Event explores prairie in bloom
BRADY TWP — On Saturday, several hundred people spent their time at the only prairie in the state, learning about what make it unique and raising awareness about preserving the open space.
Celebrate the Bloom is in its fourth year at the Jennings Environmental Education Center, teaching people about the prairie, a habitat that is not typically found in this area. It included live music, vendors, nature walks and demonstrations.
The prairie is the only one in the state and possibly the only one in the Northeast United States, according to Natalie Price, president of the Moraine, McConnells Mill and Jennings Commission.
The prairie ecosystem is found mainly in the Midwest, where the climate is hotter and drier, said Miranda Crotsley, program coordinator at Jennings. In Pennsylvania, the moist and cooler climate favors forest ecosystems, meaning the Jennings' staff and volunteers have to work to maintain the grassland.
“Climate is really what determines what plants grow in a place for the most part. We really have a climate that allows forests to grow,” Crotsley said.
Between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago, there was a climate shift toward a hotter and drier environment, allowing prairie lands to extend east from the Midwest to Pennsylvania, Crotsley said. At that time, more land in Pennsylvania was prairie.
But about 4,000 years ago, the climate shifted again, toward the moist and cool climate that allowed forests to flourish in the state, she said.
While climate plays a major role in what type of plants grow, the poor soil at the Jennings' prairie allows the space to remain a grassy space. There is minimal topsoil at Jennings with about 20 feet of clay under that, Crotsley said.
“Because of that (clay), it's really difficult for forest plants or trees to get established in an area like that,” she said. “It's much more like a forest climate, so it's really the soil that keeps the prairie.”
That prairie is something a number of unique species rely on, including the eastern massasauga rattlesnake. The snake can be found in only four places in the state, according to Charles Bier, the senior director of conservation science at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
While venomous, the snake is incredibly shy, Bier said. They're not aggressive unless they feel cornered or threatened.
Because the snake is considered endangered, it is illegal to kill or capture them, Bier said.
Essentially, the massasauga is a species that relies on the prairie to continue its existence, Crotsley said.
“There are a lot of endangered species that depend on that area to continue existing,” she said.
Aside from the massasauga, the prairie is home to the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly, the American Columbo plant, the saddle club-tailed dragonfly and a species of blue willow that are endangered or threatened, Crotsley said.To maintain the prairie for these animals and in general, the Jennings staff and volunteers have to make sure that the more “woody” plants and shrubs are minimized or pulled up, Bier said.“Our state is the state of forests,” Bier said. “So this (prairie) then is unusual. This area wants to be a forest. If the land went ahead as it wanted, most of the state would be a forest.”One method to maintain the prairie is to burn sections, allowing new grass to grow and preventing trees from growing, said Wil Taylor, the center manager at Jennings.Even some of the animals in the prairie benefit from the fire.However, the massasauga is expected to be a federally protected species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Taylor said, meaning the park has to go through a new permitting process to burn the prairie.Currently, Jennings can still burn for an unknown amount of time, grandfathered in by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Taylor said. In the meantime, the park staff will start working on the federal permission process to use controlled burns to manage the prairie.Crotsley hoped the Saturday event, which drew about 500 people, taught them to work to preserving nature, a sacred space that has been decreasing worldwide.“Grasslands and prairies are some of the most endangered ecosystems in the world because they're so easy to develop,” she said.“We've seen over the last century a decline in grasslands worldwide. We're really trying to preserve that ecosystem as a whole.”
