Pennsylvania Legacies #234: Celebrating Earth Month

Josh Raulerson (00:01):

It is Friday, April 25th, 2025. I’m Josh Raulerson, and this is Pennsylvania Legacies, the podcast from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. Well, April’s a busy month for the outdoors and the environment. Flowers are blooming, birds are migrating, and the warmer weather is drawing people out to enjoy Pennsylvania’s state parks, forests and waterways with Earth Day on this past Tuesday, Arbor Day today, and scores of related events across the Commonwealth. It’s been a busy few weeks celebrating and restoring Pennsylvania’s environment. PEC has been engaged in this kind of restoration and advocacy work for 55 years now, touching everything from reforestation and wildlife habitat to trails in green space that enrich the lives of humans. And we’re celebrating Earth Month with a look back at some of the topics we’ve covered on the podcast, including PEC initiatives, as well as work by our partners and allies in the impact they have made.

Josh Raulerson (00:56):

We begin with one of the many Earth Day adjacent observances happening right now, international Dark sky week, part of a movement to raise awareness about light pollution and the importance of preserving dark skies. It’s a timely topic with the reintroduction this month of legislation and encouraging responsible outdoor lighting practices that benefit animals, plants, and people. We looked at the bill last year when it was first introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in conversation with three dark sky advocates from Western PA. They are astronomer and Carnegie Mellon University Professor Diane Turnshek John Rice of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. And Nick Cleatus, founder and director of Bird Lab.

Diane Turnshek (01:41):

So light pollution is a necessary excess, obtrusive light, artificial light at night. It’s something that’s only happened in the last a hundred years. Our, our whole civilization before then didn’t have to deal with this. And everybody before a hundred years ago could just walk outside and look up and see the Milky Way.

Nick Liadis (02:03):

A lot of migratory songbirds, especially neotropical migrants, these are birds that are wintering in places like Costa Rica, Peru in the tropics, and they come up into North America for the breeding season. They’re actually migrating at night, which is just really remarkable that these tiny little songbirds that weigh as much as a couple of coins, they’re traversing continents, they’re crossing oceans, and they’re doing this primarily at night. And there’s a number of reasons why they’re doing that. They’re using the stars to help navigate and to help orient. They’re taking advantage of calmer nocturnal atmospheres just a little bit calmer at night. Usually there are less predators out at night, but the issue with light pollution and how that affects migration is that if those birds are migrating and they’re needing the stars to help orient and navigate, and all of a sudden they come into close proximity to a city.

Nick Liadis (03:02):

Diane mentioned that the glow from Las Vegas could be several hundred miles, right? Like so these birds are migrating. They’re going to encounter that glow, which essentially, essentially erases the night sky. It removes the stars. And so that light pollution disrupts their ability to, to orient and navigate. And so that’s one of the most profound effects that light pollution at that kind of macro scale has on bird migration. Just like in the same way that mods are attracted to a flame. The light not only disrupts migration for birds, but the light also attracts them. And then because that light is coming from buildings within a city, the birds come into closer proximity to those buildings, which sets them up for the potential for a collision event.

Jon Rice (03:49):

And so, naturally what would occur is while these birds are migrating overnight, they obviously will get to see the sunrise earlier when they’re flying at several thousands feet. And so they start to see the sunrise, and that’s a cue for them to, to start their descent. They have specific flight calls that they make. They’re often flying in these large mixed flocks of species. And so they start making these specific flight calls that say, alright, we’re going to descend. Now. They start picking out a place to land. And so on the surface, we usually see birds start starting to come down from migration somewhere around an hour, half an hour before we perceive sunrise. So that’s sort of the normal progression. They would land early in the morning. That’s why we have the dawn chorus, which is bird songs first thing in the morning. That is not them waking up, that is them voraciously searching for food because they’ve just spent the night flying potentially thousands of kilometers.

Jon Rice (04:42):

And so they’re, they’re moving around. They’re trying to refuel first thing in the morning. When you introduce light pollution, like Nick said, they’re, they’re confused. So they’re often drawn far off course. They are disoriented and attracted to the light. So they’re often being pulled out of migration hours before they would normally. So they’re not making as far of jumps as they should be, and they’re stopping over sooner, which means they’re wasting fat reserves. They’re, they’re wasting time. As Diane mentioned with climate change and other factors, these important hatch outs of insects at these different latitudinal scales and avian migration movements have always been very linked, and they’re becoming more and more disconnected. So the idea of birds being pulled out of migration early unnecessarily is problematic. And then where are they being pulled into? As Nick said, they’re being pulled into areas where they are not colliding with, you know, the steel building’s top floor.

Jon Rice (05:40):

We don’t see collisions high up because once birds come into a city area, once they’ve landed, they’re going from shrub to shrugged, tree to tree looking for food. And that’s where they get set up to collide with windows where they see the reflected tree or bush that they’re currently feeding in. They see it reflected in the window in front of them, and they think they’re going to another tree and they collide with a window. And so we usually see collisions within the first three stories only. And that’s one of the major issues of light pollution, is that even if a bird doesn’t end up colliding with a window, there’s all these other issues that that arise from the light pollution itself, even if it doesn’t directly end in a window collision kill. There’s, there’s all these other problems that it’s, it’s incredible that they’re able to do this to begin with, and they’re already under enough stress, physiologically atrophying organs in their body and swelling their, their mass and then using up all of those fat reserves in these jumps. I mean, it’s incredible. I, Nick and I have both seen it, where you’re banning birds and one individual of a species you get that’s just super plump. And you’re like, this guy’s ready to go. They’re ready to fly. And the next one you pull out is this skinny bean stock. That’s okay. This one probably just arrived, you know, that, you know, this morning and, and has made this really large jump. It’s just incredible what they can physiologically do. Adding these additional stressors is sometimes what pushes birds over the line of, of sort of their ability to survive these insane migratory jumps that they do.

Josh Raulerson (07:18):

What is in house bill 1803, what specifically would it do and what would we expect the result to be?

Diane Turnshek (07:24):

Okay. I had actually nothing to do with this. This was all Tim Lawler and Susan Webster, their Westchester Dark Sky Committee. People on the other side of the state. They talked to Representative Chris P and he got a bunch of other representatives, 14 people altogether to introduce this bill. It’s called the Responsible Lighting Control Act. And it’s for the whole state. And it’s supremely well written. I’m so thrilled about this. ’cause Sometimes you get these in there , they’re not, they talk about residential areas being at 2200 elephant for a CCT, it’s unheard of . I know they make 2200 Kelvin lights, but I don’t know anybody who’s actually put them in. And this would be across the whole state for streetlights. All the buildings, public facilities, when a light reaches end of life, that’s so dramatic, right? , then they would get changed 2200 in the residential areas or dark sky areas or environmentally sensitive areas up to, but not exceeding 2,700 Kelvin everywhere else.

Diane Turnshek (08:42):

Also, they take care to say that you can use motion sensors or timers to get those lights off from 11:00 PM to 6:00 AM or dimmed, if that’s all you can do in that particular area. Trespass won’t go more than 220 lumens at the property boundary. That’s new. I’m so happy with that one. But room darkening shades will be used in all government buildings to reduce the light that spills out of a building, which super important for birds or lights go off if they can use only reflective roadway markings and signs. So whenever possible, don’t put lights at all, just make some reflective surfaces. They talk about repositioning lights. If they’re pointed towards a building, but they’re really going up into the sky, maybe they could reposition them or shield them flagpoles. That was interesting. So the reason why billboards and flagpoles are lit from the bottom is ’cause then it’s easier to change a light bulb if it goes out. But they’re going to light them from the top and have downward facing ones and anyone’s that are lit from the bottom right now, they’re all gonna get, right now in real time, their lights change to 2200. So they’re not gonna wait until end of life for those particular things. I mean, just across the board, it’s thoughtful, thoughtful, responsible outdoor lighting. It’s just, it’s a wonderful bill.

Josh Raulerson (10:13):

Next up on the Earth Month calendar tomorrow, April 26th is Celebrate Trails Day with events scheduled across the commonwealth, aimed at getting people outside on their local trails and in engaged in their local trail communities. At pac, of course, we view trails not only as economically vital outdoor recreation assets, but as opportunities to restore ecosystems and reconnect people with nature planner and author. Chuck Flink is a nationally recognized champion of this approach through the development of greenways. A term he explains in Pennsylvania Legacy’s episode 114 from back in January of 2020. What is the difference between a greenway and a trail? Is one a subset of the other? Are they totally different categories

Chuck Flink (11:02):

To me, greenways are, are really the corridor of land. The trail is the, is the place where, where humans are, you know, it’s the tread. That’s the difference that I, that I like to point out to make it as simple as possible, because I think when people say the word greenway, they oftentimes mean trail, right? And then sometimes people pick on the trail when they don’t really want to pick on the greenway . So that’s the way I like to separate it out. So the greenway is the quarter of land, and that quarter of land can be all natural. I mean, completely nature or through urban areas. It could be this really mixed use landscape, industrial, residential, commercial, institutional. But that, that varying corridor of land, because greenways are long and skinny, they’re sort of linear parks is what makes them so attractive and so fascinating for, for people to work on and develop in their communities.

Chuck Flink (11:52):

We need more connections to nature and really not even so much, you know, yes, nature, but also just outdoors. And we know that people will walk in all kinds of outdoor environments. Walking is the number one activity in America, but there’s a, a, a real need to do biking and, and other kinds of outdoor activities. And greenways are these great, you know, linear landscapes that, that facilitate that movement in our community and in urban areas. They’re gonna extend across all these different kinds of landscapes, you know, that we don’t necessarily would, would call nature per se, although a lot of greenways and a lot of communities are along floodplains. So they do tend to represent an element of nature, but they also can, you know, go over land. And so they can be a part of our road systems or part of utility corridors or cobbled together landscapes that are just part of the urban fabric. So I, I think we need those connections to the outdoors and greenways deliver that as, as a landscape type.

Josh Raulerson (12:48):

Talk about impacts on individual communities. When a greenway or a trail project goes through, how does that community change

Chuck Flink (12:55):

We’ve seen this, for example, just with the Razorback Greenway in northwest Arkansas when we first were brought in by the Walton Family Foundation back in 2010. This is a very autocentric community, very few trails that really led you anywhere connected were useful in any sort of way a decade later. And, and this is a credit to the Walton Family Foundation, 400 miles of trails. Now it’s a way of life. You know, they’re, they’re actually advertising nationally to bring people to their community that says, you don’t want to drive your car everywhere. Come to northwest Arkansas. You can ride your bike to work. You can ride your bike to school. You can go shopping by bike. You know, that’s a major cultural change. And I realized that not every community is experiencing that, and not every community is has that level of investment, but this is what’s possible by understanding that the power and the benefits of greenways.

Josh Raulerson (13:47):

Do you find that, I mean, you were talking about sort of the universals. There’s a, there’s a public health aspect, there’s an economic development aspect that seem to be true maybe in different ways in different parts of the country. But are there differences regionally by metro area that make it more difficult maybe to advance these kinds of projects?

Chuck Flink (14:04):

Well, I think in some of our more urban areas where there’s a, a lot of development that’s occurred, we’re talking about trying to reclaim space, and that’s really difficult. It’s, it’s just challenging from a lot of different perspectives, not just a real estate perspective, but maybe just a level of acceptance. We went down to Miami, Florida over 20 years ago, called in by the Trust Republic Land, and we started working on the Miami River Greenway. Well, it was interesting my perspective was people didn’t know there was a river in the middle of their city, and they didn’t know the river that their city was named after the river. And so Miami is the Miamis, which is the Indians that lived there thousands of years ago, and that’s where the, the city got its name. Well, one of the other problems we had was really connecting with the Latin community, the, the Hispanic community who asked me via Verde, why, why, why is the way green Chuck?
What, why is, does, does this matter? You know? And so we had to basically find a cultural connection with this population. And, and I, I did find a cultural connection in, in Havana, Cuba the Malone, which is a, a, a cultural landscape. It’s where people go to date, where they go play checkers, a social landscape. And so when we were able to go back and say, Hey, we want to build the Malone in Miami, everybody was like, oh, that’d be awesome. We’d love to have that kind of a landscape in downtown Miami. So I think sometimes it’s, it is connecting to the natural world, but also it’s also connecting to the social fabric of our cities which are very diverse. They’re not just one kind of thing, and they’re not just one kind of audience that we’re talking to in that regard.

Josh Raulerson (15:40):

Well, and that’s something that PEC has been focused on a lot lately through our work with the Circuit Trails Initiative and the inclusionary trail building toolkit that we developed about a year ago. Are you seeing similar kind of trends in other parts of the country where you’re working?

Chuck Flink (15:52):

I think it’s probably one of the hottest topics right now in America. I mean, I, we’re, we’re dealing with it in Memphis, we’re dealing with in St. Louis. And I, I hear about those are two I’m working on, but I hear about it really all across the country. And I think we’re much more aware of our need especially in this particular space, to be more inclusive, to listen more to, to reach out and to figure out what kind of connections can we make that are meaningful. Because a lot of the feedback that I’m, that I’ve had, and I’ve worked in communities of color for many years, for over two decades, the first issue is, look, we need a lot of things, but a greenway would be the last on the list. You know, so how is this relevant to us? How does it improve our lives? How does it improve the creation of jobs? How does it improve education, et cetera, et cetera. So, and that, you know, that can be a tall task, but that’s the framework that we really need to work within. And so I do see this as a rapidly rising and important issue all across the country. And I’m, I’m glad that PEC is working on it, and I’m glad to be involved in communities that are, that are taking that seriously.

Josh Raulerson (17:04):

And finally, today is Arbor Day, the annual holiday, celebrating the planting and conservation of trees. Although it’s been celebrated locally in parts of the US since the 18 hundreds, Pennsylvania played an important role in the campaign to make Arbor Day a national observance. Back in 1907, when conservationists from the Keystone State led by US Forest Service Chief, and later Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to issue a proclamation recognizing Arbor Day. Well, for almost a decade, PEC has been working to restore native forests on abandoned mining sites throughout the Commonwealth, including Governor Shaw’s, namesake State Forest. In fact, as we speak, PEC staff are helping out with a tree planning event today in Indiana County. This is the kind of work we love because mine land reforestation is a niche activity that delivers a wide variety of benefits. Not only does it help restore watersheds and wildlife habitat, it provides a much needed carbon sink to slow the advance of climate change and help clean the air.

What’s more, it’s a chance for people to get their hands dirty, doing something tangible that will leave a lasting impact. And sometimes, as in our ongoing partnership with the Altoona Water Authority reforestation creates opportunities to develop trails and other recreational assets that further deepen the connection between people and the land. To close out today’s episode, let’s go back to 2017 and a conversation with former program coordinator Laura Bray about PEC’s reforestation work in most Shannon State Forest. That’s a location that’ll be familiar to anyone who’s participated in the annual PEC Public Lands Ride. We looked at some of the wide ranging benefits of mine land reforestation by focusing on what the presence of certain bird species can tell us about how effectively that work is proceeding. Here’s our conversation:

Laura Bray (18:58):

Starting in 2016, PEC teamed up with Pennsylvania DCNR, department of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry to do some reforestation on abandoned mine land sites. These are legacy mine lands that are previously reclaimed to, to kind of grass lands and the soil there is compacted and is just kind of barren. Mine lands with grass growing but not a whole lot of tree species can thrive in that, in that current environment.

Josh Raulerson (19:33):

And where do the Golden Wing warbler and the American woodcock come into this? Why do we, why do we care about these particular birds?

Laura Bray (19:40):

Well, these birds are reliant on early successional forests. They are known to breed and nest in the central Appalachian region before migrating south for the winter. And they are dependent on these young forest habitats.

Josh Raulerson (19:58):

So the reason we’re specifically interested in the golden wing warbler and the American woodcock, not because we like these birds more than other birds, but because if we can create conditions where they will thrive, that tells us something about the health of the land.

Laura Bray (20:13):

Absolutely. The idea is to enhance biodiversity and these forest lands. So it’s often you have a, a lot of mature trees that grow in forest lands. And then in our case, we have this strip, these kind of serpentines of abandoned mine land, which create a perfect opportunity for us to, to plant some new trees. In this case we’re going for the young successional forest, which is, it’s not typically the kind of the forest you think of. It’s more of a shrubby kind of situation. Particularly these species are reliant on the young successional forest for, for their mating and for their nesting. It’s interesting ’cause you only see these young forests with disturbances such as abandoned mine lands. So it’s, it’s a great opportunity for us to, to reintroduce this kind of habitat for these birds that are in need. The golden wing warbler and the American woodcock are populations are in decline because these sort of forest lands just aren’t very existent right now in Pennsylvania.

Josh Raulerson (21:15):

And so the young successional forest land would be, that would be like a stage on the way to a longer term recovery goal?

Laura Bray (21:21):

Correct. And we’re going to be planting some quaking aspen trees. The quaking aspen are, are great for young successional forests because they have some regenerative qualities. So these trees can be harvested very early on and they can grow back through shoots off of their off the roots. So it’s very easy to manage the quaking aspen for a young successional forest because it’s, they, they grow back vigorously on these sorts of disturbed mine lands. We are also doing mixed in with the quaking aspen. We have some white pine. Specifically we’re looking at planting about 40,000 quaking aspen, about 14,000 white pine for a total of, of 54,500 trees approximately on 55 acres in the Moshannon Forest.

Josh Raulerson (22:14):

At PEC, when we work on abandoned mine reclamation projects, it seems like the emphasis is often on water quality. What will the impact of this work be on this particular watershed?

Laura Bray (22:26):

The Moshannon State Forest is still part of the Susquehanna River Basin which continues some ongoing efforts to improve water quality in that area. Additionally, planting trees always helps to eliminate erosion. Of course, it helps to reduce CO2 in our atmosphere. So there’s quite a, a lot of benefits in addition to providing habitat for these target bird species. Also, it’s worth mentioning in Han and State Forest, there’s an existing elk population which bring a lot of visitors to the area to, to view these elk. And while we were building our management plan for the forest land, we wanted to make sure that we’re still conserving the habitat for these elk. So within the 55 acres that we’re foresting, we’re going to be planting 10 acres of wildlife food plots for the native elk and deer to, to graze upon. And it’s mutually beneficial because the bird species are also reliance on kind of what they call mosaic forest. So with the, the food plot, we’re going to be planting some native grasses and shrubs to kind of blend in with our seedlings. So there’ll be a mixture of, of trees and shrubs and grasses that provide a lot of opportunity for, for all the native wildlife species to thrive.

Josh Raulerson (23:52):

And that’s all for Pennsylvania Legacies. This month, you can hear stories from our archive, including our recent coverage on geothermal energy in the prospects for developing into Pennsylvania and invasive species management. An increasingly important topic, listen on your web browser if you prefer or find it on your podcast app by searching Pennsylvania legacies. We’re on SoundCloud, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Player FM, and most places where podcasts are available on our website. You can also learn about PEC’s program and policy work across Pennsylvania, including everything from trail development to clean energy and climate to nature-based stormwater management. The website is also where you can make a donation to support that work, which we’re encouraging everyone to do as part of our Earth Month fundraising drive. If you value clean air, healthy water, and access to the outdoors, or if you’ve ever enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider making a [email protected] slash give. That’s pecpa.org/give. Or you can just look for the donate button in the navigation bar on any page of the website. Again, pecpa.org. We’ll be back next month with more Pennsylvania legacies conversations. Until then, for the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, I’m Josh Raulerson and thanks for listening.