Hemlocks to Hellbenders

There’s something about a good ghost story that stays with you. Maybe you heard your first one around a campfire, with the flames popping and crackling while someone swore they knew somebody who knew somebody who actually saw the ghost. Maybe it was a story your grandparents told you. Or something an older kid whispered on the school bus. Maybe you grew up hearing about a haunted house down the road, a strange light in the woods, a creature that lived in a nearby lake, or some mysterious pers...

Wouldn’t it be nice to just get away from the crowds? To visit a park that’s not crammed with people, with their music, and their yapping dogs and all their other stuff. To experience some damn peace and quiet. Since the pandemic, outdoor spaces have become incredibly popular. Cabins and campsites are booked months in advance. Beaches are crowded with families in the summer. And trails are seeing more visitors than ever. So where can we go to get away from it? The answer is state forest...

Pennsylvania is home to lot of interesting and unique habitats. We have old growth forests, meadows, grasslands, lowlands, highlands, rivers, lakes, creeks, mountains, hills and glaciated plateaus. And it’s not difficult to find these habitats, as they’re spread across the Commonwealth. One habitat, however, is not so easy to find. One is home to unique plants, animals and conditions that cannot be found with a short drive. And that habitat is a bog. Developed over thousands of ye...

Here’s a trivia question for you. What is the largest edible fruit tree native to North America? It’s not the persimmon. Or the wild apple. And it’s not the cherry tree. It’s a little-known, misunderstood tree that’s fruit was consumed by Native Americans, European settlers and colonists for hundreds of years before all-but-disappearing from American consciousness. It’s the pawpaw tree which produces the pawpaw fruit. The greenish-yellow, kidney-shaped fruits ripen in late summer ...

In 1608, English explorer and soldier of fortune John Smith left Jamestown, Virginia, on a mission to chart the upper Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries - including the Susquehanna River. He became the first European to find out that the Susquehanna is non-navigable. That’s because of the many, many obstacles in the mighty Susquehanna. There are countless natural barriers such as rapids and waterfalls. Also, the Susquehanna is famously a mile wide and a foot deep. These are just some of...