Night Hike was awesome!
Nothing but rave reviews for an awesome program planned and carried out by Spark the Wave students! If you missed it be sure to join us next year!
Calling All Volunteers!!
Saturday, October 31st, Sunday, November 1st
Saturday, November 7th & 14th
Come anytime between 10am to 3pm
We’ll be planting lots of trees and shrubs along Penn’s Woods Trail and can use all the help we can get! Bring shovels and other large digging tools if you have them. Hope to see you there!
Come out and join us for a celebration! We will officially open the Arboretum at 10:30 AM with a very brief ceremony followed by a community picnic. There will be free food (donations always accepted :), an art exhibit and sale, a silent auction, and other great organizations that will be joining us as we have fun and thank all who helped create this amazing place called the Althouse Arboretum. Take the opportunity to relax, meet with neighbors, enjoy some walks along our trails and find out what the Arboretum is all about. Parking will be at the Hillside Aquatic club on Moyer Road. Shuttle service is available.
We’re having a silent auction at the picnic to raise money for the Arboretum. We already have several beautiful gift baskets donated. If you’d like to donate an item for the auction contact Nancy. A great way to advertise your business and support for the Arboretum!
Saturday, September 26th, opens at 9am
Cost: $20 for 3 mile run $10 for Fun Run and Walk
A 5k run along Sprogel’s Run Trail. Or join other community members in a 1 or 2 mile (your choice after the half-way point!) WALK or FUN RUN. Ending at the beautiful Althouse Arboretum where we will be celebrating our GRAND OPENING with a short ceremony and community picnic!
Details, Maps and Registration info here.
Calling all nature lovers – click here to watch the elk herd in Pennsylvania.
Come out and join us for a celebration! We will officially open the Arboretum at 11:00 AM with a very brief ceremony followed by a community picnic. There will be food, art exhibits, a silent auction, and other great organizations that will be joining us as we have fun and thank all the volunteers that helped create this amazing place called the Althouse Arboretum. Take the opportunity to relax, meet with neighbors, enjoy some walks along our trails and find out what the Arboretum is all about.
We’re also having a silent auction at the picnic to raise money for the Arboretum. We already have several beautiful gift baskets donated. If you’d like to donate an item for the auction contact Nancy.
Saturday, September 26th, opens at 9:00 am
Cost: $20 for 3 mile run $10 for Fun Run and Walk
A 5k run along Sprogel’s Run Trail. Or join other community members in a 1or 2 mile (your choice after the half-way point!) WALK or FUN RUN. Ending at the beautiful Althouse Arboretum where we will be celebrating our GRAND OPENING with a short ceremony and community picnic!
Details, Maps and Registration info here.
Saturday & Sunday, August 29th & 30th, 2015,
Come any time in between 10:00 am & 3:00 pm
We’ll be doing a little of everything!
Families welcomed!
No experience necessary!
No preregistration!
Connecting trail to Sussel Park is done! Now for your walking pleasure you can enjoy not only the Arboretum but Sussel Park too all in one walk. Lovely ponds at Sussel and good exercise walking the hill.
We now have a shed!Thanks to an Eagle Scout project the shed is finished and already being put to good use by our student interns. Lots going on!
Have you seen our ID Garden across from the shed? Created by student interns the garden will give you the names and show you the native plants you may see in the Arboretum.
Plant Sale. Next to the shed you’ll find a plant sale of mostly native, locally grown plants. If you want a quantity of any one plant contact Nancy. Prices are below what you find at the garden center and 100% of the proceeds go towards funding Arboretum projects.
Mark Saturday, September 26th in your calendar now. You’ll be glad you did. It’s the Arboretum’s Grand Opening Celebration and you’ll be amazed as what we have planned!
There’s a classroom in the woods. Can you find it?
Summer Camps 2015Children grades K through 4th
June 22-26, 9am to 12pm –Nature Explorers
Learn about nature by exploring it! Campers become detectives looking for clues to reveal each day’s nature mystery and wonder.
July 13-17, 9am to 12pm – Wildlife Week
Looking closely you can find wildlife everywhere in our nature center! Campers will see, collect and identify familiar and quite strange creatures in our woods, fields and ponds.
(8am arrival available) Click on the picture for more info and registration.
Saturday, June 27th, 9 am to 1 pm
Have you been meaning to clean out the garage? Get rid of the broken tools? Copper, aluminum, brass, steel and more.
No fee, all donations appreciated
(Please drop off only during recycling hours)
June 27th & 28th, 2015,
The last Saturday and Sunday of each month,
Come any time in between 10am & 3pm
Much of what you see at the Arboretum has been done by volunteers. Join in! We’ll be doing a little of everything! Planting, weeding, moving, building, clearing, choose your favorite activity, meet your neighbors and have fun! A great family activity! No experience necessary! No preregistration required!
In Hays there will be no eaglets. Late Friday the Western Pennsylvania Audubon Society confirmed that the second of two eggs laid a month ago was no longer viable. The first broken egg was pushed out of the nest March 14.
“We’ve been watching all day — their behavior seemed unusual, kind of baffling,” said Audubon executive director Jim Bonner. “A screen shot from 10:25 a.m. looked conclusive to me. It looked like a broken, flattened egg being lifted out of the nest. I doubt that the first broken egg would look that intact after two weeks. We are unfortunately at this time saying the egg looks to be lost.”
It was a disappointing conclusion to the bald eagles’ third breeding season. The 6 1/2-year-old female laid the first egg Feb. 17 and the second Feb. 20, to the glee of thousands of eagle watchers in Pittsburgh and beyond watching streaming video from a wildlife camera mounted near the nest.
This is the second year the state Game Commission has permitted the camera system, donated by the Murrysville-based PixController security camera company, and this year managed by the local Audubon chapter.
Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2015/03/27/No-Hays-eaglets-in-2015/stories/201503270393
For birdwatchers and fans of the great outdoors, 2014 was a red letter year when a pair of nesting bald eagles along the Monongahela River in Hays successfully hatched and reared three young eagles.
The pair started with two eggs this year but lost one about a week ago when it broke. The remaining egg is expected to hatch sometime this week.
Though it is normal for eagles to hatch one or two eggs each spring, eagle sightings remain something of a novelty in the region. Bald eagle fans regularly flock to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail just west of the Glenwood Bridge to watch the pair on the hillside above Route 837.
Worldwide, millions keep tabs on the eagles, day and night, by way of a video stream on the Pittsburgh Bald Eagles website ( http://triblive.com/news/projects/pittsburgheagle)
Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmckeesport/yourmckeesportmore/7992465-74/eagles-eagle-bald#ixzz3VENJJ1Ow
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
We’ve received a challenge grant from the Greater Pottstown Foundation. If we can raise $5,000 for the Althouse Arboretum, the Greater Pottstown Foundation will match it with another $5,000 for special summer programs for at-risk and low income children at the Arboretum. The money will pay for transportation, program costs, and provide scholarships for local student interns to run the programs.
Ways to donate:
Saturday, January 10th, 2015
9am to 3pm, at Althouse Arboretum
Give your tree a second purpose and drop it off. Local students and Alliance volunteers will be there to assist you. Trees will be chipped by Upper Pottsgrove Township and donated back to the Arboretum to be used on our trails.
Monday, January 19th, 2015
6:30pm to 8:30pm
2019 Mimosa Lane, Pottstown (right off Snyder, less than a mile from the Arboretum)
Friends of the Arboretum is a new group and just getting started. This is where you actually make the Arboretum yours by brainstorming, planning and putting into action what happens in the Arboretum. Students are already busy planning and creating Zen gardens, a children’s forest and a low ropes course. What programs would you like to see at the Arboretum? What events could be held? What’s possible? Come share your ideas.
We are looking for community members to become part of the Althouse Arboretum. You can volunteer your time and talent, or if you would like, become part of a community to discuss, plan and work together to make our Arboretum a first-class outdoor destination for the community.
We’ll be meeting to discuss prospects, potentials and ideas. Come join us! (RSVP to Ken or Nancyappreciated but not necessary)
If you can’t attend the meeting, you can still email us your ideas! Your input is valuable!
Sincerely,
Ken Hamilton, Executive Director, The SAVE Alliance Foundation
Nancy Baker, Friends of the Arboretum Coordinator
The Althouse Arboretum website is https://althousearboretum.wordpress.com/
We are looking for community members to become part of the Althouse Arboretum. You can volunteer your time and talent, or if you would like, become part of a community team to discuss, plan and work together to make our land a first-class outdoor destination for the community.
We’ll be meeting to discuss prospects, potentials and opportunities. Come join us! Email Ken Hamilton or Nancy Baker with questions or for additional information.
Meeting location is 2019 Mimosa Lane, Pottstown (right off Snyder)
RSVP appreciated but not necessary
English: Monarch butterflies (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Mary Malinowski’s garden in Plains Township blooms with clusters of purple flowers of the common milkweed, planted to attract monarch butterflies.
But the last two years, the milkweed’s broad, flat leaves have been free of monarchs, their caterpillars or their eggs.
“This year, so far nothing,” she said. “But the years before, they were always here before the first of June.”
Butterfly observers and scientists are warning that the monarch, North America’s most famous butterfly, is in trouble. Overwintering populations counted in Mexico are at their lowest in 20 years, according to data collected by Mexican biologists and compiled by MonarchWatch.org, a website run by University of Kansas professor Orley “Chip” Taylor, Ph.D.
Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/monarch-butterflies-declining-1.1714975
Image via Wikipedia
Peregrine Falcons were an endangered species until 1999 when they made a sufficient enough comeback to be removed from the list. Pennsylvania still considers the birds endangered and protects them (yeah PA). The birds almost became extinct due to pesticides like DDT causing their egg shells to become too thin and they would crack during incubation. These birds of prey can be found in large cities in the United States and prefer to nest on cathedrals, skyscrapers and towers of suspension bridges.
There are live cameras at the Gulf Tower and the Cathedral of Learning nest sites.
The Cathedral of Learning is part of the University of Pittsburgh campus in the Oakland section of the city and is a 42-story classroom tower (535 feet). The Gulf Tower is located downtown Pittsburgh and has 44 stories (582 feet).
To watch the falcons click here:
http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_cl.php Cathedral of Learning
http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_gt.php Gulf Tower
Image via Wikipedia
Evidently, according to AP Writer Seth Borenstein, the recent conspiracy theories about the blackbirds in Arkansas, crabs in the Chesapeake and red tilapia in Vietnam are internet hype and to be taken with a grain of salt. These “die-offs” happen in nature all the time.
With the advent of the internet age and instant access to information, people are more aware now of what happens across the globe at any given moment of the day. This “access” to information leads some people to speculate outrageous things. According to scientist and the Federal government, these die-offs are nothing to be alarmed over.
To read the entire article click here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40961721/ns/us_news-environment/?gt1=43001
Watch a three-minute video featuring part of the Pennsylvania Elk herd near Benezette in Elk County. Around the 1 minute mark the first Alpha male appears. Later on an even bigger male comes along. Very impressive racks.
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