A group of about 15 Latin American ecology graduate students from a southern Mexican university will observe natural science in Pennsylvania's lakes and forests later this month while living at the 2,000-acre Powdermill Nature Reserve in Cook Township.
The select group of graduate students from Instituto de Ecologia in Xalapa will focus on biomonitoring and assessing biodiversity in the workshop, which will run from April 22 to May 4, said John Wenzel, director of Powdermill Nature Reserve, which is operated by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
The workshop is a partnership between the Carnegie Museum of Natural History/Powdermill Nature Reserve, the National Aviary, Juniata College in Huntingdon, and the Instituto de Ecologia, which Wenzel described as being wellknown for its ecology studies. Since the workshop began in 2012, Powdermill has hosted 90 students from Mexico, Guatemala, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina.
Students will get to study the water and aquatic life at Raystown Lake near Huntingdon, as well as take advantage of Powdermill's forest, field, and stream habitat that is ideal for myriad research projects, Wenzel said. The nature reserve is connected to large forested parcels and has an former surface mine, old farm fields, farms that grew back to forests and century-old forests. The reserve has both a stream of highest quality and one degraded by old mining activity.
Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.
