Distracted Outdoors

The 2025 Creekside Programs are on the horizon!

Saturday 3/15 8pm-10pm
A Walk on the Wild Side…
Full Moon/Salamander Stroll
All Ages
Come out for a full moon stroll at Legion Keener Park. Learn how wildlife and even early humans utilize the full moon, and how it has influenced human culture and mythos. Since this time of year is ideal for spotting migrating salamanders, we’ll also check some of the vernal pools in the area and see if we get lucky and spot any amphibians.

Saturday 5/10 2pm-4pm
Science in the Stream
All Ages
Let’s go with the flow and get in the stream! We will take a look at the life of the Loyalhanna Creek. The macro life that is! We’ll learn how to identify the smallest creatures that call our flagship creek home and what they can tell us about the health of our stream.

Saturday 6/28 6pm-8pm
Good Neighbors; Insects and Wildflowers
All Ages
Living in the hometown of Mr. Rogers, we all strive to be good neighbors! But, humans aren’t the only neighborly creatures here in Latrobe. Come out to learn about one of the first neighborly relationships, the one between insects and wildflowers. We’ll learn how to identify some of the insects and wildflowers we see, how they are good neighbors to us, and how we can be good neighbors to them.

Stay tuned for registration information.

Ethan Tapper | Forester | Author Ethan Tapper is a forester and author from Vermont; the author of How to Love a Forest, and the founder of Bear Island Forestry and Bear Island Consulting. Ethan provides consulting to landowners, businesses, non-profits and government agencies, public education and communication, and freelance writ

Next program is next Saturday September 14th. Join me for Birds and Herps, where we'll bird watch but also flip some rocks and logs and see what herps we can find. Make sure to register for all the important information. Visit https://www.latroberecreation.org/legionkeenerpark.html and click "register online" at the top menu to register for any of the Latrobe-GLSD Parks And Recreation programs. Space is limited so act fast!

A nice bituminous coal sample where you can really see those iron layers sandwiched in. That's the stuff responsible for so many of our orange streams in Pennsylvania.

Thanks to SMCRA opening the doors in 1977 and 2022's BIL (and its associated STREAM act) opening them wider, organizations like Pennsylvania's DEP, county conservation districts, and nonprofit watershed groups are able to pave the way to cleaning up this legacy pollution. Today there are approximately 5500 miles of Pennsylvania streams polluted by abandoned mine drainage. I'm hoping if this comes up in Facebook memories ten years from now , I'll be able to say that number is smaller.

Liking this page means you get early notice of my fall/winter programs with Latrobe-GLSD Parks And Recreation :

9/14 6:00 pm Birds and Herps
Join me at Legion Keener park for Birds and Herps. Come prepared to walk the trail at the park as well as Creekside Trail as we look in the sky and trees for birds while also turning up rocks and checking out the ponds for herps.

10/19 6:00 pm What's So Scary About...?
In the spirit of the Halloween holiday, join me to learn about some of the creepier creatures that chill our spines. Take a chance and you may see that these creatures may not be as scary as they're sometimes made out to be and that maybe we should actually be thanking them for the ecosystem services they provide. We'll also take some time to learn about some plants and animals that we really should be afraid of...the invasives!!!

11/2 2:00 pm What Lives in the Leaves?
Let's take a close look at some leaf piles. We'll learn why these are important little ecosystems and just how many crucial organisms call them winter homes.

Registration for these programs is required. Visit their website at https://www.latroberecreation.org/legionkeenerpark.html and click "Registration" at the top to register. Space is limited so be sure to act quickly!