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Two bald eagles were spotted soaring high above the Field Station on February 19 by participants in the Great Backyard Bird Count led by Dr. Kerri Cornell Duerr, assistant professor of biology.  This event was exciting and special for that day.  Just as special is the fact that two Eagle Scout service projects have been completed at the Field Station in the past year.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission states that there were only two nesting pairs of bald eagles in the Commonwealth in the 1970s.  The populations had declined due to habitat degradation and use of pesticides.  The Game Commission began eagle recovery efforts and from 1983-1989 raised and released 88 eaglets in various parts of the state.  And the rest, as we say, is history.  Our area, from Pymatuning Lake to the Shenango River Lake and Lawrence County, has witnessed the restoration of this symbol of the United States of America due to strong endangered protection laws and private and public restoration efforts. 

The American Eagle Foundation reports that there are presently at least 10,000 nesting eagle pairs in the lower 48 states and over 40,000 in Alaska.  The bald eagle was delisted from the Threatened species in 2007.

In the Boy Scouts of America, the rank of Eagle represents the height of achievement.  Since its introduction in 1911, out of at least 110 million boys enrolled, only two million young men have attained this rank. To be an Eagle Scout is unique; the title is held for life -- "Once an Eagle, always an Eagle."  

Boy Scout Troop 733 of New Wilmington has produced its share of Eagles.  From 1927 to the present, 94 scouts have become Eagles. 

Through the efforts of Dr. Kirk Lunnen, associate professor of psychology and a member of the local Boy Scout Committee, and scoutmaster Dean Antoniazzi, class of '81, two young men have recently made their way to the Field Station to accomplish their community service projects required to attain the rank of Eagle.

In spring 2010, Luke North tackled a project that had been begging for attention: clearing a part of the Arboretum that had become overgrown with brush, selecting seedling trees of the Family Rosaceae and mustering his troop to plant the trees.  The Rosaceae, or rose family, includes the familiar flowering fruit trees - apples, pears, cherries, plums and almonds - plus others like hawthorns.  Members of the family include many cultivars that humans love and depend on.
The Arboretum, just west of the Fayette-New Wilmington Road, is a teaching collection where trees are planted on a grid by their taxonomic family.  The addition of 22 members of the Rosaceae with this Eagle project will complement the Arboretum in a significant educational way, but not necessarily as an orchard for commercial production.

Matthew Johntony, a friend of Luke's, came in on a corollary Eagle project inspired by Dr. Don Harper, a local retired biologist who volunteers at the Field Station.  Matthew was intrigued by orchard mason bees, native pollinators that were in this country long before Europeans imported honey bees. 

Mason bees, unlike honey bees, are solitary - they do not make hives or honey, do not defend their nests and rarely sting.  Females find holes in wood, lay eggs, bring in pollen for the next generation, plug up the hole with mud . . . and die.  The following spring, the first to emerge are males.  They fertilize the eggs of females . . . and die.  Those females provision their nests with pollen for the next generation, year after year. Mason bees are slightly smaller than honey bees and are shiny dark blue in color.  They are not destructive insects since they do not excavate holes in the wood. They do a tremendous job of pollinating fruit trees like ours in the Arboretum. 

This past winter with support from the local Kiwanis Club and his family, Matthew built 30 mason bee houses that will last for many years.  Each house is a block of wood with 52 drilled holes (the bees will know what the holes are for).  On March 13, Matthew and his troop placed the houses in various sections of the Arboretum and Microforest where the bees will be able to find pollen of many flowering species, not just fruit trees.  Because the mason bees are native, they are not subject to many of the diseases that plague the honey bees.

With bald eagles soaring above and Eagle scouts working feverishly on the ground, the Field Station is an enhanced niche in the world of nature.

Clarence Harms, Director
Field Station
724-946-6001
harmsc@westminster.edu

Mature bald eagle (www.weforanimals.com)

Matthew Johntony and Boy Scouts of Troop 733 placing mason bee houses in the arboretum

Luke North clearing an overgrown section of the arboretum for fruit trees