In our living room hangs a lithograph of a painting by Dr. John Fritchey, Jr. entitled "Gems of Stony," and depicting the American holly, Ilex opaca, the wood duck, Aix sponsa, the bog turtle, Clemmys muhlenbergii, and Covell's rush, Juncus gymnocarpus. The Coalition to Save Stony Creek Valley had a thousand copies printed, selling them for $5.00 to help finance their efforts to save the valley from a proposed pump storage plant. Two of these species were very evident in the valley. These were the holly and the wood duck. The other two, the bog turtle and Covell's rush, were listed as endangered, and we always hoped to find them in order to help stop the dam.
The representatives of the Power Company always maintained that no more than fifty or so holly's were to be found in the valley, but in our survey, we estimated closer to 5,000. It is one of the largest stands in the north and rivals the stand in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
On the other hand, we never were able to find Covell's rush, yet old records indicated that the area was one of three known sites for this rare plant. The other two areas are in Tennessee and Florida. After we were successful in saving Stony Creek Valley, Paul Weigman claimed to have found it in Rausch's Gap.
I told Anna, if he found it in Rausch's Gap, I'm going to find it, and went looking for it. I found a lone plant, growing in a small bed of sphagnum, where Rausch's Creek joins Stony Creek. It looked very much like the soft rush, Juncus effusus, but the head was much smaller and less dense, the persistent sepals were much smaller, almost abortive, hence the name, naked fruited rush. At the base was a very distinctive red membrane, from which the round stem evolved. The root was long, and had at least five such stems in a long row. I reported my findings to the Natural Diversity Inventory in Middletown.
The following spring, Tom Smith, of the Natural Diversity Inventory, sent a man out with me to locate the rare and elusive Juncus gymnocarpus. We could not locate my original find, but we did find three beds of sphagnum, containing about three dozen plants.
Studies made in North Carolina, indicated that Juncus gymnocarpus is tolerant of a pH between 3.5 and 5.5. And with this range of acidity, it becomes apparent that natural range of acidity in the area would have to fall within these two figures.
About this time Trout Unlimited wanted something done about the acid mine drainage that came down Rausch's Creek, and arranged with Dr. Dean Arnold, of Penn State, to look at the situation.
Dr. Arnold recommended a liming well. We called Dr. Arnold's attention to Juncus gymnocarpus and he dismissed our fears, stating that while they hoped to reach a pH of 6.0. they would be lucky to exceed 5.0.
Before we would agree to permit them to proceed, Nature Conservancy and the Department of Environmental Resources and myself visited the site. This was late summer, and we were astonished to find three of the largest beds of Juncus gymnocarpus we had ever seen. There must have been between 5,000 and 6,000 plants. Additionally, the beds were about twenty feet above the level of Rausch's Creek. Therefore, the vote was in favor of the mitigation station, with Nature Conservancy wisely dissenting. The only request we made was to have the sphagnum beds monitored, and to cut back on the operation, any time the beds were endangered.
The operation was turned over to Trout Unlimited, and they, alone, were given access to the area for the purpose of operating and monitoring the results. At no time were any monitoring of the sphagnum beds done. At the same time, they pushed the operation of the well to a point where the pH reading reached as high as 6.5 almost as far as the junction with Stony Creek.
Today, the sphagnum beds have turned brown, and not a single Juncus plant can be found. It is our feeling that the lime water reached the sphagnum beds through capillary action.
In 1998, a representative of Trout Unlimited, approached our organization, bragging about how successful operation was, that Stony Creek has had its pH improved to the extent that with additional liming stations, they believe it can be converted to a stream where rainbow trout could live and breed. In this they sought our support, both financial and moral.
Their new proposal would be to install a long term, unmonitored, buried station along or above the Devil's Race Course, one of Pennsylvania's Geological Wonders.
While we agree that liming stations are necessary in the mitigation of acid mine drainage, it should be limited to just that, and then, it should be operated by and monitored by a government agent, and controlled so that the environment is not adversely affected. And, at no time should the natural pH of the soil be altered, since it could affect the environment of native plants and animals adversely.
We have already lost most of the rare Juncus gymnocarpus in Stony Valley, (some still can be found above the liming well on Rausch's Creek) but we don't want to see the holly go as well. We think that our native plants are just as important, if not more so, than exotic rainbow trout.
August 19, 2000
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