Nature in its Element

March 9th, 2010

By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer

(Published on Sunday, Mar 07, 2010)

RECTOR, PA.: The sound of running water fills the interior of the expanded educational center at Powdermill Nature Reserve.

That’s because a miniature free-flowing stream has been created inside the environmentally friendly building in Westmoreland County about 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

It is a 1,000-gallon tank that hosts native aquatic insects and fish, many of which are especially sensitive to environmental changes, in the 15-foot-long mini-stream.

There is also a display of birds found in the Ligonier Valley in western Pennsylvania and an exhibit of stuffed wild animals.

Two short nature trails — Black Birch and Sugar Camp — are outside the center and run along a very pretty and pristine stream, Powdermill Run. There are also butterfly and herb gardens.

The reserve, tucked on the western slope of Laurel Ridge, part of the Allegheny Mountains, is owned and operated by the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

The reserve, started in 1956 as a biological field station for scientists, is widely known and highly recognized even if it doesn’t draw big crowds. It is two hours and 45 minutes from Akron.

Powdermill is most famous for its bird-banding program.

To date, about 622,000 birds of 190 species have been banded, measured and released since that program began in mid-1961.

It is billed as the longest-running year-round professional bird-banding program in the United States.

Between April and November, about 13,000 migratory songbirds are banded using 70 40-foot-long mist nets on the preserve’s 2,200 acres.

The captured birds are removed from the nets within 30 to 40 minutes after capture. They are placed in paper bags and transported to the laboratory for banding and observation. They get numbered aluminum bands on their legs.

The banders also record the species, age, sex, weight and wing measurements of the captured birds. That takes about one minute per bird. They are then released.

About 20 percent of the banded birds are recaptured.

The banding is done seasonally and is weather dependent but it is usually done on weekends. Visitors who make advance
arrangements can get a peek at the banding operation. Call 724-593-7521.

The center recently added 14 small boxes equipped with microphones where captured birds will spend two minutes so migratory birdsong can be recorded.

In the future, those recordings might be matched against recordings of migrating birds, letting scientists know what species and how many birds are passing overhead.

Visitors can also visit the acoustics laboratory. Call 724-593-5521 for reservations.

The Powdermill Avian Research Center is also on the cutting edge with projects studying the bioacoustical monitoring of migrating songbirds at night. Most songbirds migrate at night and that makes it difficult for scientists to study their movements.

Powdermill also conducts research in herpetology, botany, invertebrate zoology and ornithology. The research ranges from golden eagles to gypsy moths, from mine acid runoff to the lives of small mammals.

It offers an array of public education programs for adults and children at the center.

The now-expanded Florence Lockhart Nimick Education Center — it opened in 1983 — is also expected to host traveling exhibits from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Powdermill opened its expanded visitor center that is now an environmental showcase in December 2007. The price tag was $5 million. Support came from 150 donors and foundations.

Officials are expecting visitation to grow from 12,000 people to 18,000 people a year with the expansion. The space grew from 3,200 square feet to 13,500 square feet.

The new building off state Route 381 in Cook Township features energy-efficient heating, large windows for natural light, sustainable building materials and a marsh system to treat sewage.

Clean ground water under the reserve is used for showers, sinks and drinking fountains. The wastewater is naturally purified in the so-called Marsh Machine with plants, tanks (underground and indoors), small pumps and gravity.

No chemicals are used, a move that protects Powdermill Run.

The system is housed in a greenhouse filled with three 550-gallon tanks that grow bacteria, plants and algae that visitors can examine at the rear of the building.

The Marsh Machine can handle 1,500 gallons a day of sewage and cleans it as Mother Nature would, via a wetland. Some of the finished water is then recycled to flush toilets, some is diverted to the indoor stream and some is drip-irrigated onto the forest floor.

You can do a self-guided tour of the building’s green features.

Nearby is an 800-square-foot free-standing solar-powered house designed by students at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

The reserve was established in 1956 when the Mellon and Scaife families of Pittsburgh donated 11 tracts totaling 1,160 acres three miles south of Rector.

Additional acreage was acquired: woodlands, streams, open fields and ponds.

Powdermill Run, fed by mountain springs, remains one of the few unpolluted streams in western Pennsylvania. It flows into Loyalhanna Creek, which flows into the Kiskiminetas River, a tributary of the Allegheny River.

As for the trails, the Black Birch Trail is not long, about three quarters of a mile in a series of interconnected loops. It got its name from the large number of black birches with a glossy dark-brown bark that appears torn or split. The twigs, bark and wood are the source of wintergreen oil.

The trail is home to lots of woodpeckers and offers first-rate spring wildflowers in April and May.

The Sugar Camp Trail is just over a mile long. It was the site of old maple-production camps in the late 1800s and early 1900s. There are lots of ferns along the trail plus evidence of coal that was dug from a hillside by hand in the early 1900s.

The reserve is flanked by wild tracts within Forbes State Forest.

Most of the reserve — 87 percent — is mixed second-growth or third-growth deciduous forest. The dominant species are beech, yellow poplar, sugar maple, hemlock and rhododendron. There is also hawthorn, crab apple, black locust and black cherry. The remaining 13 percent of the reserve is managed as grasslands.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 4:30 p.m. Sundays from April 1 to Nov. 15. From Nov. 16 to March 31, hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 4:30 p.m. Sundays. Call for information about holidays.

Admission is free.

The two nature trails are open dawn to dusk.

To get to Powdermill from Akron, take Interstate 76 to the Ohio Turnpike. Go east on the Ohio and Pennsylvania turnpikes to the Donegal exit (Exit No. 91). Turn left on state Route 31 going east. Go 2.7 miles. Turn left (north) on state Route 381. Go 6.4 miles. The reserve will be on your left.

Powdermill’s mail address is 1847 State Route 381, Rector, PA 15677. You can call 724-593-6105 or check out www.powdermill.org. You can also get information at www.carnegieMNH.org.

For Laurel Highlands information, contact the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau, 120 E. Main St., Ligonier, PA 15658, 800-333-5661, www.laurelhighlands.org.

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