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Springtime sanctuary Walkers through Enlow Fork's brilliant wildflowers get a dazzling taste of the season Sunday, May 13, 2001 By Antoinette Fitch
In the rugged and secluded Enlow Fork Valley north of Wind Ridge, Greene County, red-winged blackbirds seem to herald the arrival of spring with their song. The rich Appalachian humus soil stirs the petite blue-eyed Marys, and the air is perfumed with the spicy-sweet pollen of countless flowers and trees.
"This is one of the most beautiful places on Earth," says botanist Sister Mary Joy Haywood of the area that makes up State Game Lands 302 in Richhill.
The pristine region is devoid of buildings. Here, nature sweeps a bold palette of hot reds from the fire pinks and yellow from the buttercups against the emerald of the emerging pawpaw maple and sycamore leaf buds into the cool pastels of the blue-eyed Marys, dwarf larkspur, phlox and wild geraniums. The creation is framed with blue sky above and umber-colored sandstone outcrops.
It is a scene Sister Mary Joy has known since childhood. She learned from her father, James, decades ago the names of common wildflowers at their farm in Jefferson, Greene County. Those early lessons inspired her to earn a doctorate in botany from Michigan State University and launch a vocation as a professor at Carlow College.
Each year, Sister Mary Joy returns to Enlow Fork to lead tours for the annual wildflower walk sponsored by the Wheeling Creek Watershed Conservancy. She donned her walking cane and white sneakers May 5 to lead one of three groups of about 20 nature lovers on a one-mile stroll along Enlow Fork. The stream is a tributary to Wheeling Creek, which marks the boundary between Washington and Greene counties.
Once owned by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the area abounds with wildflowers. In 1990, the conservancy documented 378 varieties of flora.
"There are four rare and endangered species here," Sister Mary Joy says. "The blue-eyed Mary, Curtis' Goldenrod, American gromwell and hedge nettle."
At Enlow Fork, blue-eyed Marys carpet the eastern slopes to gather the morning sunlight. The striking blue and white annual germinates from seed in the fall to bloom from early May to June. Although the individual flowers clustered several on a stem resemble a pansy, it actually is a member of the snapdragon family.
"Habitats for this flower are rare, but Enlow is known for its blue-eyed Mary," she says.
The natural spectacle of the wildflower walk draws visitors of all ages from far and wide.
Twelve-year-old Joey Renda of Forest Hills thinks the walk is "great." He came with his sister, grandparents and cousins.
Sister Mary Joy is impressed with his enthusiasm. "That's what this type of event is about -- creating an interest in young people. Look at him -- he is just soaking all this in."
Throughout the two-hour walk, Sister Mary Joy points to plants along the way -- the good, the bad and the unusual. Her followers huddle around each discovery, listening and learning the common and scientific names. "Horsetails, or equisetaceae, is a relic plant. The leaves are very segmented and filled with silica," she explains. "They were used by early settlers as scouring pads."
Even dandelions are attractive to Sister Mary Joy. "People have learned to hate them, but all that yellow I think is beautiful," she says.
After teaching for 25 years and serving as chairwoman of the science department for 12 years, Sister Mary Joy retired from most of her academic duties at Carlow College last year to help write a book on common Pennsylvania wildflowers. The publication, produced through the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania, of which she is president, is scheduled for release soon.
Susan Kalisz, a University of Pittsburgh professor and botanist, added her expertise to the wildflower walk. Kalisz has studied blue-eye Marys extensively for the National Science Foundation and explains the unique propagation cycle of the plant. The flower can reproduce by itself if necessary, so by design, the flower should thrive. "But this plant is rare because it has very specific habitat requirements: moist, low-lying undisturbed soil," says Kalisz, a resident of the Highland Park area of Pittsburgh. "It is the kind of land that is desirable for homes and pastures."
The walk was one of several activities held that day by the Wheeling Creek Watershed Conservancy. Bird watchers, binoculars in hand, were in the woods by 7:30 a.m. spotting Baltimore orioles, woodpeckers, indigo buntings, yellow warblers and scarlet tanagers. And in the afternoon, participants waded in tributaries to Enlow Fork to study aquatic life.
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Wheeling Creek Watershed Commission created the 914-acre reserve in 1983 by merging their land acquisitions. The commission had purchased land on six Wheeling Creek tributaries to build and operate flood-control dams to protect the city of Wheeling, W.Va., beginning in the 1960s. Enlow Fork was designed as the area to capture floodwaters. The dams never were built.
Consolidation Coal, now known as Consol, also donated 190 acres to the reserve. The land was turned over to the Pennsylvania Game Commission for state game lands. The game commission manages the land as a nature reserve, protecting the forest and wildflowers.
In the mid-1980s, Consol began longwall mining beneath the area. Over the years, the company subsided eight miles of the fragile stream valley. At first, changes went unnoticed, but as more of the stream changed from a bubbling waterway to sluggish pools, people began to pay attention.
After environmentalists complained, the state Department of Environmental Protection issued an emergency permit last fall to Consol to dredge a section of the stream in an attempt to restore its flow. The work was done under the direction of the state Game Commission, Fish and Boat Commission and DEP. The company is waiting to determine the success of the repairs before proceeding with additional work.
But environmentalists say the repairs have only damaged the area more by leaving deep ruts in the flood plain along the creek from heavy equipment, a sharp, unnatural stream bank and a pile of sediment along the stream.
"It's just outrageous that mining was allowed in the area in the first place," says Attilia Shumaker, president of the Wheeling Creek Watershed Conservancy, who lives in nearby Washington Township. "What was DEP thinking to permit mining under a protected natural area?"
The group has undertaken a petition drive protesting the mining. "The only way to save this place is to prevent future mining," Shumaker says. The conservancy members plan to submit their petition to Gov. Tom Ridge by early summer.
"This area is so beautiful and so unique," Shumaker says. "It could never be replaced, and we must do all we can to preserve it."
Copies of the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania's publication, "Wildflowers of Pennsylvania," may be ordered by contacting Sister Mary Joy Haywood at Carlow College, 3333 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh 15213. The cost for the color publication is $20 plus tax and postage.
Antoinette Fitch is a free-lance writer.
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