Archive for May, 2009
Another Duck Tale
Momma Duck waits—and squawks—while the Physical Plant staff rescue her 11 ducklings on the east end of campus. Click to see bigger version.
It’s that time of year.
From Deborah Blythe in Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant comes this story and photo from an incident on campus the other day, out near the “home management houses” along College Avenue:
Momma Duck and her 11 ducklings were walking along and came to a storm drain in front of Benedict House. Momma Duck walked across the grate and all 11 of her babies fell into the storm drain. Momma yelled for help and called and flapped. Some of our OPP employees came to the rescue immediately. The drain was pulled up and a brave employee crawled down into the drain and, along with lots of helpful employees, rescued the ducklings and returned them to their mommy duck.
My question is, What was the mother duck thinking, leading her kids across a storm-drain grate? But I’m glad the story had a happy ending.
Tina Hay, editor
Lake Perez is Now ‘Pond Perez’
Under ordinary circumstances, almost all of this grass would actually be under water.
In my two visits to Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center this past week, I heard people speak half-jokingly of “Pond Perez.” It turns out that the former Stone Valley Lake, renamed Lake Perez some years back, had to be drawn down in the spring of last year because of problems with the dam. A year later, the needed repairs have yet to be made, and so Lake Perez is little more than a pond these days.
I got the sense that the Shaver’s Creek staff are worried about how much longer the lake will be allowed to remain in its current state. Already, invasive plants like Japanese stilt grass are starting to take hold on the dry lake bed, crowding out other, native plants and making the habitat less hospitable to certain birds and other wildlife. There are extremely aggressive trees, like Norway Maple and Tree of Heaven, that can move in quickly and, once established, be very hard to get rid of. People at Penn State, in the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and elsewhere work hard to manage invasive species, and, as one person at Shaver’s Creek put it, “this doesn’t help.”
And, of course, those who use the lake for canoeing and fishing are out of luck for a second straight summer—if not longer. There’s talk that it might be five years before the dam is repaired, and a lot of havoc can get wreaked on the ecosystem in that amount of time.
I checked with someone in Penn State’s Office of Physical Physical Plant to get the official word. He said that the University is developing plans for how best to fix the dam and looking for funding to do the repairs, which could be extremely expensive. There is no official timetable for the job yet.
Tina Hay, editor
Two Steps Back
Hmmm…. This health blog from the LA Times mentions a study that just might explain why the Lion Ambassadors walk backwards.
—Chas Brua, contributing editor
Wildflowers at Shaver’s Creek
I hadn’t been out to Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center in three or four years, and suddenly I’ve been there twice in one week. Last Wednesday morning I went on the last Migration Morning Bird Walk of the season, and yesterday I went back out with a couple of friends for a wildflower walk led by Shaver’s Creek program director Eric Burkhart ’02g.
Eric Burkhart with a stalk of the very invasive garlic mustard plant.
Eric has a master’s in horticulture from Penn State and knows not only the scientific stuff about various plants, but the medicinal roles, the folklore, the whole bit. I learned a ton of stuff from him in just one hour of strolling through the woods—stuff I’ll probably forget in a week, but oh well.
In the photo at left, Eric is holding a stalk of an extremely invasive plant called garlic mustard. If you live in Pennsylvania, there’s a good chance you’ve got this in your backyard right now—and, if so, you might want to go out and pull it all up soon, before it goes to seed. It’s a non-native plant that out-competes many other plants and will pretty much take over Pennsylvania’s forests if given the chance. A single garlic mustard plant, according to Eric, can produce 10,000 to 15,000 seeds. Yowza.
Purple trillium, also called "stinking Benjamin."
The purple flower he’s showing in this second photo is purple trillium, also called “stinking Benjamin” (I have no idea why). It’s one that the Shaver’s Creek folks have actually planted in the woods, in hopes that it will take hold. Eric has a contact in the Johnstown area, where there’s a lot of strip mining; the friend tries to save plants like this one from the bulldozers and get them to Eric. Interestingly, trillium is really hard to grow from seed—it takes seven years—so you’re not likely to find it in a greenhouse. It’s just too much work.
Wild geranium, or wood geranium. You can buy this at garden stores.
In the same area as the purple trillium, Eric showed us—and told us the stories behind—a bunch of other wild plants, including true solomon seal, black cohosh, blue cohosh, and Pennsylvania cress, or winter cress. Then we’d amble on for about 10 yards, and stop, and Eric would show us five or six more plants: Canada mayflower, may apple, false sarsparilla, jack-in-the-pulpit, partridgeberry. Here’s a photo of a wild geranium, also called wood geranium or crane’s bill. Lots of people buy this at greenhouses to plant in their yards.
I learned that there’s a plant that looks like poison ivy but isn’t—it’s box elder, and you can tell the two plants apart by the fact that poison ivy has alternate leaves and box elder has opposite leaves. I learned that “cohosh” is an Algonquin name meaning “women’s medicine.” I got to sniff onion grass (nice) and skunk cabbage (not so nice).
At some point I’d like to learn more about Eric’s work—he’s leading a project to encourage Pennsylvania farmers and property owners to grow ginseng commercially. He might make for a good story for The Penn Stater sometime. In the meantime you can read more about that aspect of his work in stories from Research/Penn State and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Tina Hay, editor
Happy in Bhutan
In our May/June issue, we shared a few photos from Lisa DeSimone ’89 and Marlene Petter ’82 about life in Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan country whose prime minister happens to be a Penn State grad. Bhutan was in the news again the other day—a New York Times story about the country’s attempts to measure the results of its doctrine of Gross National Happiness.
It’s an interesting story about a beautiful and unique nation, and there’s also a link to a video in which Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley ’76g explains his goals in promoting Gross National Happiness.
—Chas Brua, contributing editor
Living History at the University House
Working in the “old” part of the Hintz Family Alumni Center — University House, home to Penn State presidents until 1970 — it’s not not unusual for those of us on The Penn Stater staff to see curious alumni wandering through our halls. We assumed that was the case today when a couple came up the stairs near our offices on the second floor. I happened to be standing at the printer when they came up and, since they seemed unsure of where they were going, I asked if they were looking for anyone in particular.
“Not really,” the gentleman said. “I used to live here.”
We just got an unexpected visit from the grandson of former University President Ralph Dorn Hetzel
The man was Roger Williams — it’s only a coincidence that he has the same name as our boss, Alumni Association Executive Director Roger L. Williams ’73, ’75g, ’88g — who with his wife, Kathy, had come to see the house he lived in as a young child. Roger’s grandfather was Ralph Dorn Hetzel, the University president from 1927-47 and namesake of the Hetzel Union Building. As a child, Roger lived for a few years in the University House with his mother, Harriet Hetzel Williams ’38, while his grandfather ran the University during the Great Depression and World War II.
The Williamses now live in upstate New York but returned to town for a memorial service for Roger’s mother, who died a few months ago. Among the family they’ll see this weekend is Roger’s cousin, Ralph Dorn Hetzel III ’66, an associate professor in the College of Communications. Roger said it’s been years since he visited the building (his family moved out when he was six), but a trip up to the third floor rekindled his memory. That’s where the kids’ rooms were, he said. He still remembers sliding down the banister to the second-floor landing.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Dr. Jay Parkinson Runs With Fast Company
You might remember the feature in our March/April issue on Jay Parkinson ’02 Hershey, the innovative Brooklyn doctor who is taking a high-tech, consumer-friendly approach to revolutionizing health care. We weren’t the first to notice what Dr. Jay was doing, and it looks like we won’t be the last: Parkinson is featured prominently in the new issue of Fast Company, which looks at how advances in both technology and philosophy are changing the way people get (and stay) healthy.
The feature is written by occasional Penn Stater contributor Chuck Salter, who also blogs about the “Facebook-like medical platform” that Parkinson and his partners at Hello Health and Myca (click here to see video of Parkinson and colleagues talking about the inspiration behind their work) are using to handle records and appointments and communicate with their patients. It all sounds like very promising stuff.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
More Photos of Ducklings
I’ll try not to subject you to duckling photos all summer long. But the little guys are pretty cute right now. Those of us on the magazine staff are lucky to have offices in the part of the alumni center that once was the president’s house, so the pond is right below our windows. I have my window cracked open right now and can hear the ducks squabbling out there as we speak.
Anyway, here are three more photos I took yesterday at the pond. Click on any of them to see them bigger in a new window.
By the way, just a reminder: If you want to get our blog delivered to you as an e-mail each morning, rather than having to come find it on the Web, you can subscribe by clicking on the “subscribe” link in the upper-right part of the page.
Tina Hay, editor
A Penn Stater on “A Prairie Home Companion”
A Facebook friend of mine, Justin Catanoso ’82, is executive editor of the Business Journal in Greensboro, N.C., and an occasional freelance writer for The Penn Stater.
This morning on his Facebook page, Justin mentioned that his wife—also a Penn Stater—will be on A Prairie Home Companion tomorrow night. In the folk music world, that’s big! Laurelyn Dossett ’84 is one-half of the rootsy old-time duo Polecat Creek. (She’s the one on the far left in the photo here.) They’ll join host Garrison Keillor in a live broadcast from the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, N.C.
Check your local listings….
Tina Hay, editor
An Udderly Revealing Look at the Origins of Your Favorite Ice Cream
The latest video posted on Penn State’s official YouTube channel offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Creamery ice cream is produced. I’m something of a Berkey Creamery regular, taking my four-year-old up for a heaping scoop a couple of times a month even in the dead of winter, and I’ve always used the unofficial “four days from cow to cone” line when singing the cold stuff’s praises to friends or relatives. From now on, maybe I’ll just send them this link.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
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