Pennsylvania Game News - December 2021 - 63

Before we moved here, we lived on
a 100-acre farm in central Maine for
five years. When friends learned we
were moving to Pennsylvania, their
faces fell.
" Oh, that's too bad, " they said.
" What do you know about the state? "
I asked.
" It's nothing but coal mines and big
cities, " they replied.
Remembering my happy days exploring
the woods and streams near Pottstown
with my dad whenever we visited
my grandparents, as well as my four
years at Bucknell University, I set my
friends straight about the natural beauty
of our Commonwealth. And I told our
sons that we were moving to a bug-free
paradise.
I read a lot of nature books and magazines
in those days that extolled New
England, New York state, and the southern
Appalachians, but there was never a
mention of Pennsylvania.
After a good deal of research, the only
book we could find about Pennsylvania's
natural world was Ned Smith's Gone for
the Day, published by the Game Commission.
It was a compilation of the columns
Smith wrote for Game News from
January 1966 through December 1969.
It became our natural history reference
book all the while our sons were growing
up in the 1970s and 1980s.
As Ned Smith wrote in his preface for
his book, " I hoped it (his column) would
prove that the natural world at one's
doorstep can be as exciting as Yellowstone
National Park or the Everglades.
And most of all, I hoped it would motivate
readers everywhere to pull on a pair
of old shoes and go see for themselves
the things that make a naturalist's life so
endlessly fascinating. "
I am no artist as was Ned, but I startDECEMBER
2021
ed writing for the same reasons. That is
why I was thrilled to write a column for
Game News that was first ably illustrated
by George LaVanish and then by Gerald
Putt.
I know my column reached a wide
and varied audience of folks who also
value the natural world of Pennsylvania,
and I treasure the many letters, emails,
and comments I received from readers
over the years.
My interest in the natural world will
continue and so will my nature journals.
I can still walk my trails, but I've slowed
down.
While my health is good, Bruce's
declined. And sadly, he passed away on
Sept. 27. We were married 59 years and
he was always my best friend and beloved
husband.
Eventually, our sons will inherit this
mountain, and they and our two granddaughters
hope to spend time here
throughout their lives. A few may live
permanently on this land; others may retire
here.
But the easement we put in place with
the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
will keep our mountaintop property as
a refuge for the plants and creatures that
live on this westernmost ridge of central
Pennsylvania's Ridge and Valley Province.
Rachel
Carson, Pennsylvania's most
eminent nature writer and scientist, once
said in a speech, " There is one quality
that characterizes all of us who deal with
the sciences of the earth and its life - we
are never bored. We can't be. There is always
something new to be investigated.
Every mystery solved brings us to the
threshold of a greater one. "
I hope there will be still more of nature's
mysteries in our lives and in yours.
Thanks for reading.
63
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