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!

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

On April 16, the Butler County Conservation District (BCCD), in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA), held a workshop to address the growing threat of the invasive Spotted Lanternfly.

Held at Alameda Park, the workshop featured presentations by BCCD’s Jennifer Barckhoff and PDA Forester Noah Hayslip.  The presentations covered Spotted Lanternfly identification, its lifecycle, and the significance of Tree-of-Heaven. They also discussed current quarantine regulations and property management to help slow the insect’s spread.

The installation of a circle trap was also demonstrated. The program concluded with an interactive Egg(mass) Hunt, where participants learned firsthand how to detect and remove egg masses, a crucial step in controlling the Spotted Lanternfly population. By engaging the community in these hands-on efforts, BCCD and PDA reinforced the role the public has in combating this destructive pest.

The Spotted Lanternfly, originally from Asia, poses a serious threat to Pennsylvania’s agriculture and ecosystems, particularly affecting grapevines, hardwood trees, and other crops. BCCD plans to hold future workshops on other invasive species.

On April 19, 2025, Cumberland County Conservation District held a rain barrel workshop during the Mechanicsburg Earth Day Festival. Thirty participants built and took rain barrels home to install.

Because the workshop took place during an earth day event, the district was able to not only educate those who signed up for the workshop, but also answer questions and educate the general public attending the festival. The district reports that seeing the rain barrels created a lot of curiosity, questions, and interest from passersby.

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 Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry announced a more than $6.6 million investment in 19 Pennsylvania organizations to develop and expand registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in the agriculture, health care, and information technology (IT) sectors.

Through the Supporting Pennsylvania’s Agriculture Sector through Apprenticeships and Pre-Apprenticeship grant initiative, Indiana County Conservation District will receive $399,317.

The Indiana County Conservation District will create and establish an agriculture conservation technician apprenticeship program that will provide apprentices with the necessary training and work experience for careers as agriculture conservation employees at Pennsylvania conservation districts, the State Conservation Commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and the Penn State Center for Agriculture Conservation and Training.

Click here to read the entire article. 

Lancaster County Conservation District (LCCD) celebrated its 75th anniversary with WGAL News 8 on April 21, 2025.

The video was filmed at the LCCD Annual Awards Banquet on March 25 and LCCD requested that it be featured during Conservation District Week.

Click here to watch the video. 

Submitted by Matthew J. Long, District Manager, Lycoming County Conservation District

Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, and Union County Conservation Districts teamed up to host a workshop for consultants on March 20, 2025. The Susquehanna Valley Consultants Workshop was attended by 69 consultants and contractors to learn about changes to the PAG-02 General NPDES permit. The event was hosted at the Pine Barn Inn in Danville, PA, and featured 12 presenters from the districts and two from the PA Department of Environmental Protection’s Northcentral Regional Office. Various topics on the changes to the PAG-02 were covered, and the presenters fielded many questions.

The event was a great success, and the consultants and contractors in the region were brought up to speed on many of the larger changes in the General NPDES permit. It’s always great to get a room full of people district staff work with consistently and answer questions in real-time. Many common issues can be explained, and the hope is to increase permit review efficiency. The districts presenting the program look forward to hosting more events like this.

In the summer of 2023, the Lawrence County Conservation District (LCCD) was granted $105,000 by the Lawrence County Commissioners with funds received from Norfolk Southern Railway. The funds were part of a grant to Beaver and Lawrence Counties to be used to benefit the residents of both counties in the wake of the East Palestine train derailment. From those funds, the district established a mini-grant program to benefit the residents and businesses in Lawrence County. Applicants could apply for up to $5,000 to fund projects aligned with the conservation district’s mission of clean water, healthy soil, and environmental education.

LCCD awarded 25 grants totaling $105,000. The program was open to all residents and businesses in the county, but applicants in the southwestern part of the county closest to the derailment site were given an opportunity to apply early. Grant applications were reviewed and approved by the LCCD board of directors, and projects were inspected upon completion before payment was made.

All of the grant projects have now been completed. LCCD is happy to report the results of the funding: two grants paid for soil and animal health testing, three grants went to apiary (honey bee) improvements, nine animal drinking water and pasture improvement projects were completed, three farm operations improved their manure storage and handling facilities, two streambank stabilization and improvement projects were completed, an animal stream crossing was completed, three farm markets improved their infrastructure, and four educational programs were held.

LCCD wants to thank the Lawrence County Commissioners for their support of our work and their confidence that we would make good use of the funding. LCCD also thanks all of the grant recipients for their enthusiastic participation and timely completion of their projects. It has been very gratifying to see all of the good work that was done with a little funding and a lot of local cooperation.

 

Submitted by Elysia Axworthy, Communications Coordinator, Susquehanna County Conservation District

On Friday, February 28, 2025, the Susquehanna County Conservation District (SCCD) awarded $5,000 in grant funding to the Friends of Salt Springs Park (FSSP) through its Growing a Greener Community Grant program. The funds will support FSSP’s 2025 Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) Project to protect the park’s hemlock trees from the invasive HWA pest.

The project will utilize Sasajiscymnus tsugae (ST beetles) as a biological control method to help stabilize or reduce the HWA population in and around Salt Springs Park’s old-growth forest. These beetles feed exclusively on HWA, moving from tree to tree as they consume the pest. This environmentally-friendly approach offers a sustainable solution to combat HWA infestations.

A public ST beetle release event will be scheduled at Salt Springs Park, providing an opportunity for community members to witness conservation efforts firsthand. FSSP will announce details in the coming weeks.

For more information, please contact the Susquehanna County Conservation District or Friends of Salt Springs Park. 

 

 

McKean County Conservation District’s invasive species program was highlighted in the March 18, 2025, issue of “The NACD eResource.”

The article begins, “The fight against invasive species is a growing challenge for conservation districts nationwide. In McKean County, Pennsylvania, the McKean County Conservation District has taken a proactive stance, implementing an Invasive Species Program in 2018 in partnership with the Penn State Extension and the U.S. Forest Service. This collaboration led to the establishment of the Allegheny Plateau Invasive Plant Management Area (APIPMA), covering five counties in northwestern Pennsylvania. The initiative focuses on landscape-level management strategies to prevent and control non-native invasive plants, ensuring the health and sustainability of local ecosystems.”

Click here to read the entire article. 

Submitted by Holly Laird, District Manager, Armstrong Conservation District

Armstrong Conservation District (ACD) hosted its annual Legislative Breakfast at its Kittanning, PA office on March 10, 2025. This event allows ACD to update our legislators about our projects for the previous year and our future plans.

Those in attendance included Congressman “GT” Thompson, a representative from Senator McCormick’s office, PA State Representatives Abby Major and Josh Bashline, a representative from Senator Pittman’s office, and the Armstrong County Commissioners.