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What Is This Place Called ChicoryLane?
Well, it depends on your viewpoint.
by Catherine Smith
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Areas
Within ChicoryLane’s surveyed boundaries are a dozen or more distinct ecological areas. Geology, terrain, hydrology, and history have created these places of diverse conditions. Whether dry upland fields; wet lowlands; old and young forests; persistent or ephemeral streams; house, barn, and yard, each offers distinct habitats for wildlife and experiences of nature for people. These are parts of the whole, ChicoryLane.
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We (Catherine and John Smith) now co-own and operate this private 68.78-acre property. We have lived here for five decades and conserved it for two decades. Before us, property owners timbered, built, farmed, pastured, and lived here since 1775, twenty-five decades. Wildlife has always been here.
Sometimes, trying to understand what is here, we characterize ChicoryLane’s areas as ecotopes or miniature ecosystems. Ecotope is a term landscape planners use to analyze a measured unit of a landscape holistically, taking into account all its internal parts, processes, and influential contexts. We also like philosopher Aldo Leopold‘s term the land for the same assembly.
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What's in a Name?
When you are someplace, how do you know where you are? One way is by its name.
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When the property we now own was surveyed for the Penn family in 1766, the surveyor Samuel Maclay named it Hopewell. That name does not appear on ownership deeds, however. When we moved here, we simply called it the farm. After living here awhile, I romantically named it chicory (Cichorium intybus), for my favorite flower, and lane because that was more poetic than driveway. John whimsically styled the name ChicoryLane as one word reflecting the naming conventions used in computer science, his former profession. James Lesher likes to remind me that chicory is not native to this region. My reply is that I’m not native either; the chicory and I originated elsewhere and have naturalized here.
The distinct ecological areas inside the property’s boundaries don’t have formal names yet. Generally, we simply refer to them by their primary condition (wet) or by location (front field) or by our experience in them.
For example, experience identifies (for us) a particular spot in the sixteen-acre field behind the log house. Some evenings in March and April just after sunset, we sit in the Gator near that spot to hear male American woodcocks (Scolopax minor; common names timberdoodle, mudbat, bogsucker, night partridge) peent and watch them flutter-fly in the dim light. Biologists call their activity mating display. Naturalists call the location singing or dancing grounds. We haven’t recorded the activity happening at ChicoryLane yet. If you have not heard or seen it, here’s a video of the ritual elsewhere.
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Out west, they call land or water where animals congregate to perform mating rituals a lek. If there is a name for it in the east, I don’t know it. Probably there are many mating sites at ChicoryLane; we have observed only one, that spot in a field where woodcocks perform. It’s too small to show up on a topographic map, but maybe you can imagine it: a depression or swale in an open field on the Penns Valley side of Brush Mountain. (arrow in image)
This swale connects wetlands west of the field to woods east of it. Its soil type differs from the rest of the field. Maybe the woodcocks like the soil there. Or maybe it’s the swale’s proximity to wetlands where they feed, poking long bills into mud for earthworms, or to woods where they nest.
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In the years of crop farming, wheat and corn were grown in that field. Instead, we planted grasses – switchgrass and Indian grass along with big and little bluestem grass – to rest the soil and to provide cover for ground-nesting birds. And we wanted to recreate a prairie. Did you know prairies existed in central Pennsylvania? One such prairie (now a residential subdivision) is identified on old maps as 'the Plains' a few miles west of ChicoryLane. Maybe American woodcocks, an eastern grouse variety, mate in ChicoryLane’s grasslands in kinship to their western relatives, sage hens (Centrocercus urophasianus) and prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) that sing and dance in leks there.
Historians say that native Americans living in densely forested Penns Wood regularly burned the openings we call prairies to keep them open. Burning improved conditions for cultivation and hunting. Interestingly, the switchgrass we planted in that field has grown too thick even for nesting; burning would improve conditions for wildlife.
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Paths
When you are in a place, how do you move around? At ChicoryLane, you use paths. We have made paths to connect places, people to places, and people to wildlife. For example, John likes to observe birds, frogs, and turtles in the vernal pools. So, he regularly mows paths to and around the pools so he can sit in the Gator to check on them. I like to sit on a bench in a field up top contemplating the long views of ridge and valley.
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I go there by walking an old path that originated in farmers’ need to move equipment up to the hilltop field. Now we keep it open by mowing. As I walk, a turkey might slip from the path ahead of me into the trees or a deer might jump across. A startled rabbit or feral cat (once, a bobcat) might flee into the undergrowth.
| In the mid 1990s, we (Catherine and John) flew cross-country from east to west in a small single engine airplane. Moving along at @ 150 mph and elevation 3,000 to 10,000 feet, we watched the American landscape gradually unfurling in front, around, and below us. Walking ChicoryLane’s mowed paths is something like that. Ambling or Gatoring along at ground level, walkers and riders look all around, scanning areas minus the details. An important difference is that walking or Gatoring invites pausing. If something catches your attention. you can stop to listen or look more closely. Point your camera or microphone. Maybe sit awhile, reflect, engage. | |
Maps
When you are moving from place to place, how do you find direction? If you’re walking or riding, particular sights, sounds, trees or rocks orient you. In our cross-country flight, we relied on several aids. In those days before Google Earth or navigation software, our small plane had limited direction-finding equipment. We navigated by VOR (Very High Frequency Omni-directional Range) signals to find waypoints and instructions from air traffic control radio to set or adjust our route.
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But we needed topographic orientation. So, we also used maps that showed notable ground features as well as airspaces. Traveling with us inside our two-seater plane was a cardboard box filled with Visual Flying Rules (VFR) sectional charts. As we departed one airspace to enter another, I (the passenger) fished in the box for the right chart, folded it to the right section, and handed it to John (the pilot), who strapped it on his knee for quick eyeballing when needed to interpret air traffic control’s radioed instructions. We did the same for airports to set our approach to the runway air traffic control instructed us to use.
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Maps and charts simplify complex physical reality to make it understandable to people. ChicoryLane’s maps do that and more. They are artful renderings of landscape by James Lesher (pictured left), who is a visual artist trained in landscape architecture, experienced in oldfield conservation, and steeped in ChicoryLane’s landscape. For more than two decades, James has managed this property to conserve it. When something especially interests him, he photographs, sketches, or paints it in watercolor. To orient visitors, he creates colorful area maps that characterize the place and help people get their bearings.
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Areas, Paths, and Maps
If you visit ChicoryLane, you’ll find James’ area maps posted on wooden stands at the heads and main divisions of paths. As you walk along, pause at a sign to get oriented.
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So what? Why does it matter?
Walking at ChicoryLane is satisfying. And surprising. Same area, different experience each time. The second or third time around, familiar scenes reveal complexity, stir curiosity and maybe emotion. You connect with something outside yourself. Try it on your home ground. Or visit ChicoryLane. See below for directions and contact information.
References
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Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1968; 1948)
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Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, Home Ground (2013; 2006)
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David M.Carroll, Following the Water (2009)
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Douglas Macneal, A Penns Creek Companion (2021; 2005)
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Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways (2012)
- Ecotope:
.................The Anthroecology Lab
.................ChicoryLane Ecotope Components
.................Wikipedia: Ecotope
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Open Days
On June 7 ChicoryLane welcomed visitors to meander on their own with trail maps or follow guided walks in late spring. One walk followed the stream to meet an enormous Crack Willow tree, then on to the vernal pools and farm pond to check on wildlife nesting and feeding. Another guided walk led up a gently sloping trail to the reforested hilltop, ending with valley-wide-and-long views. Talks on ChicoryLane’s historic log home, old field ecology, and present-day conservation were other options.
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We look forward to welcoming visitors at another Open Day on October 18. On your own or with a guide, you can explore ChicoryLane’s habitats in early fall. Hear a talk on waterway history and learn about water quality testing.
Watch for details in upcoming newsletters and event announcements.
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2025 Events at a Glance
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Writing in Place with Travis Wingard, PSU Extension Educator - July 23
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Ecological Enhancement with John Smith, James Lesher, Sam Stoltzfus - August 9
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Black Walnut Natural Dyeing with Cathryn Pugh, PSU Extension Educator - August 16
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Fall Bird Walk with Joe Gyekis - September 13
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Fall Open Day with various guides - October 18
See detail here, including event times and descriptions
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ChicoryLane is an ecological reserve near Spring Mills protected by a Conservation Easement held by Clearwater Conservancy. Its 68 acres are actively managed for conservation.
The landscape is natural and scenic. It includes wetlands and meadows, streams, remnant and successional forests, and a grassland. This diversity of habitats is especially inviting to birds and butterflies. A system of mowed trails makes most of the property accessible to walkers.
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