SERPENTINE Download
Laurice Whack
As part of the recovery, several historic buildings in Cruz Bay and elsewhere have been refurbished, and archaeological sites and hiking trails in the national park, including the serpentine Reef Bay Trail, have been restored or upgraded.
Located along the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, the State Line Serpentine Barrens contains some of the last major remnants of serpentine grassland in eastern North America. The thin soils covering this light-green bedrock contain high levels of nickel, chromium and other metals that prove toxic to most plants and animals. This habitat, while lacking nutrients, supports unusual, rare or endangered species that have adapted to the harsh environment over thousands of years.
TNC joined Concerned Citizens of West Nottingham Township in 1979 to oppose a proposed serpentine rock quarry, and has acquired additional tracts containing this fragile habitat since then. In some cases, TNC transferred ownership to like-minded public and private landowners. In other cases, TNC retained ownership and long-term management, including prescribed burning, tree cutting, leaf removal, replanting serpentine grasses, protecting buffer lands, maintaining trails, and mapping and monitoring.
This ecosystem needs periodic fire to wipe out the forest and old-field plants that begin to invade when fire is suppressed. The regular fires that once defined this landscape promote prairie grasses, pitch pines, wildflower meadows and cliff outcroppings that serve as prime habitat for rare plants such as the round-leaved fameflower, very hairy chickweed and the serpentine aster, found nowhere else in the world. Additional plants include a diverse fern community of marginal shield, hay scented, Christmas, interrupted and maidenhair, and warm-season grasses such as prairie dropseed and arrow-feather.
The Rose Trail is named for Rose Chase who donated property to TNC in the late 1970s and early 1980s and spearheaded the grassroots efforts by Concerned Citizens of West Nottingham Township to protect the serpentine barrens.
The Serpentine Barrens Best Natural Area is considered one of the most important natural areas in the county because of its unique geology and plant community. Serpentine ecosystems are globally rare and occur intermittently in an arc east of the Appalachian Mountains from Alabama to Maine. The largest serpentine ecosystems on the east coast are found in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park Best Natural Area is south of Travilah Road and extends west from Piney Meetinghouse Road and is directly south of the Rockville Crushed Stone Quarry.
Serpentine belts are useful in that their automatic belt tensioners eliminate the need to perform the routine belt-tightening maintenance required in a vintage car (loosening the nut and bolt on the tension track, manually rotating the alternator on its pivot bolt to tension the belt, then tightening the bolt). And having a single belt that spins all the engine accessories does simplify things somewhat (though my E39, M Coupe, and Z3 have two serpentine belts as pictured above, with a separate belt and tensioner for the a/c compressor).
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