Jennings Environmental Education Center

Geobox Protected Area
name = Jennings Environmental Education Center
native_name =
other_name =
other_name1 =
category_local = Pennsylvania State Park
category_iucn = III


image_caption =
etymology_type =
etymology =
country = United States
state = Pennsylvania
region_type = County
region = Butler
district_type = Township
district = Brady
city =
location =
lat_d = 41
lat_m = 00
lat_s = 36
lat_NS = N
long_d = 80
long_m = 00
long_s = 10
long_EW = W
location_note = cite web
url=Gnis3|1196852
title=Jennings Environmental Education Center
date = August 30 1990
work=Geographic Names Information System
publisher=United States Geological Survey
accessdate=2008-03-16]
elevation_imperial = 1197
elevation_round = 1
elevation_note =
area_unit = acre
area_imperial = 300
area_round = 1
area1_imperial =
area1_type =
length_imperial =
length_orientation =
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width_orientation =
highest =
highest location =
highest_lat_d =
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highest_long_s =
highest_long_EW =
highest_elevation_imperial =
lowest =
lowest_location =
lowest_lat_d =
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lowest_lat_s =
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lowest_long_m =
lowest_long_s =
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biome =
biome_share =
biome1 =
biome1_share =
geology =
geology1 =
plant =
plant1 =
animal =
animal1 =
established_type =
established = 1979
management_body = Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
management_location =
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visitation =
visitation_year =
free_type = Nearest city
free = Butler, Pennsylvania
free1_type =
free1 =


map_caption = Location of Jennings Environmental Education center in Pennsylvania
map_locator = Pennsylvania
map_first = yes
website = [http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/jennings.aspx Jennings Environmental Education Center]

Jennings Environmental Education Center is a convert|300|acre|km2|2|adj=on Pennsylvania State Park in Brady Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is convert|12|mi|0 north of Butler on Pennsylvania Route 528. The center contains a relict prairie of convert|20|acre|km2|2, the only publicly protected prairie ecosystem in Pennsylvania. Big Run, a tributary of Slippery Rock Creek, flows through Jennings Environmental Education Center, and it shares a border with Moraine State Park to the south.

Environmental Education

The main purpose of Jennings Environmental Education Center is to provide environmental education for the citizens of Pennsylvania and specifically the students of the nearby elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities. Jennings stays busy offering hands on opportunities to these students and their teachers with a "discovery and problem solving" approach. cite web
url = http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateParks/parks/jennings.aspx
title = Jennings Environmental Education Center
accessdate = 2006-12-11
publisher = Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources]

Prairie

Prairies are extremely rare in Pennsylvania. They are usually found further to the west in Ohio, Indiana and across the midwest to the Rocky Mountains. The prairie at Jennings Environmental Education Center is the only protected prairie ecosystem in Pennsylvania. It provides a habitat for plants that are unique to prairie and the endangered massasauga rattlesnake. Jennings Environmental Education Center was the first state park established to protect an endangered plant, the blazing star.

History

This first humans arrived in the Jennings Environmental Education Area nearly 15,000 years ago. These paleo-Indians followed the receding glaciers at the end of the ice age in pursuit of wooly mammoths and giant ground sloths. It is believed that overhunting the mammoths and sloths lead to their eventual extinction.

The Iroquois settled in the area and began to farm the land by the end of the 16th century. They used fire to open areas for farming. This may have helped to sustain the prairie environment that is currently at Jennings Environmental Education Center.

European pioneers from the Thirteen Colonies and New France passed through the area and used the Venango Path an Indian trail, portions of which have since been paved over by Pennsylvania Route 528. The trail extended from Pittsburgh to Franklin. It was used by a historical figures such as Tecumseh, Marquis de LaFayette and George Washington.

The area was not heavily settled until the 1800s. The first settlers cleared the land of its standing trees and began farming. The land was not ideal for farming and soon people looked for other uses of the land. They discovered coal and the mining of coal became a booming industry in Western Pennsylvania.

Jennings Environmental Education Center is named for Dr. Otto Emery Jennings. He was a renowned botanist who searched throughout Pennsylvania for unique plant species. He discovered the Jennings Prairie in 1905 and was instrumental in the purchase and protection of the area by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (it became a "nature reserve" in 1952). Dr. Jennings ensured that the area would be protected for the enjoyment and future education of many generations of Pennsylvanians. Jennings Environmental Education Center was established in 1979.

Nearby state parks

The following state parks are within convert|30|mi|0 of Jennings Environmental Education Center: [cite web
url = http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/region_pittsburgh.aspx
title = Map ref for Jennings Environmental Education Center
accessdate = 2006-12-31
publisher = Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources ] [cite map |scale = 1:65,000| publisher= Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Bureau of Planning and Research, Geographic Information Division | url= ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf/BPR_pdf_files/Maps/GHS/Roadnames/butler_GHSN.PDF | title= 2007 General Highway Map Butler County Pennsylvania | accessdate= 2007-07-28 "Note: shows Jennings Environmental Education Center"] cite web
last = Michels
first = Chris
year = 1997
url = http://www2.nau.edu/~cvm/latlongdist.html
title = Latitude/Longitude Distance Calculation
publisher = Northern Arizona University
accessdate = 2008-04-20]
*Maurice K. Goddard State Park (Mercer County)
*McConnells Mill State Park (Lawrence County)
*Moraine State Park (Butler County)

References

External links

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