Bonnie Isaac presented Herbarium Happenings. Bonnie Isaac, a Pennsylvania native, is the Collection Manager of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. She has been employed by the museum since 1989. Bonnie received her Bachelors & Masters degrees in Biological Sciences with emphasis in Plant Sciences from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio and an International Diploma in Herbarium Techniques, from the Kew Royal Botanical Garden in Kew, England. Bonnie serves on the Pennsylvania Botany Symposium Committee, the Pennsylvania Vascular Plant Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, and as President of the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania. When not botanizing, Bonnie enjoys hunting, traveling, gardening and snorkeling.
Janet, Eileen and Odie
We learned what a herbarium is, what is stored there, how to take and dry a sample for the collection and how today’s technology is giving us even more insight into plant DNA . The herbarium has a weekly blog featuring specimens from their collection at:https://www.masonheberling.com/collected-on-this-day
Colleen and Ed talk to Bonnie after her presentation.St. Patrick’s Day cookies from Janet.Monica gets the meeting started on time.
Tuesday, January 1, 2019, 12:00 noon North Park, Irwin Road, Allegheny County Leader: Richard Nugent: rmnugent@live.com; (412) 487-5549 Directions: From PA 8 north of Pittsburgh, travel north about 7 miles from Etna to Wildwood Road. Turn left onto Wildwood Road and travel 3 miles to a major intersection and stoplight in the park at Babcock Blvd. Turn right onto Babcock Blvd, continuing a short distance to a parking lot on the left side of Babcock Blvd, just after the turn for Pearce Mill Road. Alternatively, travel I-79 north to Exit 73-Wexford. Turn right onto PA 910 and continue 5 miles to Babcock Blvd. Turn right onto Babcock Blvd and travel 2.7 miles to the parking lot on the right, just before Pearce Mill Road. Enjoying botany and nature on New Year’s Day is now a BSWP/Wissahickon tradition! This trip could be canceled due to unsafe driving conditions; to learn if the trip is canceled when weather conditions are uncertain, please call Richard at 412-487-5549 the day of the hike.
Wissahickon Nature Club Meeting and Holiday cookie exchange
On Thursday, December 13, Don Weiss shared the beautiful sites and stories of his time at Glacier National Park during the first week on September. It is a lovely time of year to be in the park, with many mountain views and beautiful lakes. Although the fires and smoke the park was experiencing blocked many of the dramatic views, they did add their own photographic possibilities. There was plenty of wildlife in the National Bison Range, about 2 hours South of the park. Many birds and even a few flowers.
Our traditional annual Holiday, Christmas Cookie party followed his presentation.
Member Pat Truschel made the beautiful Holiday Favors.
Holiday FavorsKathy, Donna, Ryan, Susanne
Kate
Dianne and Kim
Marlow
Tim
Pauline
Pat
Icey with a cast of a Grizzly’s paw
Tara
Cookie Table
Caleb and DonTimMarlowJudy, Norm, GlennJanet and LizMonica and Don
On Thursday, November 8, seventeen members braved the traffic caused by the Steelers v Panthers game ( Steelers won) and listened attentively as Polly Shaw presented the Making of Moraine – the Creation of a State Park. This program described the time period from 1946 when Preston and Arthur met, until 1970 when the new park was formally dedicated. Moraine State Park has been characterized as a great achievement in environmental engineering achievement so we looked at how the land use was changed from one of coal mining, oil drilling, farming, and swamp land, into today’s 16,725 acre park with a 3,225 acre lake.
Polly Shaw sets up her display table
The cover of Polly’s book about Moraine State Park and her upcoming new book about McConnells Mill State Park
Read member Dianne Machesney's article in the Sunday Post-Gazette (10/21/18) http://www.post-gazette.com/life/garden/2018/10/19/Pollinators-messy-winter-garden-butterflies-moths-bees-hoverflies-beetles-Penn-State/stories/201810190007
Nineteen members met to hear Sarada Sangameswaran present “From Black to Green: The Story of Pittsburgh Botanic Garden.” We learned how they are transforming an old coal-mining site into a beautiful botanic garden. This presentation provided a brief history of the garden and details the land reclamation project that continue to restore our natural habitats She showed pictures of the established areas and the future plans for creating a vibrant place for visitors to enjoy.
Monica started off the meeting by asking for interesting sightings.Don was our hero by eliminating a pesky wasp.Kathy listens and our speaker awaits her introduction.Our speaker, Sarada Sangameswaran
Eight members joined the hike along Beaver Creek: Carl, our leader, Dick, Mark, Loree, Bob, Dianne, Mary and Ken. It was a sunny, hot day in the upper 80’s. 63 species of flowers were noted, along with 20 species in fruit. See the complete list here:
Along Beaver CreekTurtleheadMaple Leaf Viburnum Great LobeliaPretty Boy Floyd died here!
Saturday, September 1, 2018. 1:00 PM Beaver Creek State Park, Ohio Leader: Carl Patsche , (304) 724-0139
Directions: From Pittsburgh, follow US Route 30 west to the West Virginia state line. Continue west on Route 30 through the town of East Liverpool. About 6 miles from East Liverpool, exit US Route 30 at the State Route 7, Rogers exit. Travel Route 7 north about 2 miles to the entrance to Beaver Creek State Park on the right, just past Beaver Local High School. Continue about 2 ½ miles to the parking lot on the right, just past the Park Office, where we will meet. GPS coordinates: 40.72677, -80.61200
On Thursday, September 13th, Bob and Dianne Machesney presented “Panama, December 2017.” Photos from their butterfly tour at the Canopy Tower and Lodge showed the flora, fauna, birds, butterflies of the area, along with some history and geography. Did you know that Panama means ” abundance of fish?” This was our annual wine and cheese reception.
