Jennings Environmental Education Center’s big day
Although an annual July event at Jennings Environmental Education Center usually brings about 1,000 people to the state park, it isn’t that noticeable, because attendees are spread out over the several hundred acres that comprise the park.
And every corner of Jennings is highlighted at the park’s annual Celebrate the Bloom event.
“The tours are at different times, the music area, the center, it never really feels overly crowded,” Miranda Crotsley, program coordinator at Jennings, said. “It's a low-key festival for folks to attend.”
Jennings hosted its first Celebrate the Bloom in 2013, Crotsley said, and it has taken place each July since, save for 2020 and 2021, as a way for the park to showcase its unique features. Crotsley said as the only managed prairie ecosystem in Pennsylvania, Jennings features a variety of unique animals, plants and recreation opportunities not found in other state parks nearby.
The 20-acre prairie is the star of the show and Crotsley said experts in particular fields help further educate people about what can be found throughout the park.
And the park gets new speakers each year. Some are returning this year, like Ryan Miller, a zoologist with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s Natural Heritage Program; and Wil Taylor, director of Jennings, who will explain how fire, grazing and other strategies improve habitat at the park. Other speakers are coming to Celebrate the Bloom for the first time, like Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Ainsley Seago, curator of Invertebrate Zoology and Kevin Keegan, collection manager in the Section of Invertebrate Zoology.
Crotsley said even people who have been to the event several times will find something new to learn this year.
“We often focus on similar topics but we have new folks that come in and lead those every year,” Crotsley said. “We try to involve different experts every year to provide different perspectives, provide that expertise and talk to people.”
The park staff will also highlight the Massasauga Rattlesnake and the Blazing Star — an animal and a plant species, respectively, found at the park — and the goats that munch on the brush at the park to keep it from becoming overgrown. The Foltz School House, a 19th century one-room schoolhouse on Jennings’ land, will also be open for tours.
Crotsley said Celebrate the Bloom is a great way to get acquainted with Jennings Environmental Education Center.
“There are a lot of folks who don't know about us,” Crotsley said. “We wanted to draw folks in and highlight this unique resource … It's the only managed prairie in Pennsylvania.”
Celebrate the Bloom is a free event that takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at Jennings. Crotsley said there is some parking at Jennings, but there will be a shuttle running throughout the day between the Old Stone House, 2865 William Flynn Highway, and Jennings.
For more information, including a schedule of events for the day, visit Celebrate the Bloom’s website at celebratethebloom.com.
