MOR AV I A N CO L L E G E

“
I’d never heArd of A PLAnT that produced seeds
that mimicked animals,” kuserk said. but there it was, identified
with the help of his student researcher, brian birchak ’09, as a
full-fledged “snailseed pond weed.” “I’d convinced brian that
they were snails,” said kuserk; “then he went on the Internet
and found ‘snailseed.’ We also looked at where they were found
in the world and, sure enough, one site was Carbon County,
Pennsylvania, where we were.”
The search for life in that and other nearby bodies of water
has been part of kuserk’s two-pronged study, with biology chair
diane husic, of the damage caused by fumes that poured from
the zinc smelters in the northeast part of the state for more than
seven decades before they shut down in the 1970s. The other
prong has been a study of the Lehigh river gap to determine
whether efforts to restore a huge tract of land devastated by the
smelters have had positive results. It has been an environmental
Protection Agency Superfund site for many years.
Much of the forest in the downwind path of the sulfuric acid
that belched from the smelters had become barren, rock-strewn
wasteland. The acid wiped out the vegetation (in addition to
Was It Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral
or More ThAn one?
AS A bIoLogY ProfeSSor, frAnk T. kUSerk hAd Seen PLenTY of exoTIC
orgAnISMS, bUT feW SUrPrISed hIM LIke The one he CAMe UPon In A neArbY Pond.
IT Looked To hIM LIke A PLAnorbId SnAIL. bUT IT TUrned oUT To be SoMeThIng
even More UnUSUAL: A PLAnT ThAT gIveS off SeedS ThAT Look LIke SnAILS.
14.
fostering acid rain) and subsequently wind eroded the soil. The
most blighted territory was the northern slope of the blue Mountains.
five years ago, the researchers began efforts to revive the
region, much of it now under the ownership of the Lehigh gap
refuge in and around the community of Palmerton.
The acid wiped out the vegetation and subse-
quently wind eroded the soil. The most
blighted territory was the northern slope of
the blue Mountains. five years ago, the
researchers began efforts to revive the re-
gion, much of it now under the ownership
of the Lehigh gap refuge in and around the
community of Palmerton.