Volunteers spruce up environmental center
BRADY TWP — Members of a volunteer group supporting the area's state parks spent some time over the weekend at Jennings Environmental Education Center planting blazing stars, the park's signature purple flowering plant, where they can be seen by people, especially those who might have a difficult time seeing them elsewhere.
The Moraine, McConnells Mill and Jennings Commission (3MJC) planted blazing stars and many other native plants at the Prairie Gateway Gardens for people with disabilities who might not be able to walk to the prairie to see the plants growing in their natural environment.
“It's really hard to get out there in a wheelchair or a walker,” said Nancy Nalepa of Petrolia, who co-chairs 3MJC's Prairie Gateway Committee.About eight 3MJC members spent Saturday morning planting native species in eight gardens around the gateway.The plants include black-eyed Susans, wood poppy, leeks, blue bells, bloodroot, iris, little blue stem grass, mountain mint, purple aster, trillium, beebalm, purple violet, Jack-in-the-pulpits and many others, including the blazing star.Debbie Sale of North Versailles, co-chairwoman of 3MJC's Prairie Gateway Committee and a retired park programming employee, said it was the purple flower of the blazing star that caught the eye of botanist Otto Emery Jennings, for whom the park was named, in 1905 during a horseback ride with his wife.Jennings knew the plants grew in prairies and thought they were out of place in woodlands of Western Pennsylvania.“He knew blazing stars didn't belong in Pennsylvania,” Sale said.
Later research revealed that glacial activity a million years ago created a warm, dry climate that allowed prairies to flourish from the Midwest to Pennsylvania. The climate gradually became cooler and wetter, allowing forests to displace most of the prairie land in the state.After Jennings' discovery, the Butler Garden Club donated money that led to the purchase the property by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which eventually turned the land over to the state.Bloodroot is another favorite among 3MJC members because Native Americans used the orange substance from its roots for face painting, Nalepa said.The park conducts an annual controlled burn to kill off invasive, non-native plants and trees from the thin layer of topsoil in the prairie and allow native species to grow.Sale said the burning also warms the ground, stimulating growth of native plants.Burning is more effective at removing shingle oak and aspen trees, whose roots can crowd out native plants, than cutting, which stimulates their growth, she said.
