Lackawanna State Forest (23-Dec-2015)

On a very rainy winter day, I was happy to have some help. Kelly and her dog Brutus joined me on a portion of today's clean-up. The original plan was to meet at Hickory Run State Park and work on a trail there, but we decided the Lackawanna State Forest would be a better place to go. This year Kelly has helped me with three clean-ups all in the same area. I am very grateful for the help and it takes a true friend to help with this kind of clean-up in today's conditions.

When we first started out the precipitation was light and throughout the hike it stayed between light and moderate. The path that we took was a mixture of access roads and trails and on November 3rd we had hiked and cleaned the same route.  

It did not matter that we cleaned this just last month, there always seems to be more trash. New cans and this time I took glass, the large bottle on the right was something I decided to leave alone last trip, now it has been removed.

This is a type of Clubmoss. It stood out from the other mosses and in some sections it appeared to be creeping across the trail. I can not tell you the exact species, but it is from the genus Lycopodium.

Here Kelly is emptying a discarded beer can, while Brutus works on sniffing out more trash. 

This was our pile, not all that much, but a lot in view of this same clean-up being done last month. All of us were soaked by this point and my collecting partners of the day had to get home for some holiday preparations. We said goodbye and I decided to go clean-up another section of the state forest. Kelly once again thank you and Brutus for coming along, it was much appreciated!

I had never driven to the end of the access road and had no idea where it went. With the amount of traffic I have seen here on some weekends I thought it might connect to another road. It did not and came to a dead end and at the end was trash. I parked and got to cleaning. I left the camera in the car, it too was soaked and I wanted it to dry. Luckily all I found was trash and no wildlife or anything else that was exceptionally photo worthy. I walked back the road a little way and filled my backpack twice. The above was the end product from this second hike of the day. 

I stopped at the entrance to take some photos on the way out. Snagged these items just from my car to the sign below. 

Even with the rain today was a great day out. If it was a little colder I think it would have been miserable. I am not sure where I am going to tomorrow, I will be taking out the trash somewhere.

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash

Lackawanna State Forest (29-Nov-2015)

For those of you who regularly read this blog, sorry for the delay on this post. As you will see Sunday was a beautiful hike, the problem was it ended up with Penny going to the ER right after and I went to the ER the next morning. Both injuries occurred on this little trash collecting adventure, Penny's was the priority and it is going to take her much longer to recover. Was happy to have some help on this clean-up and set out with Jeff Comiskey in a small section of the Lackawanna State Forest. The site is one I have been to several times before and there are always piles of trash. It is one of the nicest places one can hike in the area, yet others see it as their personal dumping ground. 

On the walk down to the stream there were items here and there, a little more than most hiking trails. When I went to pick up one piece about twenty feet or so off of the trail, Penny took a different route around a sapling. The leash connected to her and my arm on opposing sides bent over the sapling and somehow it flung up with a branch hitting me in the eye. I did't think anything of it and we continued on. Near the stream was a buried pile of bottles, plastic bags, plastic utensils and other items one might use camping. The trash from the walk down and this pile filled the bag. We were able to get most of the items out.

Two sizes of batteries were pulled from the buried pile. These I do keep separate and make sure they are disposed of properly. 

While I worked on collecting the items on the left which were by the stream, Jeff worked on a campsite on the right. A lot of the items looked like they had been left recently.

While we were cleaning Penny was howling at us to hurry up. She wanted to get moving, there was much more for her to see and sniff. 

Who knows how many cans are at the bottom of the stream here, pulled these three cans out of a pool on its side. Glad to have the tongs. Even though it has been warm it was a hike in November and the water is a tad chilly.

An older pile of glass bottles made the second bag rather heavy. Only removed the unbroken bottles. I will be back in the future to get rid of everything. I know groups have cleaned up this area before, but piles like this are often missed by volunteer groups. In order to really clean up a place you have to look behind every rock and in every crevice. 

I know I am repeating myself, but I just can't comprehend how anyone would go to an area this beautiful and trash the place. Do they never plan on coming back or do they just expect someone else to clean up their mess?

This was the total taken out of the area. Like I said I do need to go back to remove more. There looked to be an active encampment there, so I am sure new trash will also be there when I return. I would like to thank the Comiskey's for disposing of the trash! That was a huge help!  

The second hike of the day was to a nearby falls. It was all for the hike and I only brought my pack along even though it ended up being filled with recyclables by the end. I had never been to these falls before and they were definitely worth checking out. 

At the top of the falls was this deep pool and another small fall. 

Penny seemed to be having a good day and that all changed on the way out. We decided to take the road instead of a briar filled path on the way out and that is where Penny found some type of refuse that nearly cut off a large portion of her biggest pad on her back paw. There was a lot of blood and I am thankful the Jeff was with me and was able to help me get her back to his house and get the wound cleaned out and bandaged. The rest of the day was spent driving to and waiting at an emergency center where Penny was patched up. After finally getting her home I realized I had an issue with my eye. Early Monday morning with no sleep between my eye and watching over Penny I decided I needed to go to the ER. There I found out that the tree branch early in the day put a nice gouge in my eye. I received drops and went back home to take care of Penny. Went all summer long with no incidences like this for either of us and in one day we both got hurt. With the drops I am just about recovered, Penny had another vet visit yesterday afternoon and has another one tomorrow. She has about two weeks left to recover. If everything goes alright I will be back out and posting again either tomorrow or Thursday!

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project at: gofundme.com/takingoutthetrash

Lackawanna State Forest (3-Nov-2015)

Today, Penny and I spent hours hiking access roads and trails through the Lackawanna State Forest. This yielded one full bag of trash and one awesome wildlife find by Penny. I would like to point out that State Forest land is different from State Gamelands and State Parks. State Forests are managed by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry. So why does this matter? Gamelands, State Parks and State Forest land all have different laws, set by different governing entities. Whenever you visit any of these areas, you should be familiar with which one you are on and what the laws are.  

The first area we hiked was Pine Hill. I have only been to this site once before so there were a few places on side trails I haven't seen before. There are a lot of unique large rock formations here most with trails going up to and threw them. 

Three people that all litter together or one person that really loves Starbucks and to litter? 

This is a perfect example of an environmental education teaching aide that potentially does more harm than good. This platform gives a wonderful 360 view of the surroundings, the plaque short and sweetly explains that one side looks out on the Delaware Watershed and the other on the Susquehanna. The problem I have is that it is an attraction. More people visit this State Forest just because it is there and many are not coming to learn about or respect these lands. Most do just come for the view, others come to throw things off the top of the platform and many leave things that don't belong behind. Yes, people do come to this platform to throw things off. There was an abundance of pumpkin parts in the brush when I was pulling cans and bottles out of it. I just wish more people had an appreciation for natural surroundings, the entire world would be better if they did.

The views are spectacular. The amount of trash I pulled out of the brush is just disheartening. 

The items in the bag were from the short hike up to the top. The items out of the bag were pulled out of the brush surrounding the platform. 

I dropped off what I had collected on the hill at my car and started a new bag. Down the main road I went and it was pretty uneventful. A can here a bottle there, not all that much. In some sections I could hear Spring Peepers getting in their last calls before the winter, not much else wildlife wise was stirring. 

When I got to the first intersection I took Sassafrass Rd. I think made the turn just because I liked the name. This is a side road and there was even less trash. 

Not far down Sassafrass was a bridge with a small stream flowing under it. Like I have said in previous posts, when it comes to amphibians, if you are in the right place you can see Red-Spotted Newts, like this one. After the newt the hike down the road went back to being uneventful, until...

Penny went from walking calmly on the leash to stopped, standing strait up and she was looking at a specific point in the woods. I tried pulling her along, but she was focused. I couldn't see anything and I didn't want to go running through the brush, but she seemed sure there was something there. I said "Go get it Penny" and we were off. She pulled me in a strait line and I stopped her just short of what she was after. I should have known it was a porcupine. Penny loves tracking porcupines.  

This is probably the porcupines den and it does look to have a good protective fit at the entrance. I took the close-up of the back end in case you have never seen how quills are positioned close up. These days I think most people know porcupines do not shoot out quills. The quills are ripped out after they are imbedded in a potential predator. I have had many encounters with porcupines. Most run away, some climb trees and others walk away at a normal pace. This one just kept its position and wiggled a little bit. 

Most likely if you live in PA you have seen a deer fence like this one. I just wanted to point out that when they are on State Forest lands they may look inaccessible, but they are not intended to keep you out. The small red section in this photo is a gate and they swing up. There are some cases where the gates are locked, but generally it is for good reason, such as freshly planted seeds or trees. 

I did not find too much on the walk down the roads, but it did fill up the bag already in my car all the way so I at least collected a full bag today.

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project at: gofundme.com/takingoutthetrash

Lackawanna State Forest (3-Sept-2015)

It was a nice hike through the Lackawanna State Forest this afternoon. The main goal of the hike was not to collect trash, but just to get out and see what kind of herps we could find.

This is Kelly, a new graduate student. She came along today to see herps and insects, but by the end of the hike she was not only pointing out trash, but picking it up too! Only less than half a bag on a four hour hike and only common herp species, but it was still a nice day to be out.

Discovered this sign at the site. I think Manny Gordon would be happy that we helped to clean up the forest lands he once maintained.

Found some old cans and some new ones. I don't think I have picked up either before.

When I find glass bottles, generally they are new ones. This was a thick old Coca-Cola with a Wilkes-Barre Label on the bottom.  

American Toad. Yes, I have posted these before, same with the rest of the amphibians today. They can be found all over eastern PA.

These two photos shows the variation that can be found in amphibians. Both are Spring Peepers and both are just color variants. This species is not sexually dimorphic, so the color differences in no way mean one is a male and one is a female, both can show these same variants. The photo on the left is the most common variant and is what you will see in a field guide.

Wood Frog.

Thought this fungus was pretty cool, even with the stick in the center. 

One of the nicest surprises came at the end of the hike. Three Red Squirrels were scurrying around this tree. I could only get two in one shot, but I assure you there were three. They didn't stick around for any closer shots.

I do not think I will be able to post again until Sunday. I will be out on the Lower Lehigh again tomorrow and may take out some small amounts of trash on Saturday and Sunday. All posts at the latest will be up on Monday.