Provided by Bucks County Community College:
File photo
Bucks County Community College has received a $10,000 grant from PECO in support of a long-term habitat restoration project in Tyler State Park, located adjacent to the college’s campus in Newtown Township, college officials announced.
The partnership between the college’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) department, PECO, and Tyler State Park will result in the restoration of three habitats within the 1,711-acre park to serve indigenous plants, birds and butterflies. The project will also serve as a destination for monarch butterflies during their annual migration to the warm climate of Mexico.
The habitat-restoration project will allow Bucks students to gain scientific research experience while enhancing the park’s environmental education program, according to STEM instructor Michael Bernarsky, who is leading the project with park manager Brian Flores.
“This project presents our STEM students with a unique opportunity to gather, report and interpret actual scientific data, thus providing insight into how such information becomes scientific knowledge in their textbooks,” Bernarsky said. “PECO’s financial support of our project has provided the launch pad toward making these opportunities for our students a reality.”
Meanwhile, Tyler State Park benefits as well, added Flores.
“This habitat-restoration project will enhance the park’s natural resources and provide additional opportunities for the parks’ environmental education program and park visitors,” said Flores.
The three habitats are part of a nationwide effort to save endangered monarch butterflies. They will be added to the more than 12,000 habitats throughout the U.S. that are registered through MonarchWatch.org, a nonprofit education, conservation, and research program based at the University of Kansas whose mission is to educate the public about monarch butterflies’ biology and migration, and how to use monarchs to further science education in schools.
“We are proud to support this innovative environmental project, which plays a key role in the STEM program at Bucks County Community College,” said Romona Riscoe Benson, PECO Corporate Relations director. “This habitat restoration demonstrates our ongoing commitment to helping our communities protect and improve green spaces across the Greater Philadelphia region.”
Beginning this spring, two of the habitats will be planted with native seed mixes and milkweed plugs with the help of Bucks students, park staff, and volunteers from PECO and the community. This one-and-a-half acre area is located at the main entrance area of the park, offering butterflies a safe habitat and students an active research environment during the first year of the project. The third and largest habitat, approximately 10 acres located on the western side of the park, will take five years to fully restore
Key components of all three habitats include:
- A mix of native flowers with different bloom times, including some overlap in flowering, to ensure a stable food source for butterflies
- Native milkweed to provide food for monarch caterpillars
- Minimal, well-timed management that limits impact to all pollinators, including butterflies, while eliminating woody species as needed
- Interpretative wayside exhibit panels and nature trails
- Avoidance of insecticides
A formal dedication of the habitats will be held later this spring.
