7/29/2023 0 Comments Lightning bugs synchronizedPedler says Mayer first refused to answer, then said "he was sure there were geologic reasons" for the siting. Mayer, who's secretary of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, also sits on the committee. Concerned about the site and its timing, she says, she confronted PGE general counsel Craig Mayer. Forest Service's Allegheny Resource Advisory Committee, on which she sits, approved funding for the firefly study. Located on a ridge a half-mile away, the proposed well is a joint venture of SWEPI (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell) and Pennsylvania General Energy.Ĭathy Pedler, of the Allegheny Defense Project, learned of the well last November, shortly after the U.S. The original firefly sighting, for instance, occurred both within the boundaries of a proposed logging project and about half a mile from a proposed natural-gas well. : This section of Branch Creek, in Allegheny National Forest, was good for watching synchronous fireflies in late June. "This might be where they're all coming from."īut for the environmental activists who first noted the fireflies last summer, the insects mean something else, too: a chance to spotlight the industrialization of Pennsylvania's only national forest, a hotbed of logging and gas drilling. "I think we're in the epicenter of these little buggers," says Lynn Faust, the Tennessee-based biologist who led the research team. The find, about three hours' drive north of Pittsburgh, suggests the untold species diversity the ANF might harbor. There, researchers have confirmed the existence of these synchronous fireflies, a phenomenon previously verified in North America only in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The scene occurred in late June, deep within Allegheny National Forest. Then the first few fireflies spark, and the cycle begins anew. The sudden darkness is as mesmerizing as the light show itself, like a power failure interrupting a wild party. Then, abruptly, all the fireflies - all of them - go dark. It's a seasonal mating ritual, and in the woods' deep quiet, it's beautiful. Patterns of light emerge, a rising and falling wave of silent, slow-motion fireworks glowing in subtle shades of white and orange. But odds are you haven't seen them like this: On a wooded night-time hillside along a creek, 100 or more of the insects float through the air, blinking on and off. If successful, they will be awarded a parking pass.Everyone's seen fireflies. Lottery applicants for the synchronous firefly viewings will be notified if their application was successful or not by Thursday, May 11. Successful applicants will automatically be awarded parking passes and a $24.00 reservation fee will be charged to the same credit or debit card used for the application fee. through Monday, May 1 at 8 p.m.Īll lottery applicants will be charged a $1.00 application fee. The public may apply for the limited viewing opportunity by entering a lottery for a vehicle pass through The lottery for vehicle pass applications opens Friday, April 28 at 10 a.m. GSMNP will host the annual synchronous firefly viewings at Elkmont Campground beginning June 4 through June 11. A limited number of park visitors will have the opportunity to watch the “lightning bugs” in their late-spring flash patterns up in the Smokies. ( WATE) - The dates have been announced for the 2023 viewings of the famous synchronous fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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