In Spring of 2001 the Pennsylvania Native Plant Society began a Growing Greener Grant project funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources under the education and outreach category. The focus of this project was to investigate the role of native plants in the Upper Penns Creek watershed and their relationship to water quality.

In the first phase of the grant work PNPS visited the Natural Heritage Sites in the watershed while studying various plant inventory techniques, such as the use of Global Positioning Units, and topographic maps, and learning to share our information with other botanists. This included making herbarium specimens and reporting our findings of rare plants to the PNDI database. We compiled lists of plants found at each site, and supplied them to the County Planning Board, which was then in the process of reviewing the Natural Heritage Inventory.

Simultaneously and following these inventories, a series of educational programs was presented in the Upper Penns Creek watershed by experts in various fields for the education and enjoyment of local residents, adults and children of all ages. Details of these programs are provided on the Outreach Programs page.

Meanwhile, the Growing Greener Grant committee continued to research the connection between intact native plant communities and high water quality. We sought guidance from Dr. Carl Keener, Professor Emeritus of Penn State University, who referred us to a paper titled "Conservation of Wetland – Riparian Ecosystems and Resources : A Landscape Approach" by Robert P. Brooks, Mary Jo Croonquist, Dean E. Arnold, Edward D. Bellis and himself in the early 1990s. Rob Brooks is currently the director of the Cooperative Wetlands Center of Penn State University, so we contacted his office to pursue this lead and learn to take a look at the larger landscape picture. Dr. Ann Rhoads of the Morris Arboretum provided us with copies of papers about work done in Illinois and Ohio which analyzed native plant communities, producing a "Floristic Quality Assessment Index".

We found that the Cooperative Wetlands Center was working on various protocols, assessing wetlands and riparian areas, and also looking at water quality for various projects. Denice Wardrop of the Cooperative Wetlands Center, helped extensively in the design and execution of the rest of the Growing Greener Project. Water quality data from seventeen sites in the Upper Penns Creek Watershed had been collected and analyzed by Dennis Genito and Tom Shervinskie for another Growing Greener Grant through the Penns Valley Conservation Association. These sites became the core of our studies for the second field season.

PNPS members visited eight of the seventeen sites and performed a protocol designed by the Cooperative Wetlands Center, while graduate students visited the remaining nine sites. In addition to the protocol, a complete plant inventory was done of a 100 meter square at each site PNPS visited and an FQAI, or Floristic Quality Assessment Index, was calculated. This number was then compared with the Habitat Assessment Score which was the result of the Genito/Shervinskie work, and it was found that there is a correlation between intact native plant communities and high quality water. Much of the data collected is presented on this website, as many correlations were made and analyzed.

And always remember, as Jeff Fair, a biologist and writer put it, "A lot of what happens biologically out here really is magical; there’s a great beauty and wonder to it, and we can’t reduce it completely to statistics and data."

Copies of blank forms are available to print out, and instructions are given so that you can conduct a similar study in your watershed. The process of calculating the FQAI can be done alone, but we recommend that it be done in conjunction with other environmental measurements so that the data could be used in further investigations of landscape conditions and water quality. PNPS can help train your volunteers, and loan you much of the equipment that you will need. This website also contains a list of botanists who could be consulted for help in doing your plant surveys.