Category Archives: Rock Hollow Woods

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About Us

  By Garrett Bland • April 30, 2022 , ,

Hello, our team name is Nittany Rocks and our names are Sid, Garrett, Shawn and Devon. Sid served as the team leader while Garrett was responsible for all the communications between the group and the organization at Rock Hollow Woods. Our research component was based on Climate Change.

Service Project:

For our service component of the EACAP project, we were tasked to help the organization at Rock Hollow Woods for 2 days. On the first day, our team toke apart a bridge which was made out of wood logs and was aging due to the weather conditions. We were given tools such as screwdrivers, wrenches and etc. to un-bolt the screws on the bridge. After cutting logs of woods with equipment provided by the organization, we started to settle 2 logs as the base of the bridge and then settle the other logs. On the second day of our visit at Rock Hollow Woods, we cut down some trees that were on the verge of falling around the trail in the forest. We were able to use the opportunity to experience something to favor the environment.

Service Video

Research Project:

Our research component of the EACAP project, we presented to our class about Climate Change. Informing the audience about general information we later discussed the causes, solutions and some possible sustainable development goals about Climate Change. Global Warming has been the biggest contribution to Climate Change. Forcing a lot of species that live in cold temperatures, many glaciers and ice caps have melted which has dislocated the population in order to look for food, shelter and water. Our sources provided concrete information and were reliable.

Poster Session:

We had the opportunity to present our service and research project to our fellow classmates and members of PSU Berks. We were able to interact with others as we had the opportunity of explaining our service and research project to them. Also, we were able to go around and look at other groups’ service and research projects.

Brochure:

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Penn State Rocks Keeping Trails Clean

  By cqg5407 • April 14, 2022 , , ,

Welcome to our page! Our group members are MaryKate Cotter, Luke Shirk, Jessica Babich, and Cassidy Grebe. We completed our first service day at Rock Hollow Woods where we started by pulling invasive wineberries from around the trails. Wineberries have sharp thorns and take over native plants. After working on pulling the wineberries from around the trails we switched to another station.

The owner was telling us how the property that is now Rock Hollow Woods was once a junkyard where trash was left behind. Since it was covered in random trash for so long, random pieces of glass still end up on the trails. Our job was to walk the trails and pick up any pieces of glass that we saw. We kept finding large pieces of glass and pottery that were broken right by the trails.

We enjoyed spending our time helping to keep the trails a safe place to walk while learning about the history of the property as well. By keeping the trails safe, we are providing a safe place for people to enjoy nature by themselves or with friends and family. We also helped out at Earthfest. MaryKate and Cassidy worked at the Welcome Station, and Luke and Jess worked on a recycled bottle greenhouse.

Rock Hollow Woods by MaryKate Cotter

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The Mint Oreos: Cleaning our way to a Healthy Environment :)

  By Zachary Schaeffer • March 30, 2022 , , ,

Hello! We are the Mint Oreos, and our team members are Zachary Schaeffer and Kaitlyn Brown. Zach is a first year and a Secondary Education History major. Kaitlyn is a first year and a Secondary Education English major. For our service project, our group went to Rock Hollow Woods to help clean the land and remove invasive species. We were assigned two days to work for 4 hours each from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM. The first day of volunteering was on March 19th. For most of the day, we spent time hoeing and shoveling out an invasive grass species called Japanese stilt grass from a flowerbed that will eventually be replanted with flowers. It is a species from Asia, and it expands to cover large areas that prevent desirable vegetation from growing. We also spent about an hour carrying rocks down a path towards an observation platform to create a natural pathway for visitors to explore the park. After all of these projects, we ended the first day with collecting glass that was found in the ground. The glass came from the previous owners of the land who used the area as a trash dump.

On April 20, we had to present our service and research project to the Penn State campus and the surrounding community. Since we only had one day of service under our belt, we focused most of our conversation efforts on our research component, which was coral bleaching. We chose this topic since we both had an interest in it. Kaitlyn learned about it through her geography class last semester while Zach presented a speech on coral decline. It is an event where coral loses its color due to increasing water temps and rising CO2 levels in the ocean. Mass coral bleaching can occur during El Nino events where warmer water is brought to the equator which results in more rain than usual in South and Central America and the United States. Coral bleaching usually occurs in mass quantities. For example, the earliest recorded mass coral bleaching event happened in 1988 while the most recent event was recorded in 2017. It is predicted that more than 90% of the world’s coral reefs will die by 2050.

For the second day, we went to work on April 23. We ended up doing a few more projects this time than last time. To start off, we helped remove an invasive species called wineberries. This plant is dense with many thorns, and it crowds out native plants, blocks out sunlight from reaching lower plants, and makes hunting, fishing, hiking, etc. areas inaccessible. We spent about 2-3 hours removing those from a trail. After that, we had to help move painted tree stumps up a hill towards a play/learning area for children to look at. After that was finished, our group got to help unpack brand new archery equipment for a class that Rock Hollow was hosting. Those two activities took about an hour, and we only had a half hour left. With that last bit of time, we got to paint the words, “explore”, “discover”, “grow”, and “love nature” on a few logs. These words represented the motto that Rock Hollow follows. Collectively, that was our time and experience at Rock Hollow Woods.

Throughout the project, our team learned more about our research issue and were able to help the environment. We enjoyed being able to work together with other people to try and clean the environment as well. Getting to help remove invasive species was oddly satisfying as we cleaned out a spot for more beautiful and pleasant things to grow. The research portion helped us learn more about the world we live in and the environment around us. It is safe to say that we have a renewed pleasure for the environment and the world we live in.

Our EACAP poster presentation

Bi Sci 3 EACAP Brochure

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We Are The Social Butterflies

  By Matthew Konopelski • March 30, 2022 , ,

Our names are Sierra Reich and Matthew Konopelski. We volunteered at Rock Hollow pulling wineberries and picking up left over trash from when the place was a landfill. We did our research on how pollution effects the reproduction of birds. We learned a lot about the effects our forefathers had on our environment and how we are still making it worse. We also learned first had how hard it is to reverse that damage ravaging our slowly dying planet.

 

Research Project; Birds and the New Generation:

We explored how pollution affects the reproduction of birds. We saw how the pollution we are creating affects how efficient the sex hormones of various birds are affected. A lot of waste has steroids that alter the way the estrogen and androgen receptors operate. Even the noise and light pollution affects their reproduction. If a bird sees lights that they are not supposed to see, they can begin nesting early which causes them to mate early. This leaves the babies more susceptible to predators. The noise pollution has the opposite effect. this leaves them open to more unfavorable seasonal factors. These things can be found in ither species as well, including humans.

This is a table of just a few of the pollutants and their effects on birds.

 

Service Project at Rock Hollow:

We volunteered at Rock Hollow. We worked with their volunteers to remove wineberries. Wineberries are invasive species that grow at a much faster rate than the native species. Their berries are good okay for some birds to ingest, but others can’t digest them properly. We spent about 3-4 hours ripping them out of the ground, using shovels when necessary. Now, while Rock Hollow is a nature reserve now, it wasn’t always. The previous owners had used it as a dumping ground where one could find cars, washers and driers, bottles and much much more. We spent a good 4-5 hours digging and removing dozens of pounds of scrap and glass out of the ground just around on cluster of 3 trees. We filled about three wheelbarrows with this scrap from the earth.



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Sustainable Squad Paintin’ Logs and Butterflies

  By Brianna Mcmonagle • March 30, 2022 , , ,

Hi everyone! We’re the Sustainable Squad. Our names are Tatiana Hamilton, Brianna McMonagle, Jacob Donahue, and Brandon Mustapher. Tatiana is Junior and is majoring in Communication Arts and Science. Brianna is Sophomore and a Health Policy Major. Jacob is a Sophomore as well and a Business Marketing and Management major. Brandon is a Freshman and he is majoring in Broadcast Journalism.

Our service project included painting logs with numbers, shapes, butterflies, and other nature designs for the children’s play area at Rock Hollow Woods. These logs will encourage the children to develop a love for the outdoors and nature. We also participated in trail maintenance and glass removal at the center. Rock Hollow Woods was once known as Jean’s Place in 2003, and now has expanded into the nonprofit organization RHW starting in 2012. Their mission is to provide children with outside opportunities to discover and learn about the natural world and empower them to protect their environment. We worked with the Executive Director, Michelle Zeitz, and Jean McCarney, the Cofounder at Rock Hollow Woods.

Our research consisted of the decrease in Butterfly population decline. We discovered that around 450 butterfly species have declined at an average rate of 1.6% to 2% per year. The main danger to the butterfly population is climate change as the Autumns becomes warmer. Pesticides are also a big factor in the decline. We can all take a stand against this issue by planting more flowers, avoiding pesticides, and contributing to citizen science websites.

Our group enjoyed this research and service project since we were able to learn and complete projects outside of the classroom. We had an amazing opportunity to work with Rock Hollow Woods to create learning tools that many children will use for years to come. As we researched butterfly population decline, we have become more aware of the problem and ways to encourage people to mitigate the issue.

 

Brochure link for easier reading:Butterfly brochure