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.

Article by Isabela Weiss, WVIA News, Report for America (reprinted with permission)

Farmers shared experiences at Tioga County’s Women in Agriculture event.

Hosted by the Tioga County Conservation District, women traveled to network with other farmers across the state. Dairy farmer Julie Hess was a speaker at Tuesday’s event. She has attended every Women in Agriculture event since it started ten years ago.

“I’ve been coming to the Women in Ag meetings since they started holding it. And I’ve been bringing my daughter with me, even when she was in like fifth or sixth grade, because I think it’s important for female agricultural producers to meet other female agricultural producers,” said Hess. “But they say that women in agriculture is like the largest growing sector of farmers.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 2017 Census found that women comprise 36 percent of the country’s 3.4 million agricultural producers and that newer farmers are skewing younger. The 2022 Census will come out in Feb. 2024.

Click here to read the entire article. 

 

Allegheny County Conservation District (ACCD) hosted The Flow of Development in Allegheny County, a workshop for stakeholders and professionals on Allegheny County development patterns and mapping of existing stormwater infrastructure. This marks the first time ACCD has compiled datasets and mapped National Pollutant Discharge and Elimination System (NPDES) permit applications in Allegheny County. These valuable datasets, designed to enhance transparency and collaboration, will be publicly accessible on the ACCD and Western Pennsylvania Data Center websites starting January 30, 2024.

Conservation Districts can now watch a recording of the event here or click here to read the press release.  

On January 23, 2024, Cumberland County Conservation District hosted a cooperating agency meeting in Newville, PA. Forty-three people attended the meeting. The goal of the meeting was to network and hear about the agency’s accomplishments in 2023 and provide important information about 2024 activities. PACD Executive Director Brenda Shambaugh participated in the event.

Cooperating agencies that participated include Farmland Preservation, Cumberland County Planning Department, Capital RC&D, USDA Farm Service Agency, Vector Control, Penn State Extension, PA Department of Environmental Protection, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, HRG, Kings Gap Environmental Center, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, PA Game Commission, and PACD.