NO ICING — This student at Slippery Rock University found no use for his hockey stick Tuesday as winter snows were displaced by rain. The spring showers were on target, however, as evidenced by the daffodil at left found the next day on Butler's Main Street.

Here are some averages for Pennsylvania's climate in April:

• Average high temperature: 59.2 degrees

• Average low temperature: 33.6 degrees

• Highest recorded temperature: 90 degrees, April 24, 1985

• Lowest recorded temperature: 29 degrees, April 5, 1982

• April snowfall record (in Pennsylvania): five inches on April 4, 1987

SOURCE: National Weather Service

Butler County is home to two Pennsylvania state parks:• More than one million people visit <B>Moraine State Park</B>, 225 Pleasant Valley Road, Portersville, each year. The park is open daily from sunrise to sunset, unless otherwise posted. Park information, launch permits, cabin information and assistance can be obtained at the park office near the entrance to the South Shore. It is open year-round, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and weekends during the summer. A secondary office at the Davis Hollow Marina on the North Shore can provide marina applications and general park information. It is open from April 15 to October 30.• <B>Jennings Environmental Education Center</B>, 2951 Prospect Road Slippery Rock, is the home of the only protected relict prairie in Pennsylvania. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. The grounds are open from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week, for hiking and other nature-related activities.<i>SOURCE: www.dcnr.state.pa.us.</i><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>

The following trails run through Butler County:<B>• The Butler-Freeport Community Trail</B> connects the city of Butler with the borough of Freeport.The rail-trail preserves the route of the county's first railroad and offers a level, natural crushed limestone surface with a gradual uphill grade as it travels north or a downhill grade as it travels south. Visitors may use the trail for walking, jogging, hiking, bicycling, geocaching and even fishing in Buffalo Creek.<B>• The North Country Trail </B>passes through Butler County near Moraine State Park. The entire trail stretches more than 4,600 miles through seven states from eastern New York to western North Dakota.<i>SOURCE: www.butlerfreeporttrail.org, www.northcountrytrail.org.</i>

BEST BUDS — Beth Gillan is among Shade Tree Commission volunteers who planted shrubs April 9 at the southern end of the Wayne Street viaduct. The group planted a dozen sycamore trees and more than 300 azalea, itea, clethra and forsythia bushes on the hillside last year, with greenery donated by Westinghouse Electric's N-Vision A Greener Future program, which has pledged to plant 3,000 trees in the county.

LOOKING AHEAD— This red-winged blackbird had cause to welcome spring last week in Moraine State Park. Information on other local park amenities can be found below.