There is more to Mercer County than rusting industrial sites, Prime Outlets and Reyers Shoe Store.

It might take a little work, but you also can see ospreys nesting along Lake Wilhelm, a floating peat mat in the Mercer Bog and the American columbo, a plant that flowers only once every seven years.

Beyond the economic centers, the county is a rich and diverse natural world of secretive rattlesnakes, bird breeding grounds and unique plant life.

It's all detailed in the Mercer County Natural Heritage Inventory, conducted by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and funded by the state and private donors.

The state wants to have inventories conducted in all counties by 2006.

Ecologist and research specialist Robert Coxe compiled the inventory from existing data, his own field studies and the help of environmental specialists and interested property owners.