Pennsylvania Timber Show

This year at the Pasto Agricultural Museum during the Pennsylvania Timber Show, we had a great opportunity to be destinations for kids to receive their Forest Merit Badges. The requirements for the merit badge are, students would have to identify at least 10 tree species, examine tree growth, tree rings, stumps, and tree cores, and be able to understand tree damage from tree pests. We noticed a unique opportunity to not only teach any potential boy scouts but also teach the general public about Pennsylvania trees! 

The first discovery station was tree identification. There, people could go species by species to examine pictures of the bark, flower, fruiting structure, wood grain, and a live sample of what the leaf and branch look like! Then read an identification description that had a picture of the species range and tree silhouette. 15 common hard wood and soft wood species of Pennsylvania were selected with the intention that people could identify these species in the future.

The second discovery station looked at tree growth and core samples. The objective of this station is for students to identify how different factors can impact tree growth. We looked how fire scars on tree samples and we also looked how weather can impact tree growth. Like any plant, dryer years will be less productive years. 

The final station looked at tree damage and threats. We examined two serious concerns that are threatening Pennsylvania keystone species. Eastern Hemlocks are under attack from hemlock wooly adelgid and our Ash are being attacked by emerald ash borer. We identified these invasive insects so that students can identify it in the woods. Unfortunately, there is nothing that the general public can do to help these species except for be aware of the problem.