National Volunteer Week - Meet Mark Bowers

Mark Bowers is a geologist with a civil engineering consulting firm in the Pittsburgh area. A volunteer for the Natural Heritage Program at WPC since 1984, he is cited as a data contributor in an incredible 43 rare species records in the heritage database. His records include finds of purple bluets, mountain bugbane, snow trillium, blue monkshood, white monkshood, harbinger-of-spring, white trout-lily, mountain pepper-bush, umbrella magnolia, Carolina tassel-rue, rock skullcap, tall larkspur, thick-leaved meadow-rue, passion-flower, lettuce saxifrage, buffalo-nut and eastern hognose snake!

Mark also volunteers as a WPC Land Steward at Sideling Hill Creek, for Audubon's PA Breeding Bird Atlas Project and Christmas Bird Counts, for the National Amphibian Monitoring Program, and is a 20-year member of the Botanical Society of western Pennsylvania.

"Being a volunteer land steward has been rewarding. I feel that it has given me an opportunity to proactively help an organization whose mission I fully support. It also has given me an opportunity to get to know Sideling Hill Creek, a really special place where I get to meet all kinds of creatures."

Mark is pictured with one of his finds – a wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) near Sideling Hill Creek in Bedford County.

Volunteer at one of the 170 Community Gardens in 20 western Pa. counties
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