On May 18, 2018 PACD Executive Director Brenda Shambaugh traveled to Tioga County to attend a legislative event. The 2018 Tioga County Conservation District legislative luncheon was held at the Tokishi Building in Wellsboro. The district highlighted upcoming projects for their area and answered questions about programs throughout the county.

 

I would like to introduce myself as PACD’s Leadership Development Coordinator. I am very excited to join the PACD team and to support the vital work of the dedicated district directors and staff throughout the state. Prior to coming to PACD, I worked for a statewide association representing not-for-profit senior service providers where I coordinated educational and leadership development programming as well as corporate sponsorship, conference and event planning, and member outreach.

I look forward to exploring ways that the association can improve education delivery and increase engagement with the districts and the communities they serve. With that in mind, I plan to reach out to many of you in the coming days and weeks as part of an informal needs assessment of the “Building for Tomorrow” program. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the meantime if I can be of any assistance to you or your district.

My contact information is: Matthew Miller, 717-238-7223 x11, mmiller@pacd.org.

Conservation districts and their partners are invited to register for the Combined 2018 National Association of Conservation District’s (NACD) Northeast Regional Meeting and 71st PACD/SCC Joint Annual Conference. The combined conference will take place at the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Hotel in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. NACD events will take place July 15-17, 2018, and PACD/SCC events will take place July 17-18, 2018.

PACD is still collecting items for goodie bags that all attendees will receive. Pictured are the messenger bags sponsored by WorldView Solutions, a rain gauge from Berks County Conservation District, and maple syrup from McKean, Potter, and Tioga County Conservation Districts. Not pictured are pens from Snyder County Conservation District. Thanks to Sandy Thompson for taking the lead on coordinating the giveaways! She can be reached at sdthompson@mckeancountypa.org if you would like to contribute.

Be sure to register by Friday, June 15, to take advantage of the early-bird discount! Click here for more information or to register for the meeting. 

PACD is now accepting sub-grant applications to implement multi-functional riparian buffers. The implementation of these grants will help the commonwealth achieve its goal of planting 95,000 acres of riparian buffers by 2025.

The guidelines and applications for this new statewide sub-grant program for conservation districts are posted here.  Questions should be directed to Amy Salansky at asalansky@pacd.org.

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 Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

 

Conservation districts and their partners are invited to register for the Combined 2018 National Association of Conservation District’s (NACD) Northeast Regional Meeting and 71^st PACD/SCC Joint Annual Conference.

The combined conference will take place at the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Hotel in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. NACD events will take place July 15-17, 2018 and PACD/SCC events will take place July 17-18, 2018.

Anyone is welcome to attend the entire event or only the NACD or Pennsylvania portion. All four days will offer sessions and activities of interest to our members and partners and, as the host state, we hope that Pennsylvania will be well represented.

Click here for more information or to register. 

Tioga County Conservation District, PA DEP, Shell, Gas Field Specialists, and Northern Tier Solid Waste Authority joined forces on Thursday, April 19, to clean up a challenging illegal dump site, known as “Site 24,” to eliminate a potential source of pollution to the Cowanesque River.

The cleanup resulted in the removal of 3.17 Tons of accumulated waste material and 3.81 Tons of tires (277 tires) from an abandoned railroad grade adjacent to the Cowanesque River. Heavy equipment provided by Shell was used to remove the material from the steep embankment and placed in roll-off containers provided by Northern Tier Solid Waste Authority.

Click here to read the entire press release.

 

The Westmoreland Conservation District received a Nonpoint Source Pollution Prevention Educational Mini-grant through PACD’s 2017-18 round. With this funding, the district developed two informational videos about stormwater basin design, assessment, and maintenance to help educate municipal staff, engineers, and others about the role of basins in stormwater management.

The videos were displayed at the district’s annual Municipal Roundtable and Engineers’ Workshop.

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.

Click here to view Part 1: https://youtu.be/oSWJWTjEB54 and here for Part 2: https://youtu.be/Y0lhtrxM7uk.

The Allegheny County Conservation District collected over 30 bags of trash on April 23, 2018, along Little Deer Creek Valley Road as part of PennDOT’s Adopt A Highway Program. Ten staff members participated in the two-mile clean up to mark the District’s fourth year adopting a highway.

Montgomery County Conservation District (MCCD) was awarded a 2017-18 Nonpoint Source Pollution Prevention Educational Mini-grant for a “Storm Drains to Streams: Pollution Prevention Education for Businesses” project.

For the project, MCCD and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary’s Schuylkill Action Network partnered with Simon Property Group to host an Earth Week Pollution Prevention Mixer for the King of Prussia restaurant, food service, and hospitality community. The event was held at King of Prussia Mall on April 24, 2018, and was attended by 50 individuals.

Attendees included (but were not limited to) several hotel, restaurant facility, and business managers from the King of Prussia area.

The goal of the event was to educate the target audience about cost-effective, good housekeeping practices/actions that are recommended to prevent water pollution and protect clean water. The event also provided an opportunity for the Montgomery County Office of Public Health to stress the importance of implementing such practices to improve community health and safety.

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.

 

Click here to read the entire article written by Jessica Buck, MCCD Interim District Manager. 

On May 1, PACD board members and staff traveled to the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in State College for an in-person board meeting.

In addition to their regular meeting, the board discussed PACD presence at trade shows, the PACD/SCC Winter Meeting, and the PACD building.