Your Chance to Have a Positive Impact on Wolf Creek Narrows

Volunteer Kate Callahan (see insert) is helping to remove purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) which is an invasive exotic (non-native) plant threatening the biodiversity of the Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area stream banks, and a number of small islands within the stream channel. Tomorrow (August 2nd) Western Pennsylvania Conservancy will be working to steward this area by removing purple loosestrife and is seeking as many Kate Callahans as we can get in this important work. If you are able to spend a couple of hours either this Saturday or next Saturday, please contact Leslie Horne at 412-586-2315.

As you know from yesterday's Destination Thursday, Wolf Creek Narrows is located in Butler County close to the town of Slippery Rock. In addition to the mixed stands of mature forest, Wolf Creek Narrows harbors a spectacular diversity and abundance of spring wildflowers. Bluebells (Mertensia virginica), spring beauty (Claytonia virginica), and trout lily (Erythronium americanum), as well as thousands of white large-flowered trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), blanket the forest floor. Later, in the summer, water-willow (Justicia americana), a low, shrubby plant with violet and white flowers grows in thick beds within the shallow, rock-bottomed stream. Turks-cap lily (Lilium superbum) adds color to the open flood plain at the southeastern corner of the property. The unusual crepis rattlesnake-root (Prenanthes crepidinea) is also found here where the periodic flooding and ice scouring maintain the open habitat required by this sensitive species.

The highly invasive nature of purple loosestrife allows it to form dense, homogeneous stands that restrict native plant species. Purple loosestrife enjoys an extended flowering season, generally from June to September, which allows it to produce vast quantities of seed. A mature plant may have as many as thirty flowering stems capable of producing an estimated two to three million seeds per year. Purple loosestrife also readily reproduces vegetatively through underground stems at a rate of about one foot per year. Once thought sterile, cultivars are in fact often fertile and able to cross freely with wild purple loosestrife. It is now illegal to propagate, sell or transport this plant in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Noxious Weed Control Law.

The Natural Area is a WPC property and, therefore, a particular concern exists for its care.

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