PECO has provided Bucks County Community College with a $10,000 grant to support a habitat restoration project, beginning this spring, in Tyler State Park serving indigenous birds, butterflies, and plants.
Two of the three habitats will be planted in the beginning of spring with the help of PECO staff, Bucks students, and other community volunteers.  Ramona Riscoe Benton, PECO Corporate Relations director was noted saying, “This habitat restoration demonstrates our ongoing commitment to helping our communities protect and improve green spaces across the Greater Philadelphia region”.
The first two habitats spread over a one and a half acre area at the main entrance of the park.  These habitats will be planted with milkweed plugs as well as native seed mixes.
The third but largest habitat, which is about 10 acres, will be located on the western side of the park.  This habitat will take about five years to fully restore.
A few key components of all three of these new habitats include avoidance of insecticides, native milkweed to provide food for monarch caterpillars, and a mix of native flowers with different bloom times, including some overlap in the blooming, to ensure a stable food source for the butterflies.
Being that this is a large restoration project, many groups of people have partnered up in helping out with it.  STEM instructor Michael Bernarsky is leading the project with the park manager Brian Flores.  Many others are involved as well such as Bucks’ Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics department, PECO, the community, and Tyler State Park.
Michael Bernarsky was quoted saying, “This project presents our STEM students with a unique opportunity to father, report, and interpret actual scientific data, thus providing insight into how much information becomes scientific knowledge in their textbooks”.  He also said, “PECO’s financial support of our project has provided the launch pad toward making these opportunities for our students a reality”.
It is noted that PECO is spending $15.3 million over a five year span to help protect and preserve everything green.
These three habitats are part of the nation-wide effort to save the monarch butterflies.   Over 12,000 habitats are registered through MonarchWatch.org which is a research program based at the University of Kansas.  Their mission is to educate the public about monarch butterflies’ biology and migration, as well as how to use monarchs to further science education in schools.
Park manager Brian Flores mentioned that “this habitat-restoration project will enhance the park’s natural resources and provide additional opportunities for the parks’ environmental education program and park visitors”.
Later in the spring there will be a formal dedication of the habitats.