The 2024 regional workshop series for staff and directors kicked off last week. Twenty-six staff attended the first Emotional Intelligence: Apps for Wellbeing workshop at the Ramada Conference Center in State College on Tuesday, February 20. Ten directors, managers, and partner staff attended the Strategic Board Development workshop hosted by Clinton County Conservation District on Wednesday, February 21.

There’s still time to register for March workshops; don’t miss out on these training opportunities!

Click here to register for Emotional Intelligence: Apps for Wellbeing.

Click here to register for Strategic Board Development.

In case you missed it:

• The 4th Annual Conservation District Video Awards presentation and links to all the 2023 contest entries are posted to the blog page at Building for Tomorrow. 
• All webinar sessions and supplemental resources for the three-part Understanding Time Management Webinar Series are posted to the webinars page at Building for Tomorrow. 

Financial and other support for the Building for Tomorrow Leadership Development Program is provided through a grant from the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission. Guidance for the Program is provided through the Pennsylvania Conservation Partnership’s Leadership Development Committee.

Join us for the PACD spring region meetings! All meetings will be in-person with a virtual option. Click on your region meeting below for more information, and be sure to RSVP to the meeting host.

PACD South Central Region Meeting
March 7, 2024 | 10:00 a.m. to Noon
Cumberland County Conservation District, Carlisle, PA

PACD North Central Region Meeting
March 19, 2024 | 10:00 a.m. to Noon
Clinton County Conservation District, Mill Hall, PA

PACD South East Region Meeting
March 28, 2024 | 9:30 a.m. to Noon
Henning’s Market, Harleysville, PA

PACD North East Region Meeting
April 4, 2024| 10:00 a.m. to Noon
Monroe County Conservation District, Stroudsburg, PA

PACD South West Region Meeting
April 18, 2024 | 10:00 a.m. to Noon
Westmoreland Conservation District, Greensburg, PA

PACD North West Region Meeting
April 23, 2024 | 10:00 a.m. to Noon
Armstrong Conservation District, Kittanning, PA

Click here to find your region. 

Two Pennsylvania posters placed in the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) contest!

• Evelyn Warner from Cambria County won 2nd place in the 10-12th grade category.
• Cora Petrunak, from Lehigh County, won 3rd place in the 2-3 grade category.

The winners are posted on the NACD Flickr account. 

Congratulations to the students and the Cambria and Lehigh County Conservation Districts for the national win!

 

The 4^th Annual Conservation District Video Awards were presented on Thursday, February 15. The 1st place CONDIVA trophy for the highest-scoring video of 2023 was awarded to Monroe County Conservation District for Maple Sugaring. Two runner-up entries tied for 2^nd place: Living in Our Waters: The Wonders of Macroinvertebrates, submitted by Beaver County Conservation District, and iMap Invasives Scavenger Hunt, submitted by Pike County Conservation District. Visit Building for Tomorrow for links to the video of the presentation and all the 2023 entries.

Financial and other support for the Building for Tomorrow Leadership Development Program is provided through a grant from the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission. Guidance for the Program is provided through the Pennsylvania Conservation Partnership’s Leadership Development Committee.

The Pike County Conservation District has two new episodes of its podcast.

January episode– The Forestry Frontier

Our January Science on Tap speaker Logan Goddard, DCNR Service Forester for Pike/Monroe, and our local DCNR Fire Forester Garrett Beers are interviewed in this episode! Tune in as they discuss their favorite forestry factoids, sustainable forest management practices, and how deer affect our woods.

February episode – Hidden Geocache Treasures in Pike County

There’s a hidden treasure in Pike County, PA– and anyone can join the treasure hunt! In this episode, Jess Yoder, Assistant Planning Director, and Preservation Planner at the Pike County Planning & Mapping Office, shares the basics of geocaching, how to get started searching our area, and some of her favorite geocaching stories.

Click here to listen. 

With sadness, we report the passing of former PACD President Glenn Seidel on February 11, 2024.

Glenn served as a director at Berks County Conservation District for over twenty-five years. He served on the PACD Executive Board for five years. In that time, he served as 2nd Vice President, 1^st Vice President, and served as President from 2015 to 2017.He was also a member of the PACD Education and Outreach Committee.

Glenn was recognized for his dedication to conservation districts with the PACD President’s Award in 2010. He will be missed.

Click here to read his obituary. 

Pennsylvania’s county conservation districts thank Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for supporting conservation districts in his proposed state budget. 

Pennsylvania’s conservation districts assist landowners through technical assistance, permit reviews, site inspections, and education in a safe, efficient, and effective manner. Conservation districts aim to protect our natural resources, keep food on tables, and ensure public safety.

The Governor’s budget was released last week. The “Transfer to the Conservation District” lines in the 2024-2025 Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture budgets were kept at the same funding level as last year. 

Click here to read the entire press release. 

PACD is co-hosting a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC) Review Course. The course will be held at the Clinton County Conservation District in Mill Hall, PA, on September 10, 2024. The cost is $380 for non-district participants and $180 for conservation district staff (contact hmiller@pacd.org for the discount code). Register online at https://envirocert.org/event/cpesc-general-principles-review-2.

The review course is open to anyone, including conservation district, agency, or private company staff, actively pursuing a CPESC certification through EnviroCert International, Inc. Please pass this information along to anyone who may be interested.

The deadline to register is August 30. Click here for more information.

Thanks to funding and support from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission, PACD now has six conservation planners on staff. These new staff members will work toward conservation planning certification to assist in conservation efforts across the Commonwealth.

PACD conservation planners work out of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) field offices to provide services as cost-effectively as possible.

• Bucks County – Grace Rhodes, 215-453-9527
• Dauphin County – Arek Moczulski, 717-559-4020 x3
• Erie County – Joshua Ferraro, 814-796-5031
• Franklin County – Daniel Hausman, 717-446-8566
• Indiana County – Nathan Edwards, 724-427-3333
• Susquehanna County – Kelsey Quinones, 570-278-1197

Click here to read more about the program.

Financial and other support for the Certified Conservation Planner Program is provided by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission.

Close to 4,000 township officials and guests from all over Pennsylvania will attend the annual Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) Conference and Trade Show on April 14-16, 2024. Once again, there will be a conservation district booth at the show from Sunday, April 14, to Tuesday, April 16.

PACD is seeking volunteers for the following shifts:

• Sunday, April 14, 1:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. (1st shift) (2 volunteers needed)
• Sunday, April 14, 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m. (2nd shift) (1 volunteer needed)
• Monday, April 15, 7:30 a.m.–Noon (1st shift) (1 volunteer needed)
• Tuesday, April 16, 7:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. (2 volunteers needed)

Please consider volunteering for a morning or afternoon shift at the conservation district booth. This is a valuable opportunity to promote the districts and explain the type of work they do, as well as reinforce existing relationships with local township officials.

To volunteer, please get in touch with Roxanne Dohner at rdohner@pacd.org.