The Perry County Conservation District recently hosted their annual Land Judging Competition for students in grades 9-12. The event was held on November 1 at a local farm in Duncannon owned by district board member Ken Martz.

A total of 58 students were in attendance along with 20 agency staff, volunteers, teachers, and special guests who helped at the stations and participated in the award ceremony. Brie Hess of Greenwood High School took 3rd place, Jared Foster of West Perry High School took 2nd place, and Garrett Beal of West Perry High School took 1st place.

 

The “Ecosystem Engineer” photo was taken by Westmoreland Conservation District’s Chelsea Walker. The photo won the annual photo contest at the Watershed Specialist Meeting in early October. PACD will enter the photo in the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) annual photo contest in the “close-up conservation” category.

The photo was taken in the Kiskiminetas River during a river clean-up event in Avonmore, PA. The close-up shot shows a mussel at work.
Winners will be announced at the NACD Annual Meeting in January 2018. Best of luck Chelsea!

Click here to read more.

PACD will again host a conservation district booth at the 2018 PA Farm Show. We took a new approach this year and lined up five conservation districts to present displays at the booth Monday through Friday of Farm Show week.

We are still looking for volunteers to staff the booth on the weekend days of Saturday, January 6; Sunday, January 7; and Saturday, January 13. Shifts run from 8 am to 12:30 pm and 12:30 pm to 5 pm. The booth is not staffed after 5 pm.

Let us know as soon as possible if you would like to fill one of these shifts. We’d like to have our schedule set by November 30. Just contact Sandy Austin at saustin@pacd.org with your contact information and the shift you’d like to fill.

Mark your calendar and join us for the PACD spring region meetings!

The region meeting dates and locations are as follows:

March 8, 2018
PACD South West Region Meeting
Westmoreland Conservation District, Greensburg, PA

March 20, 2018
PACD South Central Region Meeting
Cumberland County Conservation District, Carlisle, PA

March 22, 2018
PACD South East Region Meeting
Franconia Heritage Restaurant, Telford, PA

March 27, 2018
PACD North West Region Meeting
Forest County Conservation District, Tionesta, PA

April 12, 2018
PACD North Central Region Meeting
Clinton County Conservation District, Mill Hall, PA

April 13, 2018
PACD North East Region Meeting
DEP Northeast Regional Office, Wilkes-Barre, PA

Twenty-nine students completed the Intro to Conservation Planning Course in Grantville from November 7-9, 2017. The training included classroom and field experience. The course targeted entry-level conservationists, introducing them to the conservation planning process, and related tools and technology in Pennsylvania.

PACD partnered with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the State Conservation Commission to deliver the three-day training.

The 2018 Chesapeake Bay Program Conservation District and PA Agency Staff Meeting will be held on Monday, March 12, 2018 at the Elaine Langone Center, 2nd Floor, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA. Please add this meeting to your calendar now and plan to attend. The snow date is March 15. Registration and a draft agenda will follow when available.  

On October 17^th, several school classes from the Mt. Carmel and Shamokin area spent the day learning about local environmental issues and wrapped up the day by planting trees and shrubs along Quaker Run, a tributary to Shamokin Creek.  The event focused on teaching local students about local land use practices and their impacts on water quality.

The Kulpmont Borough partnered with Shamokin Creek Restoration Alliance and Northumberland County Conservation District to organize the day long field trip educating students about water quality issues.

Click here to read more. 

On October 3, 2017, the Cumberland County Conservation District presented a check for $138,044.09 to the Penn Township Supervisors. This funding allowed the district to complete the Beetem Hollow Low Volume Road Project in Penn Township. Work included installing a box culvert, replacing a small stream crossing pipe, and allowing drainage. The funding was made possible with a Low Volume Roads Program grant.

Click here for photos and details on the project. Click here for a press release. 

Submitted by York County Conservation District

The York County Conservation District received a grant to educate the residents of York County about stormwater. They collaborated with the York County Planning Commission (YCPC) and developed two stormwater tours.

Stormwater management is hot topic. When many think of stormwater management, the typical large retention pond comes to mind. But there are so many other options available!

The first tour was for the elected and appointed officials and staff of our municipalities.This was a bus tour and included seven different sites with speakers at each location. The second tour, intended for the general public, can be either a virtual tour or a self-guided tour of many different types of Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs). Tour participants use an online story map created by the YCPC, which includes pictures, descriptions, and directions to various BMP sites in York County.

Click here to view the story map. Many of these projects have been completed by municipalities who are participating in a regional group effort to comply with MS4 requirements and to clean up the waters of York County. As more projects are completed, they will be added to the story map.

To learn more about the projects, or the regional effort, contact Lindsay Gerner at the YCPC. To learn more about the use of the self-guided story map, contact Jacob Trimmer, also at the YCPC.

Financial and other support for this project was 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.

 

Watershed specialists from conservation districts across the state attended the annual Conservation District Watershed Specialist Meeting on October 4-6, 2017, in State College. Attendees learned about a number of online and software tools for watershed improvement, as well as wetland basics, urban stream restoration, fish habitat improvement, how to develop and maintain a sustainable social media presence, do-it-yourself ideas for environmental science and monitoring, and more. Participants also learned from one-another, both informally and through formal project presentations.

The meeting wrapped up with a field day in the Tangascootack Creek Watershed in Clinton County. The annual meeting is sponsored by the PA Department of Environmental Protection and facilitated by PACD.