Shaffer Mountain Bog
On Thursday, Dennis McNair and I went to a bog on Shaffer Mountain in Somerset County. I had never been to this area and saw some things that I had never seen before. Shaffer Mountain is an area that has been in the news lately, as a number of individuals and groups, including Sensible Wind Solutions and the Allegheny Plateau Audubon Society, are opposing Gamesa’s proposed placement of wind turbines on this mountaintop. Shaffer Mountain is in the Golden Eagle migratory route and is an important area watershed. 
This beautiful flower is a Yellow Crested Orchid, or Crested-Fringed Orchid, (Platanthera cristata). It is a species of special concern in Pennsylvania, meaning it is on the federal endangered species list or on the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory list of endangered, rare, vulnerable or of undetermined status (meaning they haven't been seen often enough historically to make a determination). This orchid, and similar examples of biodiversity such as this, will go into hopefully persuading regulators to have Gamesa locate the turbines in a more suitable location.
This beautiful flower is a Yellow Crested Orchid, or Crested-Fringed Orchid, (Platanthera cristata). It is a species of special concern in Pennsylvania, meaning it is on the federal endangered species list or on the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory list of endangered, rare, vulnerable or of undetermined status (meaning they haven't been seen often enough historically to make a determination). This orchid, and similar examples of biodiversity such as this, will go into hopefully persuading regulators to have Gamesa locate the turbines in a more suitable location.
Tawny Cottongrass, or Bog Cotton, (Eriophorum virginicum) was another plant found at the Shaffer Mountain bog that I had never seen before.
Puffs of Cottongrass appear like floating cottonballs among the ferns at the bog.
I had seen Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) before, but usually in the tasty red berry form. Seeing the white flower may have been a first for me. 
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