C2-Uncaater Farming,. Saiunfry, June 21, 1997
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Two researchers in Penn
State’s School of Forest Resour
ces are studying weeds and other
plant problems at two national his
toric sites in order to make the past
seem clearer to visitors.
Larry McCormick, professor of
forest resources, and Todd Bower
sox, professor of silviculture, are
working with the National Park
Service to eliminate an exotic
weed that is blocking access to the
Staple Bend Railroad Tunnel, the
first rail tunnel built in the United
States. The 1830 s-era tunnel was
part of the t Allegheny Portage
Railroad, which used a scries of
inclined planes and steam engines
to pull canal boats from the Penn
sylvania Main Line Canal system
up and over the Allegheny
Mountains.
McCormick and Bowersox are
working to eliminate a large plant
called Japanese knotweed, also
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Penn State Forest Experts Fight Weeds
known as Japanese bamboo or
Japanese flccccflowcr. The weed
has overgrown the original rail
way trace, making it difficult for
visitors to reach the site, as well as
obscuring die path of the original
tracks.
“Knotweed was probably
brought to the United States as an
ornamental,” McCormick said.
“But it can establish itself and out
compete native plants. It’s all over
Pennsylvania, and the park service
has problems with it in other
parks.”
The plant, which grows well
over six feet and has huge, droop
ing leaves, has proven to be a
worthy opponent, according to
McCormick, “The plant is a
perennial and emerges from a
large underground root structure,
called a rhizome, that has proven
to be pretty resistant to herbi
cides.” he said. "There’s so much
mass underground that it’s hard to
kill it.”
The Penn Stale scientists cur
rently are evaluating means of
controlling the Japanese knot
weed. The next phase of the pro
ject will be to recommend a man
agement plan for reestablishing
nadve vegetation on the Staple
Bend site, located near Mineral
Point in Cambria County.
“For the park service, the most
important factor is that the plants
do not fit in with the historic
scene.” said Brian Eick, natural
resource management specialist at
the Allegheny Portage Railroad
National Historic Site. “Visitors
should be able to see what the site
looked like at the time.”
McCormick and Bowersox also
are involved in another National
Park Service project designed to
make a historic scene a bit clearer
at the Johnstown Flood National
Memorial. The site overlooks the
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Pali
abutments of the earthen dam that
gave way in 1889 during a torren
tial rainstorm, releasing tons of
water on surrounding communi
ties and the city of Johnstown,
causing more than 2,000 deaths.
The dam, located near St.
Michael in Cambria County, was
used to form a huge lake that
served the members of the South
Fork Hunting and Fishing Club,
an exclusive group that included
such industrial magnates as
Andrew Carnegie. To give visitors
an idea of the size of the original
lake, the Park Service cut away a
section of trees and other vegeta
tion near the dam mirroring a sec
tion of the lake’s original
shoreline.
“Once you remove vegetation,
the landscape doesn’t remain in a
static state,” McCormick said.
‘Trees and woody plants will
grow back unless you put a man-
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agement plan into effect to pre
vent that”
McCormick and Bowerdlk
recommended establishing graF
ses and other plants that will grow
to heights that will still reveal the
outlines of the lake. The plan also
recommends a variety of native
plant species for the site to comply
with a National Park Service poli
cy to preserve historic sites as
accurately as possible.
“In his case, we can’t exactly
re-create the original site, because
most of that was under water,”
Eick said. “Penn State has
designed a management plan that
meets our educational goals and
also reduces maintenance.”
< ‘This research is exciting for us
because it’s a chance to use^k
professional expertise and knSP
ledge to help tell the story of an
area of national interest,” McCor
mick said.
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