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Penn State Master Watershed Steward Volunteers Lead Stream Assessment In Allegheny County

By Hobi Nulis April 30, 2023 No comments

Have you noticed a ping pong ball or rubber duck floating along a stream in one of Allegheny County's parks recently? No need to worry. The items likely are not trash, but part of a three-year stream assessment by Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward volunteers.

These objects can help calculate the streamflow and provide useful data about the health of a stream.

Three Master Watershed Stewards from Allegheny County — Laurie Maglietta, Stephanie Rakowski, and Lauren Terpak — are team leaders for the stream assessment in the county’s nine regional parks.

"They've demonstrated remarkable professionalism, leadership, and dedication in their work on this extended project," said Mary Wilson, Master Watershed Steward coordinator in Allegheny County.

The task arose when members of the Allegheny County government contacted Wilson, looking for help with stream assessment in the county parks. Wilson saw the opportunity for Master Watershed Stewards to assist.

The project is a collaboration between the Master Watershed Steward program in Allegheny County and the Allegheny County Parks Foundation. A grant awarded to the foundation supported the purchase of equipment and supplies.

Grant funding was made possible through the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds and is intended to support evaluating the park system’s water quality and developing a plan to mitigate concerns identified.

Wilson trained the volunteers to conduct three types of stream assessments: biological, chemical, and visual. Biological assessments involve identifying macroinvertebrates, the presence of which can indicate good stream health.

In chemical assessments, scientists sample water from the streams to test for parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. A visual assessment entails walking along the stream to evaluate various factors, including erosion, riparian buffers, tree canopy, and fish habitat.

The project kicked off last year with 16 volunteers. More volunteers are joining the effort as the project shifts to larger parks. The stewards will focus on three parks per year for three years.

The more people involved in the Master Watershed Steward program, the greater the potential environmental benefit, noted Terpak.

"You can make a much bigger impact within the watershed when more people are helping in all facets — whether it’s a stream assessment, litter and trash removal, or invasive species management," she said.

In this project, Terpak aims to match volunteers with tasks that interest them.

"If somebody is really interested in learning about macroinvertebrates, they could lead that particular effort," she said. "If somebody is really 'techie,' they could help oversee the tablet and data-entry portion."

The county developed software for volunteers to track the data they collect.

"One of our tasks is to make recommendations about what we think could happen to improve the water quality — possibly tree planting or removal of invasive species or some kind of streambank stabilization or remediation," said Maglietta. "In the future, if the park decided to do something like that, they could reach out to the Master Watershed Steward program for help."

Maglietta said the program has made her more confident about ways to help the environment.

"I think the biggest part of that stems from the fact that we now have enough knowledge to share what we know with other people and spread the word about how things work and what people can do to combat the problem," she said.

Rakowski appreciates the continuous opportunities for learning.

"A Master Watershed Steward is supposed to help educate the community — well, it works flipside," she said. "I walk away having learned something new every day from the people I'm with."

Maglietta, Terpak, and Rakowski all remarked on the energizing nature of the Master Watershed Steward community.

"In this program, you’re working with people who want to be there and are eager to help," Maglietta said. "Every time I go out, even though we come home covered with burs and mud, I feel so good about being with these people because it's such a positive bunch."

The Penn State Master Watershed Steward program provides extensive training in watershed management to volunteers who, in return, educate the community about watershed stewardship based on university research and recommendations.

The program was established to strengthen local capacity for management and protection of watersheds, streams, and rivers by educating and empowering volunteers across the Commonwealth.

Anyone interested in becoming a Master Watershed Steward can learn more about the program on the Penn State Extension website.

(Reprinted from the Penn State Extension Watershed Winds newsletter. Click Here to sign up for your own copy (bottom of the page).)

Upcoming Extension Events:

-- October 26: Webinar: Growing Water Wise - Stormwater Challenges

-- October 27: Webinar: Master Watershed Steward Information Session For PA Wilds

-- November 1: Safe Drinking Water Clinic Youngsville, Warren County

-- January 11: Webinars (9 Part Series): Woods In Your Backyard Series

Celebrating 10 Years Of Volunteer Impact - Greening The Lower Susquehanna

By Hobi Nulis April 20, 2023 No comments

By Kristen Koch, Penn State Agriculture & Environment Center

For 10 years volunteers have been partnering with the Penn State Agriculture and Environment Center, Penn State Extension, and other conservation organizations in Dauphin, Lebanon, and Lancaster Counties through a program called Greening the Lower Susquehanna.

This program provides opportunities for individuals, families, and groups to spend a few hours planting trees, performing maintenance on past tree plantings, cleaning up litter, weeding rain gardens, live staking stream banks, or other practices that help improve the health of local waterways.

Since the start of the program in 2012:

-- 176 events have been held;

-- 4,608 volunteers have attended events contributing over 12,000 hours of time;

-- Over 12 tons of trash have been cleaned up from roadways and public land;

-- Over 8,000 live stakes have been planted in streambanks where they can grow into new trees;

-- 5 rain gardens have been planted;

-- Over 18,000 trees have been planted; and

-- Over 32 acres of already planted trees have been maintained.

Using the 2022 volunteer rate of $29.95 determined by the Independent Sector, the time given by these volunteers is valued at over $350,000.

The value of the work itself is significantly more.

The volunteers have assisted over 30 different partner organizations to implement conservation practices on municipal parklands, homeowner association community space, farms, residential property, commercial/business property, and schoolyards.

Some volunteers come out to a single event or several events in a single season. Other volunteers have become regulars- people who come out to multiple events every season and who have become experts in all the activities.

And in some cases, those volunteers have gone above and beyond by also becoming committed volunteers with other non-profit conservation organizations, getting their workplace involved and volunteering as a group, or implementing a project on their property.

In fact, of the Greening the Lower Susquehanna volunteers that participated in a voluntary survey about the program, 63% of them had made changes on their property because of what they learned coming to events.

Many of these repeat volunteers also try to educate others and bring family members, friends, and mentees to participate.

While providing experiences to volunteers is meaningful in itself, seeing the trees, live stakes, and other vegetation grow over time and make positive environmental change is incredibly rewarding for the Greening the Lower Susquehanna coordinators and the volunteers alike.

By "greening" the Lower Susquehanna region, these projects are reducing erosion of streambanks, providing habitat for wildlife both in and out of the streams, supporting pollinators, reducing stormwater runoff, filtering pollutants, creating shade, and much more.

In the words of one volunteer, "it only takes a little bit of effort to make a huge difference in our watershed."

Upcoming Events

The fall planting season is in full swing. You can sign up to join our next event in Hershey on Saturday, October 22, or can find out about future events by emailing VolunteerGreen@psu.edu. You can also follow along through social media.

[For more information, visit the Greening the Lower Susquehanna webpage.]

(Reprinted from the Penn State Extension Watershed Winds newsletter. Click Here to sign up for your own copy (bottom of the page).)

Upcoming Extension Events:

-- October 26: Webinar: Growing Water Wise - Stormwater Challenges

-- October 27: Webinar: Master Watershed Steward Information Session For PA Wilds

-- November 1: Safe Drinking Water Clinic Youngsville, Warren County

-- January 11: Webinars (9 Part Series): Woods In Your Backyard Series

East Lampeter Twp. First Municipality To Partner With Lancaster Revolving Water Fund On Pay-For-Performance Contract On Improving Water Quality, Soil Carbon Sequestration

By Hobi Nulis April 10, 2023 No comments

By Conservation Innovation Fund

The Lancaster Revolving Water Fund and East Lampeter Township partnered to achieve critical water quality objectives in Lancaster County, a priority conservation area in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Under the partnership, East Lampeter Township has executed a forward-looking and cost-effective contract that improves local water quality while addressing Federal and state mandates under the Clean Water Act.

The Lancaster Revolving Water Fund, a partnership between the Lancaster Clean Water Partners and the Conservation Innovation Fund, expands the Revolving Water Fund's outcomes-based model into a critical agricultural landscape in Pennsylvania, where many local waterways remain impaired due to agricultural and urban runoff during storm events.

Pioneered by i2 Capital, Stroud Water Research Center and the Nature Conservancy, the Revolving Water Fund is an innovative conservation finance program that funds and implements natural infrastructure solutions to reduce sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus from flowing into local waterways.

The model leverages a "blended capital" pool operating under the auspices of the Conservation Innovation Fund and provides full-service delivery of quantified units of pollution under pay-for-performance contracts in support of municipal stormwater management objectives.

"The team at East Lampeter worked with the Lancaster Revolving Water Fund to bring this model to life in a way that is beneficial to municipalities in Pennsylvania that face mounting pressure and costs to build out their Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) plans," said Tara Hitchens, Assistant Township Manager. "We are very proud to be the first municipality in Lancaster County to pioneer this program, which is cost-effective for taxpayers of the township and supports our local agricultural community."

John Cox, Senior Advisor to the Lancaster Clean Water Partners, added, "This public/private partnership is a prime example of how we are expanding sustainable funding and market-based solutions for Lancaster County to clean its streams, in line with Lancaster Clean Water Partner's 'Clean and Clear Water by 2040 agenda.' We're thrilled to partner with leaders in East Lampeter and our local agricultural community to expand this solution across the county."

The Lancaster Revolving Water Fund provides the financial and technical capacity to develop and install agricultural best management practices that reduce pollutants that enter municipal waterways.

Lancaster farmers have a proud heritage of farm stewardship. The program bolsters ongoing efforts to extend on-farm solutions that enhance the sustainability of Lancaster farms.

Excess sediment and nutrient loads are reduced through the application of cover crops, no-till farming, the installation of farmland buffers, and nutrient management strategies such as manure injection, among other practices.

Soil carbon levels are also enhanced under the program.

"The program leverages a blended capital pool to scale well-established agricultural sustainability practices that improve the quality of water across agricultural watersheds," said Ashley Allen Jones, Founder of i2 Capital and a principal architect of the Revolving Water Fund model. "We have worked in earnest to align finance, agriculture, policy, quantification, and public and corporate conservation interests into a 'conservation supply chain' that increases the pace and scale of urgent water quality and soil carbon sequestration solutions in the Mid-Atlantic."

East Lampeter's pay-for-performance contract with the Lancaster Revolving Water Fund will be part of the township's 2022 general budget expense, supported by its stormwater fee.

The contract fulfills a substantial portion of the Township's remaining sediment reduction requirements under its current Municipal Separate Storm and Sewer (MS4) permit issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

For more information on this program, visit the Lancaster Revolving Water Fund website.

NewsClips:

-- PA Council Of Trout Unlimited: Adams County TU Chapter Awarded South Mountain Partnership Grant

-- PennLive Guest Essay: Five Million Trees Planted, Five Million More To Go - Cindy Adams Dunn, Secretary Of DCNR

-- City & State PA Recognize The 2022 Pennsylvania Nonprofit Power 100 Leaders, Including 7 Conservation Leaders [PaEN]

-- Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership Plants Its 5-Millionth Tree In Franklin County Park; Thousands Of Volunteers Were Critical To Reaching This Milestone [PaEN]

-- Celebrating 10 Years Of Volunteers Impact - Greening The Lower Susquehanna - By Kristen Koch, Penn State Agriculture & Environment Center [PaEN]

-- Penn State Master Watershed Steward Volunteers Lead Stream Assessment In Allegheny County [PaEN]

-- WeConservePA Visits Award-Winning Headwaters Restoration Project By Wissahickon Trails In Montgomery County [PaEN]

-- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation Award $3.5 Million In Grants To Restore, Protect Habitats In Chesapeake Bay Watershed; 4 In PA Totalling $1.48 Million [PaEN]

-- NO SPECIAL PROTECTION: The Exceptional Value Loyalsock Creek In Lycoming County Is Dammed And Damned - Video Dispatch From The Loyalsock - By Barb Jarmoska, Keep It Wild PA

-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission Has No Exclusion Zones For Water Withdrawals From Any Streams, Including EV Or HQ Streams Subject To Water Quality Antidegradation Rules [PaEN]

[Posted: October 20, 2022] PA Environment Digest

DCNR Issues 4th Weekly Fall Foliage Report Showing Fall Colors All Across Pennsylvania

By Hobi Nulis April 05, 2023 No comments

On October 20, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources issued its fourth Weekly Fall Foliage Report showing fall colors all across Pennsylvania.

Although rain and wind stripped many colorful leaves from maples, exciting fall shades can still be found across most of the state.

The best color this week will be found in the central/southern Appalachians and the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania. Cold overnight temperatures should spur the last push of color in oak stands and southeastern Pennsylvania forests.

Click Here to read the October 20 to 26 report.

For more information, visit DCNR’s Fall Foliage Report webpage.

Click Here for prime locations for viewing fall foliage in PA. To make travel arrangements, check out the VisitPA website.

Visit Explore PA Trails and Get Outdoors PA for recreation areas near you.

For more information on state parks and forests and recreation in Pennsylvania, visit DCNR’s website, Visit the Good Natured DCNR Blog, Click Here for upcoming events, Click Here to hook up with DCNR on other social media-- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

-- PennLive Guest Essay: Five Million Trees Planted, Five Million More To Go - Cindy Adams Dunn, Secretary Of DCNR

-- WeConservePA: Help To Apply For DCNR Fall Grants, Redevelopment Assistance Capital Funding And More [PaEN]

-- NO SPECIAL PROTECTION: The Exceptional Value Loyalsock Creek In Lycoming County Is Dammed And Damned - Video Dispatch From The Loyalsock - By Barb Jarmoska, Keep It Wild PA

-- State, Local Officials Celebrate Acquisition Of Kiski Junction Bridge, 14 Miles Of Rail Corridor In Armstrong County With Help Of Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding; Fall Grant Round Still Open [PaEN]

-- DCNR Blog: New Resources Available For Forest Landowners And Managers For Climate Change Resilience [PaEN]

-- Net-Zero Manufacturing Initiative, Venango County Trails Project Among Appalachian Regional Commission Grants To Support Coal-Impacted Communities In PA [PaEN]

-- Dept. Of Health Awards $168,000 WalkWorks Program Grants To Increase Access To Physical Activity

-- DCNR Issues 4th Weekly Fall Foliage Report Showing Fall Colors All Across Pennsylvania [PaEN]

-- DCNR Seeking Public Comments On ATV Regional Trail Connector Pilot Project [Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, Tioga Counties] [Click Here for background]

-- DCNR Plans Whitewater Release Into Tohickon Creek For Nov. 5-6 Boating Event In Bucks County

-- DCNR Seeking Proposals For Equestrian Activities Lease At Ridley Creek State Park, Delaware County

-- Nearly 70 Runners Compete In Cameron County Sinnemahone Trail Run, Final Competition In Triple Crown [PaEN]