“Rare plants used to grow here,” said Milewski, associate professor of biology and chair of the stewardship committee for the bog, which is owned by The Nature Conservancy. “We cleared the wild plants out on a test basis to see what will happen. Hopefully, the added sunlight will allow those rare plants to bloom again.”

More than a year ago, Milewski submitted a proposal to The Nature Conservancy for permission to clear areas to give the native plants a chance to reappear near the bog’s boardwalk. After the plan was approved, Milewski led a group of ESU students, alumni, and a retired faculty member to work Saturdays in fall, winter and early spring. Volunteers removed trees, shrubs, and invasive plants out of three designated areas. The removed vegetation was converted to mulch.

Milewski hopes to see the return of plants he used to see growing in the bog, such as yellow-eyed grasses, a rare white-fringed orchid, rose pogonia orchids, some rare sedges and various carnivorous plants.

“In early 1986 or 1987 when this area was open, I met an old man, who remembered back to the ’20s and ’30s when the space was full of orchids. He said people used to pick the flowers for the altars for one of the local churches,” said Milewski, who has a doctorate in plant ecology and has worked at ESU since 1979. “We’d like to get those orchids back again.”

The project space was chosen in part because it is a spot where naturalists stop to talk during their educational tours. “We want to create something that will be a vista, where you can look across and see vegetation,” Milewski said.

Two additional areas have been cleared to encourage the growth of sedges, cotton grass, bog rosemary, pale laurel and cranberry. An endangered species of butterfly, the cranberry-bog copper, needs cranberries for its caterpillars to feed on.

Though the desired vegetation hasn’t grown in the bog for decades, Milewski explained that seed banks stay preserved in the moss and are still viable for years buried in wetlands and bogs. If the test areas are successful, Milewski plans to propose a new vegetation management plan for other areas of the bog.

The project has been a valuable experience for students.

“I am passionate about environmental issues, and the plant management project provided me with a hands-on way to help with ecological management,” said Victoria Schaller, a graduate student in biology interested in conservation management and restoration.

Another graduate student, Jennifer Vranicar, is working on creating an educational bulletin board for the parking lot at the bog.

A bog is a wetland dominated by a dense growth of sphagnum moss, underlain by peat rather than mineral soils, and having acidic water. The Tannersville Cranberry Bog, located on Cranberry Creek, is a prime example of a boreal bog — a wetland typically found in northern latitudes. Its moss acts like a wet, spongy air conditioner, which allows plants found in more northern climes to grow there. The Tannersville bog is the southernmost boreal bog east of the Mississippi River and is designated as a National Wildlife Landmark.

The Cranberry Bog is 100 acres and the reserve to protect the bog is nearly 1,000 acres. A boardwalk suspended on floating barrels was installed in the 1980s, to allow for guided tours. Another loop of boardwalk was installed by the Air National Guard in the early ’90s. The bog is not open to the public, but guided tours are offered regularly.

Mitchel, who joined the ESU faculty in 1961 and retired at the end of the Fall 2008 semester, recounted some of many changes she has seen in her 47 years at the university.

“The entire campus was a suitcase campus,” she recalled. “Everyone, including faculty, went home for the weekend. For one semester in the 1960s, the university had Saturday classes, but that didn’t go over very well.”

“Teacher education was the focus of the school (then East Stroudsburg State Teachers College) and many of the departments were service departments, supporting education,” she noted. “The Art Department taught only a small number of courses, including Art in Childhood Education.”

To prepare the undergraduates to teach art Mitchel and Art Department faculty had to be multi-faceted, developing lessons in basic drawing, sculpting, ceramics, printmaking, painting and other media. “The students were expected to perform at the level of a fine arts class,” she noted.

As the campus expanded, the Art Department moved several times, from the basement of old Stroud Hall, to Larue Hall to Oakes Hall and finally, in 1979, to the Fine and Performing Arts Center which contained studios and a permanent gallery space for the department.

“Years ago, classes were smaller,” Mitchel noted. I remember that I used to invite my Women in Art class to my house for refreshments and discussions, and to plan trips into New York City.”

Mitchel’s many trips with students into New York City were just one aspect of her travels. “Born with a wanderlust to learn about other cultures,” as she says. Mitchel began traveling abroad in early 1970s with an 18-day summer exchange trip to Japan.

“I stayed with an engineer for Subaru and his wife, an art teacher,” she said, “and learned about art programs in Japanese schools. Then I hosted an exchange guest from Japan at my home during the summer.”

From the mid-’70s to the late 1990s, she led summer tours or taught summer study-aboard courses, including multiple trips to Russia, China, Salzburg, Austria and France, and expeditions to India, Turkey, Egypt and throughout Western Europe.

She recalled a faculty exchange program to Poland that she participated in during the 1970s. “The students at the university were doing so much art. In their classes, they were learning and working in the officially-approved ‘socialist realism’ style. In their free time, they worked in contemporary styles and were well-informed about American and Western European art.”

“Whenever I was engaged in overseas art programs, I also examined the music and theater of the country,” Mitchel explained. “People need to become acquainted with other cultures first-hand through the country’s art in its natural environment. The experience is so much more significant.”

Mitchel’s journey to ESU began when her parents encouraged her interest in drawing and painting. She did fliers, posters and illustrated Bible stories for the churches in the area of Luzurne County where she grew up. Though there were no art courses in high school, she continued to find artistic opportunities, doing posters and painting scenery for plays.

An excellent student, Mitchel seemed poised to graduate at the top of her class and earn a four-year scholarship to Misercordia College. At the last minute, however, the class averages were recalculated and she lost the top position.

Instead of the scholarship, Mitchel did earn the American Legion Award, which she still considers “a greater honor.” Her chemistry teacher recommended her for a job doing advertising for Percy Brown’s, a prominent Wilkes-Barre restaurant.

“Percy Brown’s was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot, but the dream of going to college never left,” Mitchel said. “Everyone at work kept telling me that I should be an art teacher. My mother and father told to select a college and that they would help me pursue my dream.

Mitchel graduated from what is now Kutztown University in three and one half years. “I was supposed to receive two awards at graduation,” but I was already teaching in Wilmington, Del., and missed graduation.”

“I had an opportunity to think about this event as I was preparing to serve as grand marshal for the December commencement,” she said. “It would have been nice to have received those awards from the president. I now realize the pride that professors take in awarding honors.”

From Wilmington, Mitchel returned to Luzerne County, where she was supervisor of art for six and one half years. During that time, she earned her master’s degree from Penn State and began studying for her doctorate.

When the chair of the Art Education Department at Penn State recommended Mitchel for a teaching job at East Stroudsburg, she was a bit surprised. “I thought that you had to be teaching for 15 or 20 years to teach at the college level, but I only had been teaching seven and one half years. He later told me that I was ready to teach at the college level when I graduated from Kutztown.”

Mitchel felt her interview with Dr. Madelon Powers, chair of ESU’s art department, wasn’t as strong as it could have been since she was distracted by her uncle’s death. She received the job, however, and continued work on her doctorate, completing it in 1968.

During her years at ESU, Mitchel served several times as department chair and also as director of the Madelon Powers Gallery. Though she had offers of jobs at other universities, “I declined because I was contented to be at ESU, and wanted to be of service to the university and the students.”

At a luncheon held in her honor before her retirement, Mitchel looked back on her career. “Teaching continues to be as interesting and gratifying to me as the first day I began to teach.”

She added, “I want to convey the thought that my experience at ESU has been a wonderful one, since it opened the door to many interesting and challenging opportunities for me … in spirit, I’ll always be a part of ESU.”

Waters was the professional and secondary education graduate program coordinator and department chair. She has been a member of the University Institutional Research Board, the Faculty Development and Research Committee, the APSCUF Executive Committee, the NCATE Accreditation Steering Committee, and co-chair of the Middle States Faculty Task Force.

She has received more than 25 grants for work such as developing a virtual education academy for disaffected youth, investigating the progress of Pennsylvania schools in the federal No Child Left Behind mandates, and developing of one of four Centers for Teaching Excellence in Pennsylvania.

Waters earned her bachelor of science degree at Bucknell University, a master’s in education at Trenton State University, and her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. She remains an active scholar with multiple publications and frequent professional presentations on a wide variety of topics