On Saturday, September 6, 2025, the Lehigh County Conservation District partnered with the Lehigh Valley Zoo to raise awareness about the damage invasive plants can do to our landscape and ecosystem.

Participants in this unique new event met on The Trexler Game Preserve with a two-fold mission. First, learn all about invasive Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), then collect berries and foliage. After discussing identification, look-alikes, and native berry producers, the group paraded back to the Zoo grounds with harvest in tow to make a tasty jam and provide enrichment to resident megafauna!

Although E. umbellata is not preferred browse for PA native whitetail and elk, its thorny branches are similar enough to the Masai giraffe’s beloved Acacia foliage to be thoroughly enjoyed! With each jar of jam, participants brought home the knowledge to prevent thousands of new autumn olive seedlings from taking root in our public lands each year.

 

On Wednesday, September 10, 2025, the Columbia County Conservation District held its 8th annual Water Education Day at Briar Creek Lake Park in Berwick. About 190 eighth-grade students from two different school districts in Columbia County attended the event. The students rotated through six stations where they learned about various aspects of our water sources, water quality, and aquatic ecosystems. The six stations—Water Quality, Streams, Groundwater, Music and Discovery, Art and Poetry, and Fish Ecology—are all led by volunteers.

Click here to read the entire article and to see more photos. 

PACD Acting Executive Director Amy Brown attended the Franklin County Conservation District’s (FCCD) Summer Conservation Farm Tour. The tour featured the Craig Alleman LLC beef operation in Shippensburg, PA, on August 5, 2025. The district selected the Alleman Farm as the 2025 Conservation Farmer of the Year.

The tour included the beef cattle facilities and manure handling systems. Attendees saw how Craig, utilizing FCCD grant funds, was able to convert an overused open area into an improved animal heavy use area (AHUA) that includes a bedded pack structure. Both actions led to enhanced cattle health and manure management.

The tour also stopped at the farm’s tree planting to demonstrate how planting trees has improved the farm. FCCD staff demonstrated how to measure soil health and the benefits of no-till field management. Lastly, staff answered questions on Conservation Excellence Grants and Agriculture Conservation Assistance Program grants.

On July 28, 2025, the Berks County Conservation District (BCCD) held its Annual Awards and Scholarship Dinner.

In addition to several scholarship recipients, BCCD also recognized the following individuals and organizations for their efforts:

• Engineer of the Year: Samuel Reeser
• Organization of the Year: Hay Creek Watershed Association
• Individual of the Year: Nicholas Johnson
• Urban Agricultural Project: Front Street Garden to Café Esperanza
• Educator of the Year: Sherry Fuhrmann
• Student Environmental Ambassador: Garrett Hynemann
• Student Environmental Organization: Schuylkill Valley FFA
• Reading-Berks Science and Engineering Fair Winner: Samson Evans
• Low Volume Road Project of the Year: Mill Road Project in Oley Township

There were over 140 people at the dinner. Thank you to Senator Judy Schwank, Representative Johanny Cedpeda-Freytiz, Representative Jacklyn Ruscnock, Representative Eric Weaknecht, Representative David Zimmerman and Craig Lutz and Dan Bost from Senator Chris Gebhards office, Kim Fies, Executive Director of the Berks County Department of Agriculture, Nicholas Ramsey, District Conservationist, NRCS; Chas. Heberling Conservation District Field Representative, PA Department of Environmental Protection and all the other partners, friends and family who took time to come out and celebrate with the district.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) was awarded $134,900 from the United States Department of the Interior’s 2023 Inflation Reduction Act Recovery Implementation Grant program to fund a stream restoration project to benefit federally protected freshwater mussel species in French Creek, Crawford County. The PFBC Board voted to approve a Threatened and Endangered Species Grant to the Crawford County Conservation District (CCCD). 

The grant, not to exceed $134,900, will be used by the CCCD to restore approximately 350 feet of eroding streambank, which impacts instream habitat in a portion of French Creek known to support endangered, threatened, candidate, and rare freshwater mussel species. Stream restoration will include the installation of instream habitat structures to stabilize the eroding streambank, the removal of a gravel bar to reestablish a natural channel cross section, and native vegetation will be planted within the riparian buffer zone to promote streambank stability.

Click here to read more. 

 

The Warren County Conservation District established a community garden in 2008 at the Hatch Run Conservation Demonstration Area in Warren, PA. The gardens had only 10 plots in 2008 and have now expanded to 25 plots. The gardens offer a place for folks who don’t have the space at their home or apartment to have a garden of their own.

The district’s property maintenance staff rototills the gardens each year with a tractor, and then each plot owner is responsible for maintaining their own plot. The conservation district has installed rain barrels among the gardens to provide a water source for gardeners

The conservation district charges $25 for each plot to offset the costs of materials for the layout and preparation of the 25’ x 25’ garden plots.

Plots are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to previous renters for plot locations. Click here for more details. 

 

Submitted by Ryan Harr, Watershed Resource Specialist, Butler County Conservation District

The Butler County Conservation District has partnered with local parks and schools to enhance biodiversity by increasing native plant species and phasing out traditional turf grass lawns. One of the latest projects took place at a park in Forward Township, where the district installed a 1000-square-foot meadow.

To prepare the site for planting, the district installed a 10-by-100-foot sheet of clear plastic over the area to be converted to meadow. This method, solarization, uses the sun’s heat and smothering to kill existing vegetation, and can also help reduce the seed bank in the soil. Once the solarization process was complete, the ground was lightly tilled to remove thatch and increase seed-to-soil contact. Danielle Rihel, Watershed Forestry Specialist through DCNR’s DIY Meadow Kit program, provided seed that was then broadcast on to the area. With spring rains and warm temperatures, the meadow should germinate in no time. 

In April, Lebanon County Conservation District held a rain barrel workshop with funding from the PACD Nonpoint Source Pollution Educational Mini-Grant Program. Twenty-five people were educated on the topic of nonpoint source pollution and the water quality of local waterways. The district also held a brief demonstration of rain barrel installation and maintenance. The district distributed twenty-five rain barrels to workshop participants through this grant.

Financial and other support for this project is provided by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc. through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Westmoreland Conservation District hosted a bike ride along the Great Allegheny Passage as a way to educate participants about water quality issues in the county. During the 7 mile (roundtrip) ride, the 26 participants made multiple stops that showcased water quality improvement initiatives, such as abandoned mine site reclamation, mine drainage treatment, streambank stabilization, stream water quality testing, and illegal tire dumping in the river. Speakers on the trip included staff from the district, Tetra Tech, and the Mountain Watershed Association.

The events were funded by a nonpoint source mini-grant from PACD, Flat Tire Co., and Bove Engineering. 

Financial and other support for this project is provided by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc. through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Submitted by Jennifer Brooks, Environmental Education and Outreach Coordinator, Berks County Conservation District

On May 7 and 8, 2025, the Berks County Conservation District brought its Soil Water AGriculture (SWAG) Bus to the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg for Farm City Days. The PA Department of Agriculture invited the district to bring the SWAG bus to the event.

Farm City Day is an event that promotes agriculture and understanding between rural and urban communities in Pennsylvania. It offers a hands-on experience for students to learn about farming and the food supply chain.

Over the course of two days, more than 1,300 students attended the event. The SWAG Bus was a hit!