Field Station to Host Sixth Annual Chipping Party
Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010
The Field Station has become the center of a tradition, now in its sixth year at Westminster College. On Saturday, Feb. 6, from 9:30 a.m.-noon, Christmas trees that have been gathered from the community will be turned into chips that have use as mulch around trees and on trails. The event is open to all who wish to spend a morning outdoors enjoying some vigorous activity toting trees to the chipper. Regardless of the weather, warmth will come from the physical activity and hot drinks!
Alumni and friends from Pittsburgh, Smicksburg, eastern Ohio and even from across the state of Pennsylvania have, in past years, come to pay their respects to trees that have graced homes during the holidays. These trees, so useful for a short time in December, are grown as a cash crop and deserve much more than a small spot in a landfill. Since chipping parties were first held at the Field Station in February 2005 more than 500 trees have been recycled and turned back to the soil from which they came.
An added feature of this year's festivity will be the unveiling of a sign that officially names the fenced-in weather instruments as the Robert V. Travis Weather Station. Dr. Travis, a retired professor of biology at Westminster, established the weather station in its present location back in 1980 when the Field Station was just a primitive outpost for environmental studies. Those now-obsolete instruments that recorded air temperature, humidity, barometric pressure and rainfall have been replaced by a solar-powered, wireless and computerized system that provides at least 20 parameters of weather data. Both systems will be on display at the chipping party.
Contact Dr. Clarence Harms, director of the Field Station, at (724) 946-8520, e-mail harmsc@westminster.edu, or visit www.westminster.edu/green for additional information.
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