Fieldwork for Conservation in Greene County

On Saturday, April 3, 2004 the Western Pennsylvania Botanical Society assisted WPC Natural Heritage Program staff with the first county inventory fieldwork in Greene County by surveying Pumpkin Run Park in Rice's Landing Borough next to the Monongahela River. During the survey, a new site of harbinger-of-spring (Erigenia bulbosa) was discovered. In 2003, new sites for American gromwell (Lithospermum latifolium), passionflower (Passiflora lutea) and small-flowered sunflower (Helianthus microcephalus) were found at this same site. As part of this trip, the group also went to a nearby site on Rush Run where for snow trillium (Trillium nivale) was found in 2003.

Pictured today are the members of the Botanical Society crossing Pumpkin Run during the survey. Insets are (l-r) harbinger-of-spring (Erigenia bulbosa) and snow trillium (Trillium nivale).

County Natural Heritage Inventory (CNHI) projects are designed to collect and provide biodiversity information for land use and conservation planning. Nearly every county report or the project is nearing completion.

Because rare and endangered plants were documented at Pumpkin Run, this area will be designated as a significant site in the Greene County CNHI report.

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