Hemlocks to Hellbenders

Wouldn’t it be nice to just get away from the crowds? To visit a park that’s not crammed with people, with their music, and their yapping dogs and all their other stuff. To experience some damn peace and quiet. Since the pandemic, outdoor spaces have become incredibly popular. Cabins and campsites are booked months in advance. Beaches are crowded with families in the summer. And trails are seeing more visitors than ever. So where can we go to get away from it? The answer is state forest...

Pennsylvania is home to lot of interesting and unique habitats. We have old growth forests, meadows, grasslands, lowlands, highlands, rivers, lakes, creeks, mountains, hills and glaciated plateaus. And it’s not difficult to find these habitats, as they’re spread across the Commonwealth. One habitat, however, is not so easy to find. One is home to unique plants, animals and conditions that cannot be found with a short drive. And that habitat is a bog. Developed over thousands of ye...

Here’s a trivia question for you. What is the largest edible fruit tree native to North America? It’s not the persimmon. Or the wild apple. And it’s not the cherry tree. It’s a little-known, misunderstood tree that’s fruit was consumed by Native Americans, European settlers and colonists for hundreds of years before all-but-disappearing from American consciousness. It’s the pawpaw tree which produces the pawpaw fruit. The greenish-yellow, kidney-shaped fruits ripen in late summer ...

In 1608, English explorer and soldier of fortune John Smith left Jamestown, Virginia, on a mission to chart the upper Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries - including the Susquehanna River. He became the first European to find out that the Susquehanna is non-navigable. That’s because of the many, many obstacles in the mighty Susquehanna. There are countless natural barriers such as rapids and waterfalls. Also, the Susquehanna is famously a mile wide and a foot deep. These are just some of...

There’s something about a trail map that just makes me excited for an adventure. The contour lines, the roads, the trails, the bodies of water, the towns. Trail maps – when made well – keep you safely on the trail. Maps have always been incredibly important - whether you were crossing oceans or just crossing town. But, as technology improved, maps became used less and less. Now, most people rely on their phones to get from place to place. And that works most of the time. But what ...