FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA, Pa., August 4, 2025 – Natural Lands announced today the addition of a 53-acre property to its Bear Creek Preserve in Buck Township, Luzerne County, PA. The forested land, located immediately adjacent to the now 3,986-acre nature preserve, will be managed for ecological health, species diversity, and public recreation. Bear Creek Preserve is open to the public, free of charge, from dawn to dusk every day except Mondays.

“For generations, this property has been maintained as woodlands,” said John Brislin, representing the Corgan family. “Selling the property to Natural Lands to become part of Bear Creek Preserve was an easy decision as a way to help preserve the Lehigh Valley watershed and to make this land available to people to enjoy for generations to come.”

Bear Creek Preserve, one of more than 40 nature preserves in Natural Lands’ care, is part of a vast mosaic of protected lands including state game lands, Bureau of Forestry property, and private conservation easements. As part of Bear Creek Preserve, this once-vulnerable property will never be developed.

“Bear Creek Preserve is part of a larger landscape of protected open space, including state parks and game lands, that spans more than 150,000 acres,” said Jack Stefferud, Natural Lands’ senior advisor for land protection. “Seventy percent of Pennsylvania’s forests are privately owned, which means they are vulnerable to development. We are grateful to the Corgan family for choosing to preserve their land by selling it to Natural Lands.”

More than half of the newly acquired property falls within the “Dry Land Hill Pools,” a special designation determined by the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program. The large vernal pools—which appear in spring but dry up as the weather warms—are set within an oak-dominated forest, an area usually quite dry.

The area is home to two “species of concern”: the few-seeded sedge (Carex oligosperma) and the Bog Copper butterfly (Lycaena epixante), the latter of which uses cranberry as its larval host plant. Wetlands, including ephemeral pools, serve as nature’s living water filters. Water moving downstream slows as it passes through wetlands, allowing time for it to be reabsorbed into the ground. Plants growing in the wetlands break down contaminants, filter out sediment, and store excess nutrients like carbon dioxide. Insects, plants, and animals—including people—benefit from the water cleaning services that wetlands provide, free of charge.

These boggy habitats are home to more plants, bugs, birds, frogs, fish, and invertebrates than any other habitat on Earth. More than half the plants and animals in Pennsylvania rely on wetlands for food and reproduction. Yet, in the past 200 years, more than half of all the wetlands in Pennsylvania have been lost to development.

The Allerton Foundation provided support for this project.

Natural Lands is dedicated to preserving and nurturing nature’s wonders while creating opportunities for joy and discovery in the outdoors for everyone.  As the Greater Philadelphia region’s oldest and largest land conservation organization, Natural Lands—which is member supported—has preserved more than 136,600 acres, including 40+ nature preserves and one public garden totaling more than
23,600 acres. About five million people live within five miles of land under the organization’s protection. Land for life, nature for all. natlands.org.

Please note: “Natural Lands” is the organization’s official operating name and should be used instead of its legal designation (Natural Lands Trust, Inc.).

Media Inquiries:

Kit Werner, Senior Director of Communications
610-353-5587 ext. 267
kwerner@natlands.org

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MEDIA, Pa., July 28, 2025 – Natural Lands announced today the completion of an ADA-compliant trail at its Sadsbury Woods Preserve in Coatesville, Chester County. The trail will enable greater access to the preserve for visitors with varying mobilities.

Visitors can access Sadsbury Woods Preserve’s ADA trail from the parking lot at 443 Old Wilmington Road and follow it into the woodland for about .11 miles. Trail users will be able to view the preserve’s rain garden—which filters runoff from the parking lot into a beautiful and purposeful planting of water-loving species, a large reforestation area with hundreds of native tree seedlings, and the towering woodlands that define Sadsbury Woods Preserve. At the entrance to the forest, visitors can relax on a pair of benches made from a large chestnut oak that blew down in a storm.

“Visitors can listen to the birdsong and look for a range of bird species,” said Preserve Manager Erin Smith. “The preserve is part of the largest remaining unbroken forest in Chester County. These woods provide critical habitat to songbirds, especially neotropical migrants that winter in South America and breed in our region. To survive, they need food and protection from weather and predators—all things the preserve’s forests provide.”

The trail is particularly enchanting in spring with a carpet of ephemeral wildflowers. Visitors can enjoy an ever-changing display of species: mayapple, bloodroot, spring beauty, wild geranium, hepatica, and Jack-in-the-pulpit.

“Natural Lands is committed to stewarding the open spaces under our care to ensure their conservation value and also to provide outstanding experiences in nature to our hundreds-of-thousands of visitors,” said Natural Lands President Oliver Bass. “We are eager to improve accessibility through strategic infrastructure improvements such as this trail at Sadsbury Woods.”

Information about what to expect at each of our nature preserves and at Stoneleigh: a natural garden can be found at natlands.org/accessibility.

This project—and so much more—is enabled through the support of Natural Lands’ members. To learn more, visit natlands.org/join.

Natural Lands is dedicated to preserving and nurturing nature’s wonders while creating opportunities for joy and discovery in the outdoors for everyone.  As the Greater Philadelphia region’s oldest and largest land conservation organization, Natural Lands—which is member supported—has preserved more than 136,600 acres, including 40+ nature preserves and one public garden totaling more than 23,600 acres. About five million people live within five miles of land under the organization’s protection. Land for life, nature for all. natlands.org.

Please note: “Natural Lands” is the organization’s official operating name and should be used instead of its legal designation (Natural Lands Trust, Inc.).

Media Inquiries:

Kit Werner, Senior Director of Communications
610-353-5587 ext. 267

###

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

I have a lot more to write about highlights from the last five weeks of summer camp, but want to focus here on improvements to the trails. Our 7th and 8th grade summer campers built a section of boardwalks and bridge near the kids’ play area along Pine Creek, near the wire bridge over the creek. This protects the environment and improves visitor experiences.

We’ve had about the wettest summer ever—one reason there hasn’t been much time to write blog entries. Some of the trails are still wet but we’re doing what we can to make them passable.

When trails are wet, visitors should still stick to them. Those are the principles of Leave No Trace and Tread Lightly! campaigns and a way to protect the environment here and everywhere. Our Creek Trail has gravel embedded on it so there’s traction even when wet. If you leave the trail to go around the water, not only is the ground there softer—there is no gravel there—but you may trample sensitive vegetation and make the trail needlessly wide and muddy.

That’s why boardwalks and footbridges are good for visitors and for the environment next to the trails: People can keep their feet dry and the impact on the preserve from the trails is kept to a minimum.

Campers in our 7th and 8th grade programs have been coming here for years. Our youngest campers become comfortable outdoors in just one part of the preserve—the very location where these boardwalks are being built. As they return as older campers they come to know all 712 acres of Crow’s Nest Preserve. They demonstrate this by embarking on the Crow’s Nest Challenge Hike—a camper-led hike through the entire preserve. By the time they attend the oldest camp, they go on field trips to other Natural Lands’ preserves to see how Crow’s Nest fits into this conservation network. They also give back to the preserve through service projects like building these boardwalks and bridge.

By Preserve Manager Jarrod Shull.

In May, 2025, we completed a large-scale tree planting project at our Peacedale Preserve in Landenberg, Chester County, PA. With the help of contractors, we planted 11,020 native seedlings along waterways and across 36 acres of former fields. Over time, the seedlings will mature to a diverse forest, offering habitat for wildlife and improve water quality.

The creeks that travel through Peacedale Preserve flow to Big Elk Creek, onward to Elk River, and empty into Chesapeake Bay. About 2,700 plant and animal species live in the Chesapeake Bay Estuary, and fishermen harvest around 500 million pounds of seafood from the Bay every year.

Natural Lands is committed to creating and maintaining a minimum 100-foot buffer along all waterways that run through our nature preserves. As they mature, the native trees we’ve planted at Peacedale will help filter out sediment and other pollutants, reduce erosion, and slow stormwater to prevent flooding.

When Europeans first explored Pennsylvania, trees covered 90 percent of the territory. Though the Native Americans who had lived in the region for thousands of years did clear some land for hunting and agriculture, famed naturalist John Bartram still found forests so thick it was “as if the sun had never shown on the ground since the creation.” But by 1850, millions of acres had been cleared for farming, timber, and firewood.

In addition to improving water quality, the tree planting project at Peacedale Preserve will re-establish forest cover and improve wildlife habitat. In particular, woodlands are essential for migratory songbirds—such as Scarlet Tanager and Wood Thrush—that rely on the dense forest for food and protection from the weather and predators.

Installing that many trees and the photodegradable tubes they need to protect them from the deer is a pretty involved project! We hired contractors to drill holes and plant the trees, but our staff had to prep everything to be ready for their arrival in late May.

The first step involved ordering the seedlings, tree tubes, and wooden stakes. The tubes arrived in the fall of last year… 18,000 of them. We stored them in the old stone barn at nearby Stroud Preserve.

 

 

When the seedlings arrived in mid-March, we stored them at Stroud Preserve’s barn, too, since there is room there and I live at the preserve and could water the trees regularly. Several preserve stewardship staffers helped unload the truck… 440 flats of 11,020 seedlings. The seedlings are a variety of native species, including red maple, silver maple, hornbeam, redbud, tuliptree, blackgum, sycamore, white oak, swamp white oak, pin oak, chestnut oak, elderberry, and flowering dogwood.

 

Just a few weeks later, the wooden stakes were delivered to Peacedale Preserve. We unloaded them with a forklift, and then drove the pallets of stakes to the three planting locations at the preserve, and covered them with tarps. We also covered the seedlings that same day, as there was frost predicted overnight.

 

Next it was time to move all those plastic tree tubes from Stroud out to Peacedale. We needed to load both the bed of the pick-up truck and a trailer to get them all out to the three planting locations.

And, finally, in mid-May we moved all those seedlings, which had really grown over the two months since they were shipped to us. We stacked the flats two or three high using boards and plywood to create levels inside the truck.

 

We marked out and flagged the property lines, rights-of-way, and the planting areas for the contractors, who arrived on May 19 with a 21-person crew. It took three days for the crew to complete the planting, tubing, and staking of all 11,020 trees and shrubs. They were planted in 12-foot rows, wide enough to allow stewardship staff to mow between them, reducing competition from other vegetation until the seedlings have matured.

Natural Lands plans addition large-scale reforestation projects at several other nature preserves under their care, including Diabase Farm Preserve (New Hope, PA), Sadsbury Woods Preserve (Parkesburg, PA), and Stroud Preserve (West Chester, PA). By the close of 2025, the organization will have planted 22,540 trees and shrubs on 75.5 acres in just one year.

Funding for this project was provided by the E. Kneale Dockstader Foundation; the Conservancy Grant Program, Commissioners of Chester County, Pennsylvania; and donors to Natural Lands’ preserve restoration fund.

Watch the before and after planting video.

 

 

 

 

 

Fireflies are amazing insects! Did you know…?

• Fireflies and lightning bugs are the same thing! It’s just a different dialect and depends on where you grew up.
• Neither a fly nor a bug, fireflies are beetles in the order Coleoptera, family Lampyridae.
• There are 2,000 species of fireflies worldwide, 125 in North America, and 15+ in Pennsylvania.
• All fireflies emit some sort of bioluminescence at some point in their life cycle (every single firefly larva glows, aka “glow-worms”).
• There is fossil evidence of their light organ from 99 million years ago.
• Fireflies are diverse eaters; they can be cannibals, carnivores, and even nectar drinkers.
• Many fireflies exist in temperate, tropical habitats. In PA, you’ll find their peak is warm, humid nights in mid-June to early July. Once the night temps hit 60 F, they are less active.
• Adult fireflies only live for a few weeks. In their final moments, they will mate and lay eggs (when you’ll see their glow).
• Folklore incorporates fireflies as a spiritual symbol. Amazonian folklore tells that firefly light came from the gods, a symbol of hope and guidance. In Japanese legend, the light of two species represents ghosts of ancient warriors, or stars that left the sky to travel Earth. In Apache mythology, fire came to the people from trickster fox, who tried to steal it from the firefly village. Some cultures believe they are bad luck. In Victorian superstition, finding a firefly in your home meant someone would die soon.
• Fireflies glow through the enzyme luciferase, which catalyzes the oxidation of a luciferin, an organic substance, present in luminescent organisms.
• Scientists have employed luciferase to detect metabolic diseases, perform cancer research, test for life on Mars, in forensics, and to detect E. Coli and Salmonella in foods.
• Fireflies glow for different reasons, including warning of toxicity as larva, mating selection, and predation.
• The light produced by fireflies is the most efficient lighting in the world. It’s a cold light, emitting zero heat and no infrared or UV frequencies.
• Some things we can do to help dwindling and threatened firefly populations: plant native species; leave the leaves; reduce light pollution; avoid pesticides and herbicides.

 

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

Cadets from the Owen J. Roberts High School Navy JROTC program came out to Crow’s Nest Preserve again this year to volunteer their time and labor. At Warwick Woods they scooped up a pile of gravel left over from its campground days and spread it—bucket by bucket—on the trail that leads to the meadow.

There’s no easy way to remove the gravel from where it isn’t wanted (the woods) and put it where it is (the trail), without a lot of hand labor. Cadets employed rakes, shovels, and buckets to scoop up the gravel and formed a brigade to get it over to the trail.

Visitors will enjoy the new trail surface leading to the meadow. Thank you, Cadets!

 

When Zane Miller was growing up, he got to know a particular eastern box turtle. Every spring for several years in a row, this turtle made her way to his mother’s flower garden to lay her eggs.

“She had a chunk out of her shell that made her quite distinct, so we knew it was the same turtle,” said Zane.

Perhaps this was where the Natural Lands preserve manager’s fascination with these reptiles began, though he’s quick to point out he’s not a turtle expert. “Really, I like all wild things,” Zane clarifies. “I love studying them to learn more about them.”

Zane has spotted quite a few box turtles as he goes about his workdays. The more he encountered, the more he began to wonder how robust their population was.

Eastern box turtles are a species of special concern in Pennsylvania. Their numbers have declined steadily throughout their range due to habitat loss and poaching by the illegal pet trade. A naturally low reproduction rate further compounds their challenges. Females may take up to a decade to begin laying eggs, which have a high natural failure rate. Both eggs and hatchlings are vulnerable to predators like skunks, racoons, and foxes. However, eastern box turtles are long lived and produce eggs well into “old age.” There are some reports of individuals living more than 100 years in the wild.

Recalling that turtle from his childhood, Zane knew he could identify distinct individuals by their shell and skin markings, which are as unique as human fingerprints. So, he set up a spreadsheet with GPS locations, photos of shell patterns, sex, and guesstimated age based on size. Zane carefully logs every box turtle he comes across during his work. And he shares his findings via the Pennsylvania Amphibian and Reptile Survey, a citizen-science effort to document the state’s herptiles.

Shell photos: Zane Miller

 

Turtles, like birds and butterflies, are an indicator species; their presence and abundance can tell us a lot about the overall health of the ecosystem.

“It’s important to study indicator species, particularly to understand how our land stewardship activities may impact them,” Zane explained. “Over time, my documentation can help me get a fuller picture of this species. For example, I have noted individuals that have traveled more than a quarter of a mile and several hundred feet of elevation change. That’s quite something considering their average walking pace is about two tenths of a mile per hour.”

Box turtles generally stick to a relatively small home range but do travel farther during spring mating and nesting season. Sadly, many turtles are crushed by cars when they attempt to cross roadways built across their habitats. Unlike mammals, turtles are ectothermic; they regulate their body temperatures from their surroundings. When it’s hot outside, they seek shade. When it’s cold, they find a sunny spot. Though they don’t live in water, box turtles prefer a humid environment. Zane has noticed they’re particularly active during and after a rainstorm.

“Natural Lands’ preserves are ideal turtle habitat,” Zane shared. “Few roads traverse these conserved acres and development isn’t a threat. We also leave leaves and fallen trees to decompose, which offer great shelter from the heat of summer and a place for turtles to keep warm in winter. Turtles often return to the same site each winter, when they enter a state called brumation, which is similar to hibernation. It’s yet another compelling reason for leaving dead trees to decompose. I’ve seen quite a few box turtles emerging from under dead trees where they overwintered.”

In late summer, after a few days of rain, a turtle appeared by Zane’s office door and stayed there. At first, he was delighted, but Zane became worried after the third day and when he noticed one of the turtle’s eyes was closed.

He transported the animal to Aark Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Chalfont, PA. The clinic staff there diagnosed the turtle with conjunctivitis, which was hampering the animal’s ability to forage. They admitted the turtle to administer antibiotics and help it put on some much-needed weight. Once it’s healthy again, they’ll release it exactly where Zane found it: at his office door.

The loss of even just one turtle to a species faced with so many challenges is significant. Fortunately for this lucky reptile, and the many others that call the preserve home, Zane Miller is keeping a watchful eye out. “It doesn’t have to just be me,” said Zane. “If we all create safe habitat in natural areas in our yards and gardens and support conservation efforts around the region, together, we can be part of the solution.”

what to do if you find a box turtle…

• on the road
  Pull over safely and put on your flashers. Pick the turtle up, holding it securely with both hands. Move the turtle out of the road in the direction it was facing. Wash your hands, as turtles often carry salmonella, chlamydia, and fungal infections.
• on a nature walk
  Don’t disturb or handle the turtle. Take a photo if you wish (and send it to photos@natlands.org if you’re at one of our preserves), but don’t post the location on social media. Take home some happy memories but NEVER take home a turtle.
• in your yard or garden
  Make your property more inviting to turtles by leaving downed trees and leaves whenever possible. If you observe a turtle digging a nest (May through July), keep pets and curious children away from that area. Eggs incubate for up to 80 days.

turtles and climate change.

Because eastern box turtles rely on their external environment to regulate body temperature, they are especially vulnerable to changes in climate. Some scientists predict they’ll experience increases in nest failures, skewed sex ratios, and disease outbreaks. Others think the species may benefit from a warming climate with higher winter survival rates and longer seasons to reproduce, particularly in the northern parts of their range.

note: It is a federal crime to take a turtle from the wild, punishable by fines of up to $5,000 and six months in prison. It is also illegal to own an eastern box turtle in Pennsylvania and the species is notoriously difficult to care for in captivity. Sadly, that doesn’t stop those in the illegal pet trade from poaching them or incidental turtle-napping by curious hikers. One recent report estimates that “hundreds and sometimes thousands of eastern box turtles are traded each year.”

 

For the second time, Natural Lands’ Hildacy Preserve hosted Nature as Healer: A Writing Workshop with instructor Naila Francis of This Hallowed Wilderness.

Despite 20 mile-per-hour wind gusts, participants sheltered beside Crum Creek for a grounding meditation, open share, and poetry reading, and then wandered silently down the trail, pausing to take time to nourish and reflect beside the flowing water and up alongside the meadow. Red-shouldered Hawks, Turkey Vultures, and myriad songbirds flew overhead, and two turtles sun-bathed on a log. Tree branches danced in the wind, and both trout lilies and spring beauties bloomed along the forest floor.

In her reflection, Naila shared, “I know the wind was fierce at times but perhaps had much to say to us.”

Of the attendees, two happened to have lost children within the last year or so and connected deeply during the event. Attendees all shared their immense gratitude for an event where they could share their grief and feel, at least for a short time, that grief shift or lift through the healing power of nature.

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

Spring is upon us and the ephemeral wildflowers are incredible right now. Crow’s Nest Preserve lags behind much of the region in the season’s progress so it is still early spring here.

Trout lily is blooming in abundance. Redbud fills the understory with clouds of pink.

Skunk cabbage foliage grows lush along the streams.

A clump of Jack-in-the-pulpit growing in a thicket.

We hope you take advantage of this protected open space to enjoy nature. At 712 acres, there is plenty of room to find peace here.

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

The beginning of March is unusually early for us to be doing prescribed fire, but the conditions have been ideal on some days (and too dry on others). Staff began last week with burning 18 acres of grasslands at Green Hills Preserve—our first time using fire there. You can see the two fields in the photo below, taken a week after the burn.

A prescribed burn is a controlled application of fire to a meadow under appropriate weather conditions and fuel and soil moisture.

This will confine the fire to predetermined areas and produce the intensity of heat and rate of spread required to accomplish our goals. The burns are conducted only if all necessary conditions are met.

Prescribed fire more closely mimics a natural process than mowing, an alternative we use when burning is not possible.

We started this week with a couple small burns at Crow’s Nest Preserve. We burned a small meadow with warm-season grasses and bottle gentians that have responded well to prescribed fire. Below, the meadow below the Chief’s Grove is freshly blackened. (The top photo shows the classic chevron shape of the prescribed fire where two flanks of fire are drawing together before going out.)