Pennsylvania Game News - May 2011 - 54

MARIA WHEELER discusses her eastern golden eagle display.

of the WRCF’s Keystone wild notes from Volume 1, Number 1, published in the summer of 1985, until the Fall/Winter issue of 2007. Since then this little publication, crammed full of information about the many funded projects, such as the otter reintroduction, fisher reintroduction, study of freshwater mussels, the breeding bird atlas, etc., has been published online. The latest edition features pieces about the energy challenges ahead and how they will affect Pennsylvania’s natural world. Today, the WRCF has been renamed the Wild Resource Conservation Program and is administered by the DCNR. It is financed not only by state income tax refunds, but also by Growing Greener grants and public contributions. Although the program continues the work of studying and conserving our rare species and habitats, there’s now “a special emphasis on helping our species and natural systems survive global climate change,” according to its website. “We are Pennsylvania’s biodiversity conservation program,” and it works closely with the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to conserve Pennsylvania’s nongame animals, wild plants and their habitats. The needs are great, but the funding is dwindling even as Pennsylvania’s natural world faces more problems than it did when the WRCF was started. The weather had worsened and the festival’s afternoon bird field trip to Gull Point was cancelled. But over a thousand people, mostly families with children, visited the many exhibitors set up in the 65,000-square foot, state-of-the-art, green-designed Tom Ridge Environmental Center (TREC). In addition to permanent exhibitions that feature Presque Isle’s history, ecosystems, wildlife, plants and bird migrations, TREC has five classrooms and eight laboratories for research and educational programs. It also houses the Regional Science Consortium, a
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Bruce Bonta

collaborative, non-profit organization that focuses on and coordinates research and educational projects for Lake Erie and the upper Ohio basin, such as migratory bird night flights, invasive plants and animals, and local bat populations. The Regional Science Consortium, along with Gannon University, Presque Isle State Park and TREC were partners with the WRCP in presenting the Wild Resource Festival. The exhibitors came from a range of state government, nongovernmental organizations and museums. We were struck particularly by the number of enthusiastic volunteers displaying examples of pressed specimens they had photocopied and mounted of some of the rare plants and invasives from the TREC Natural History Museum. “We are the invasive capitol of Pennsylvania,” one volunteer said. Another volunteer, Bob Harris, a retired engineer who looks much younger than his 78 years, took us back to the laboratory area to show us the social wasp display he had designed and constructed, as well as other examples of his work. He also gave us a tour of the Aquatics Lab. Clearly, he and the other volunteers we spoke with are proud of TREC and devote many hours to it. As usual, the most popular exhibitor was Chris Urban of the Fish and Boat Commission who had live rattlesnakes and turtles, including the endangered bog turtle, on display. The crowd was so tightly packed that I could barely get a glimpse of the creatures.
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Pennsylvania Game News - May 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - May 2011