OUR MISSION AND VISION
Nathan’s Divide Watershed Education Center
Our Mission: To encourage our community to come together for environmental stewardship.
Our Vision: To become the region’s destination for environmental education, outdoor recreation, and wellness
Our vision is to become the region’s destination for water-related environmental education
- A community center with displays that will enable visitors to understand:
- How rain and groundwater provide clean drinking water
- How sewage is collected, treated, and discharged back into a river
- How a drop of water that falls on the eastern side of the divide flows into the Atlantic Ocean and a drop that falls on the western side flows to the Gulf of Mexico
- Offering community participation and volunteer opportunities
- Modeling sustainable practices with a LEED designed building, natural landscaping, and permeable pavement
- Hosting a Resource Center that provides educators, parents, and children with a wide variety of environmental education materials
- Displaying art works devoted to water themes
Nathan’s Divide Watershed Education Center
Nathan’s Divide is a regional facility located near the Eastern Continental Divide and dedicated to providing the highest quality programs focused nature and our environment. The programs include natural science, conservation, history, culture, outdoor education, environmental stewardship, recreation, art, and community service.
The entry road is located less than 2 miles north of the center of Ebensburg, Pennsylvania at the water reservoir owned by the Ebensburg Municipal Authority in Cambria County. The address is 1278 N. Center St. Ebensburg, PA 15931
Planned Activities
- Fun
- Fishing
- Kayaking and Canoeing
- Forest Canopy Tour
- Health
- Walking, Hiking Trails
- Running, Skiing, Snowshoeing
- Outdoor Fitness Area
- Learning
- Indoor and Outdoor Classrooms
- Bird Watching
- Plant and Animal Identification
Many children can identify over 1,000 corporate logos but fewer than 10 plants and animals native to their region.
95% of all learning is estimated to take place outside the classrooms.
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one’s sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.” –Theodore Roosevelt
OUR BLOG
Nathan’s Divide Launch Meeting
Launch Meeting launched; launching; launches Definition of launch 1a: to throw forward b: to release, catapult, or send off (a self-propelled object) 2a: to set (a boat or ship) afloat b: to give (a person) a start c(1): to put into operation or set in motion (2): to get off to a good start Nathan’s [...]
Creativity
Last weekend, Dave and I were hiking on some trails through The Divide with our friend, Marty. We saw an old board nailed to a tree and began talking about spending time in the woods as kids. Of course the guys discussed the “cabins” that they made and how they were able to develop various [...]
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Dame’s Rocket grows up to 4 feet high and is quite fragrant, especially in the evening. This may be at least partially responsible for the plant’s scientific name. The genus name “Hesperis” refers to evening, while “matronalis” has the same root as matron, meaning a woman. Individual flowers are about ¾ to 1 inch in diameter. The four sepals form a tube around the base of the flower. There are six stamens in two groups.
The color of the flowers varies from white to pink to violet. Sometimes plants produce flowers streaked with two different colors. The flowers at the bottom of the cluster bloom first. The plant forms a rosette of leaves near the ground the first year and only flowers in the second year.
As seed pods form, the top of the stem lengthen, allowing other flower buds space to open. The fruit is a long slender pod containing many seeds in one row. The number of seeds produced by one plant can be very high.
Dame’s Rocket is either a biennial or a short-lived perennial, blooming only in its second year. The alternate leaves are pointed, toothed, and attached to the stem with a short stalk. Both stems and leaves are covered with fine hairs.
Because it can dominate an area and eliminate native plants it is considered an invasive or noxious weed in many parts of the country, especially in agricultural areas of the Midwest. In Michigan citizens are urged to uproot it when they see it. Its sale is banned in Connecticut and Massachusetts. There are no legal restrictions in Pennsylvania at this time, but using it as a garden plant will likely lead to more of this invasive species growing in natural areas.
On the slightly positive site, it most often grows in disturbed areas, where competition with native plants is limited. It also provides nectar for insects and hummingbirds.
It is common in many parts of the United States except the arctic and the Gulf Coast. It is also called Damask Violet, Dame's Violet, Dame's Gillflower, Night-Scented Gilliflower, Queen's Gilliflower, Rogue's Gilliflower, Mother-of-the-Evening, Summer Lilac or Sweet Rocket.
I took this photograph in Hopewell Twp., Beaver County, PA on May 17, 2023.