what’s on offer for the 2022 Native Sapling Sale, and tips on which to plant to better your backyard habitat

Native Trees:

According to Professor Doug Tallamy, oak trees are the best choice for supporting healthy ecosystems (bugs, birds, & critters) – and they’re pretty low-maintenance and long-living.  Interesting note:  oaks only propagate by acorns – cuttings generally won’t work, which means they stay genetically diverse and evolutioniarily adaptable. 

Red Oak

Quicker-growing than some, red oaks will reach 70 feet tall and live 300 years.  Red oak tolerates pollution , enjoys acidic soil and full sun, and puts on quite a nice show of vibrant fall leaves.  

Pin Oak

Water-loving pin oaks also grow pretty quickly, and prefer streambanks, swamp conditions, and damp hollows. Pyrimidal in form, pin oaks will also grow to 60-70 feet in height, but are narrower than red oaks – more like half as wide as tall.  Pin oaks are less great as street trees and in small spaces, but are excellent for birds and mammals.  

Native Small Trees & Shrubs:

Ninebark

Ninebark is the native that has it all – ninebark attracts pollinators, looks good in all seasons, and is tough & resilient.  Ninebark makes a great hedge, and blooms best when it has three or more sister plants.  A favorite of bees and as a floral bouquet filler!  It’s also easy to make more natives – by physically dividing ninebark plants in spring, or by rooting cuttings.  Ninebark grows well in most soils and locations, including clay and shade, and reaches approximately 5-10 feet in height and width. 

Silky Dogwood

Glossy green in spring with maroon twigs for winter interest, Silky Dogwood produces creamy white flowers from May to June.  It likes living along well-drained streambanks, with roots shaded by… shade… or about 2″ of mulch in brighter locations.  Silky dogwood is multi-stemmed, charmingly unkempt in form, and good for erosion control. 

Greystem Dogwood

Birds love greystem dogwood, which grows to 16′ tall and will form thickets by underground rhizome where it’s happy – or, it can be trimmed into single specimen trees.  Lots of winter interest and low-maintenance.  Also known as panicle dogwood, it is a good choice for borders or mass plantings, and enjoys a streamside location.  

How to Create Native Habitat

Plant saplings, and seedlings, and eliminate or limit your use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. 

Contact Clarion River Brewing to reserve your native seedlings!

Improve the health of all your trees:

  • plant and encourage a biologically diverse property – trees with unrelated but nearby neighbors are often healthier 
  • invite and protect pollinators, both bird and insect
  • plant natives 
  • insist on local stream and riparian health protections
  • reduce pollution:  gasoline, exhaust, consumer pesticides; minimize lawn
  • monitor your trees for stress or disease, and act early 
  • protect roots from soil compaction (e.g., don’t park or drive  under tree canopies)

Clarion River Brewing Native Seedlings Read More »

HWA Seminar for Landowners

HWA Landowner Treatment Seminar

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. 

HWA Seminar for Landowners Read More »

Japanese Knotweed Treatment Seminar

Japanese Knotweed Treatment Seminar 2021-10

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:

info @ cookforestconservancy.org
Japanese Knotweed - Clarion River - September seed pods
Japanese Knotweed - Clarion River - September seed pods

Japanese Knotweed Treatment Seminar Read More »

Cathedral film at Clarion University

Cathedral - the Fight to Save the Ancient Hemlocks of Cook Forest - Wild Excellence Films - 03/10/20 CUP

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.

Cathedral film at Clarion University Read More »

Plant Propagation

2020-03-14 Plant Propagation Seminar
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, 14 March 2020 – 11 am – 1 pm >> add event to your google calendar

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

info @ cookforestconservancy.org

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

Plant Propagation Read More »

Lead Poisoning in Birds

Cook Forest Conservancy - Lead Poisoning in Eagles from Ammunition

Bald and golden eagles prefer fish, but are opportunistic foragers that scavenge when practical. In most areas, eagles have access to food sources with expended lead bullets – field-shot pest species, offal piles, non-recovered game, and weakened, contaminated live prey. 

Deer pits across the Game Commission’s State Game Lands provide a regular source of food for scavenging eagles.  Hunting season falls in autumn and winter, when scavenging for food becomes more important – and lead poisoning victim numbers spike.

Between 2006 and 2016, lead poisoning was found in one-third of 228 eagles from across Pennsylvania – 30% had detectable levels of heavy metals in their liver.  While the specimens died variously from trauma by car, train, and gunshot (also electrocution and infection), the examined animals mostly accumulated the lead levels as a result of scavenging.  Lead poisoning destroys the nervous system.  If it doesn’t kill the bird outright, the lead poisoning renders it too weak and disoriented to either hunt for food, or protect itself from predators and threats.

One simple way to reduce lead toxicity in eagles and other wildlife is to use non-lead ammunition.

Both performance and cost of non-lead ammunition is comparable to lead counterparts. The PA Game Commission advocates the use of non-lead ammunition to hunters, and it’s safer for people, too, since the lead can’t fragment or leach into game meat. Please ask your local supplier to stock non-lead ammo 🙂

Centre Wildlife Care - tube-feeding lead poisoned eagle
Centre Wildlife Care volunteers tube-feeding a Bald Eagle suffering from lead poisoning

From Centre Wildlife Care:

Since 2013, when we got our blood lead machine, all of the bald eagles that we have taken in have had some level of lead in their blood. Most have needed chelation therapy to remove the lead from the system, plus antibiotics, tube feeding, and months of rehabilitation before they could be released. Some were too sick to save from the lead toxicity/ trauma and died.

We have also seen lead poisoning in hawks, eagles, vultures, crows, gulls, ducks, geese, swans, loons and grebes.

For more information, and to find non-lead ammo, contact: 

Lead Poisoning in Birds Read More »

Service Foresters

PA DCNR service forester program for landowners

DCNR service foresters – at no cost to the landowner – will walk your property, and give sound advice on the following:

  • Woodland review & improvement 
  • Tree planting
  • Control of forest pests & invasives
  • Wildlife – habitat & management
  • Woodland recreation
  • Educational & cost-share programs
  • Forest management 
  • Timber harvest 
  • Riparian & water quality practices 

Under the Cooperative Forest Management Program of the DCNR Bureau of Forestry, a Service Forester will assist you in understanding and planning the care and management of your woodland – a service to help you gain the maximum in benefits and enjoyment from this resource acreage.  While they can’t mark or sell timber, and don’t compete with private consulting foresters, they provide an educated, disinterested opinion and help you progress to the next step of managing your woodlot wisely and sustainably. 

To connect with your county’s service forester, contact: 

Clarion, Jefferson, Armstrong, Butler, Beaver, Lawrence & Mercer counties: 

Clear Creek Forest District 8
158 South Second Avenue
Clarion, PA 16214
(814) 226-1901
fd08@state.pa.us

Forest, Venango, Warren, Erie, & Crawford counties:

Cornplanter Forest District 14
323 North State Street
Warren, PA 16365
(814) 723-0262
fd14@state.pa.us

Service Foresters Read More »

CFSPbridges on Giving Tuesday

Facebook is waiving all donation fees, and matching all donations on #givingtuesday! This 3 December 2019, all funds raised for the CFSPbridges campaign will be doubled!  

You can help us by running a fundraiser on your facebook page, and sharing it with your friends and family – here’s how:

raise funds on Facebook for the CFC

Here are links to useful pages:

Thanks for your support! 

CFSPbridges on Giving Tuesday Read More »

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.  

Read the Report

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."

This heavily-used bridge across Tom's Run was closed in the summer of 2019, and requires replacement - cost estimated at $100,000 per bridge. This is one of six bridges slated for closure - several are along the North Country Trail.

 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.

Penn’s Parks for All – DCNR Plan Read More »

Thank you, everyone!

Thank you CFC supporters

Thank you everyone!! 😃 Thank you for joining us on hikes and for yoga, for helping to move injured wildlife and to track invasive species, for participating in the fundraiser, for sharing CFC posts and events and information on how we can protect this amazing resource – your support means so much, to us and to the forest.

Thank you, everyone! Read More »

Citizen Scientist Training

Citizen Science Training 2019-10-02

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.  

 

Citizen Scientist Training Read More »

a Quick Walk for the Woods – 28 Sept 2019

Cook Forest Hike - 28 Sept 10 am

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 🙂 

 

Soul BlossOM Yoga in CFSP

a Quick Walk for the Woods – 28 Sept 2019 Read More »

WIN Wildlife Courier Training

CFC WIN Wildlife Courier Training 2019-09-28

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

WIN Wildlife Courier Training Read More »