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Editorial

Bucks Audubon embarks on inventory

Plants and animals and their varieties

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The Bucks County Audubon Society, located at the heart of the Honey Hollow Watershed, 2877 Creamery Road in Solebury Township, is about to launch a project that will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1972 “Inventory of Natural Resources in a Bucks County Watershed …. Honey Hollow” by replicating that effort.
That early publication by the Watershed Association marked the last time an effort was made to catalog the full biological makeup of the watershed. The effort helped establish the site as an educational resource and the eventual home of Bucks County Audubon. It also collected baseline data that will allow us to discover and explore local environmental changes that have occurred over the last 50 years.
This time around, “Honey Hollow Watershed – Revisited” will enlist the help of local experts, community/citizen scientists, modern technology and students within the community to compile information by exploring all of the Honey Hollow habitats during the four seasons over the next year. Data collection will culminate in a public event at Honey Hollow in Summer 2022 and be followed by planning for restoration and management
“The information we gather will not only be compared to the earlier data,” said Stacy Carr-Poole of Bucks Audubon, “but it will also guide our conservation and management actions in the future given current threats, particularly those posed by invasive species and climate change.
“It’s our goal to maintain a healthy watershed that builds resiliency so that it can be enjoyed by visitors for decades to come just as it has for the past 50 years.” This project will provide a model for local homeowner and property managers to use in evaluating, restoring and managing their own backyards and open spaces.
The Honey Hollow Watershed was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1969, marking the long-lasting collaborative conservation efforts of local landowners and the Soil Conservation Service (now the NRCS). Whether those conservation actions continue to yield a healthy, sustainable watershed will be one of the questions answered by the inventory.

Other areas to be inventoried will be birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians, fish and aquatic creatures, shrubs and trees, as well as flowering and nonflowering plants
Generous grants by the Burpee Foundation, McLean Contributionship and the Marshall-Reynolds Foundation have made the kick-off of this effort possible.
Additional funding to expand the educational outreach and other aspects of the project is being sought. Bucks Audubon also seeks and welcomes participatory support from community members of all ages interested in learning more about the natural history of their backyards.
For more information check out the Bucks Audubon website and sign up for updates at bcas.org.
Bucks Audubon will also provide updates through the Bucks County Herald so stay tuned.


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