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A coalition of environmental, conservation, and outdoor recreation organizations in PA.

Hilary Hirtle

PennFuture Responds to $450 million Investment in Clean Water Projects

“PennFuture enthusiastically applauds the efforts of Gov. Tom Wolf and other elected officials who want to use $450 million in American Rescue Plan money to fund clean water projects through the Growing Greener 3 program,” said PennFuture President and CEO Jacquelyn Bonomo. “The Growing Greener program has a solid history of providing critical support to community-driven work that improves and protects clean water resources, open spaces, and recreational pursuits for Pennsylvanians and tourists alike.

Investing in clean water initiatives isn’t just the smart thing to do, it’s the right thing to do for the health of Pennsylvania residents and communities, now and in the future. PennFuture has been calling on state leaders for the last year to use these ARP funds in exactly this manner, and we are thrilled that countless communities across the Commonwealth will benefit from the decision made today to invest in clean water.”

Sample Messages

Using the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to fund the Environmental Stewardship Fund (Growing Greener) is a great fit because:

  • The purpose of ARP is to address the economic repercussions the COVID-19 pandemic has had on households, small businesses, nonprofits, and industries such as tourism and hospitality. Environmental Stewardship Fund investments benefit all these groups and communities. Natural infrastructure projects in PA waterways, parks, forests, and open space are the reason why PA’s tourism industry was able to flourish in 2020, despite the COVID emergency.
  • ARP funds are intended to support small businesses and communities that have been struggling because of the recent economic fallout. Environmental Stewardship Fund projects generate innumerable jobs and stimulate local economies every year with its investments.
  • These are capital investments, not expenditures that have to be repeated (and supported out of the state general fund) after the federal money is gone.
  • Tens of millions of dollars in natural infrastructure projects are shovel-ready now and many more can be ready if the money is made available.
  • Environmental Stewardship Fund investments support myriad small businesses and good-paying jobs. Projects involve surveyors, appraisers, legal services, engineers, planners, drafters, environmental remediators, hydrologists, geologists, agricultural consultants, nurseries, architects, landscape architects, landscapers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators, painters, roofing contractors, fencing installers, paving contractors, material delivery, sign makers, archaeologists, and arborists. Supplies and equipment are needed from nurseries, lumber yards, quarries, building material suppliers, hardware stores, equipment manufacturers, and equipment rental businesses.

Water

  • Billions of dollars in water investments are needed on a multitude of fronts to restore 19,000 miles of PA waterways unsafe for drinking, swimming, fishing, and boating.
  • Municipalities face huge costs regarding stormwater management; farmers badly need help with designing and implementing conservation practices like forested stream buffers to keep soil and nutrients on the land instead of running into the water.
  • Untreated AMD, desolate AML, and uncapped oil and gas wells harm our water and drag down local economies.
  • Lack of investment in natural infrastructure to address stormwater management and flood prevention leave many Pennsylvanians highly vulnerable to loss of property and life.

Needs & Opportunities

Pollution Prevention

  • 30% of PA’s streams (25,468 miles) have impaired water quality for one or more uses: water supply (84 miles), aquatic life (17,547 miles), recreation (9,935 miles), and fish consumption (2,817 miles). (2020 Integrated Water Quality Report)
  • Agricultural runoff has impaired 5,765 miles of PA streams, including a 46-mile segment of the Susquehanna River that can no longer sustain aquatic life. (DEP IWQR 2018)
  • PA is one of the six states within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed that has committed to significantly reducing the nitrogen flowing into the Bay by 2025. However, PA is responsible for 69% of the watershed’s total nitrogen reduction. 80% of PA’s reductions belong to the agricultural sector. (DEP Agriculture)
  • More than 5,500 miles of PA streams have been polluted by billions of gallons of acid mine drainage (AMD) – one of PA’s largest sources of stream impairment. (DCED AMDATP)

Flood Reduction and Stormwater Management

  • From 2011 to 2018, PennDOT incurred $211 million in damages to state roads and bridges caused by flooding, slides, and other extreme weather events. (PennDOT flood/slide costs).
  • Fulfilling MS4 requirements, which apply to more than 1,000 municipalities across PA, costs municipalities millions a year. (PA Environment Digest)

Land Conservation and Restoration

  • DEP’s abandoned mine land (AML) inventory has identified 287,000 acres of AML in need of reclamation, their construction cost exceeding $5 billion. (DEP AML Fact Sheet).
  • There are more than 8,500 abandoned or orphaned oil and gas wells in PA. Plugging them costs DEP $33,000, meaning DEP’s plugging liability ranges between $280 million (8,500 wells) and $6.6 billion (200,000 wells). (Bureau of Oil and Gas Planning 2020)
  • The US Department of Agriculture census estimates that between 2012 and 2017, PA lost more than 6,000 farms (400,000 acres) to development, declining farm incomes, and retirements. (USDA census)
  • PA’s farmland preservation program has a backlog of 1,400 farm families wanting to preserve their farms and help stabilize local farm economies. (Bureau of Farmland Preservation, 2020 Annual Report)

Outdoor Recreation

    • Public use of parks, preserves, and trails has doubled, tripled, and quadrupled across the Commonwealth. As the state reopens, it appears that considerably higher public use of outdoor recreation spaces is a new norm for Pennsylvania.
      • In the past year, more than 9 out of 10 Pennsylvanians engaged in outdoor recreation. (2019 Spring Lion Poll, used in SCORP 2020-2024)
      • PA’s trails experienced a 97% increase in visitation from 2018 to 2020. (DCNR 2020 Parks & Rec)
      • In March 2021, PA’s 121 state parks drew 2.71 million visits compared to 1.77 million visits in March 2019. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
    • This higher demand has greatly accelerated wear-and-tear on facilities and the need for rehabilitation of many of the state’s 6,100 local parks and more than 12,000 miles of trails.
    • PA’s State Parks and State Forests have more than a $1 billion backlog of maintenance, safety, and necessary infrastructure. (Protect our Parks and Forests).
    • PA experienced a spike in outdoor spending from March 2019 to March 2020, with bike purchases increasing 121%, kayak purchases 85%, and camping gear 30%. (DCNR 2020 Parks & Rec)

Return on Investment

(See the Economic Benefits section of https://conservationtools.org)

  • Green infrastructure investments support small businesses and create jobs. They are proven programs for stimulating local economies across the state.
  • Green infrastructure investments continue giving to communities year-after-year, decade-after-decade. For example, the Keystone Recreation, Park & Conservation Fund delivers $7 in flood control and prevention, water treatment, and other natural services for every dollar invested. (org)

Public Opinion

(TargetSmart survey of 1,332 likely PA voters conducted September 20-27, 2020; credibility interval of +/- 3.0%)

  • 96% of PA voters said protecting the quality of the PA’s drinking water is very or somewhat important while 92% of voters believe it is very/ somewhat important to clean up rivers and streams.
    • Support transcends party affiliation: “Protecting PA’s drinking water” is found to be very important by 75% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 92% of Democrats.
  • 9 out of 10 Pennsylvanians support increasing state funds to conserve and protect open space, clean water, natural areas, wildlife habitats, parks, historic sites, forests, and farms.
  • 91% of PA voters believe that is a time of COVID, it is more important than ever to have parks, preserves, and other public spaces where we can safely enjoy the outdoors.
  • 93% of Pennsylvanians agree — 68% strongly — that “we have a moral obligation to take care of our environment.”

WeConservePA Thanks Governor Wolf for Support of Growing Greener III

“WeConservePA thanks Governor Wolf for calling for a $450 million boost in state conservation investments (a “Growing Greener III”) in his address today,” stated Andy Loza, executive director of WeConservePA. The $450 million Growing Greener III proposal was a major component of the Governor’s plan for using unspent state American Rescue Plan dollars.

With his announcement, Governor Wolf joins PA senators in seeking to invest PA’s American Rescue Plan dollars in water restoration, park rehabilitation, and other environmental conservation needs. Senator Gordner’s SB 525 (Growing Greener III) and Senator Yaw’s SB 832 (Clean Streams Fund) have each received second consideration by the Senate and only need final votes in that chamber.

WeConservePA also recognizes that Representatives Culver and Quinn are sponsoring Growing Greener legislation (HB 2020) and Representative Hershey is leading a Clean Streams Fund (HB 1901) in the House.

Past Growing Greener investments have accomplished tremendous good, supporting projects to restore polluted waterways, protect water supplies, conserve productive farmland and open space important to communities, improve community and state parks and trails, and more. A Growing Greener III is crucial to improving the 25,468 miles of Pennsylvania streams unsafe for drinking, fishing, or swimming; using natural infrastructure to reduce flooding; addressing the tremendous infrastructure needs in our parks and other public lands (which are seeing more public use than ever during the pandemic); and delivering other environmental benefits. A Growing Greener III is also needed to leverage hundreds of millions in federal dollars available to address abandoned mine drainage and other environmental concerns.

 

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Coldwater Heritage Partnership Mini-Grants Protect Streams and Fisheries

In 2003, the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), the Fish and Boat Commission, and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds formed the Coldwater Heritage Partnership to provide grants for conserving and protecting coldwater streams across PA, particularly those with naturally reproducing trout. The program helps generate water conservation plans, implement riparian buffers and in-stream aquatic habitat structures, restore streambanks, and address invasive species.

Since its inception, the Coldwater Heritage Partnership has provided approximately 173 planning grants and completed 62 implementation projects, providing financial and technical assistance to grassroots organizations. The program encourages partnerships and links partners with the expertise needed to create successful projects. Additionally, the program focuses on building connections with the local community by hosting public meetings and place-based events that emphasize the importance of watershed health.

Funding for the Coldwater Heritage Partnership comes primarily from DCNR’s Community Conservation Partnerships Program (C2P2), supported by the Environmental Stewardship Fund. Without state funding, this program would not exist, and it would be nearly impossible for grantees to leverage other funding sources. Even with DCNR as a major funder of the program, they have to turn away several great projects due to insufficient funds, struggling to fulfill the enormous need to fund high-quality coldwater streams, which make up less than 30% of PA streams.

Planning Restoration in the Indian Creek Watershed

The Mountain Watershed Association received a Keystone Recreation, Park, & Conservation Fund grant from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to prepare a comprehensive Rivers Conservation Plan for the Indian Creek Watershed, a tributary to the Upper Youghiogheny River located in Fayette County. This watershed plan allows them to survey the streams’ resources and water quality, identify areas of improvement, and establish guidelines for restoration work. This assessment has helped guide a series of projects, including acid mine drainage remediation, water treatment system refurbishments, and streambank restoration.

Without state funding, the watershed association would not know what issues to address and in what priority. Moreover, the organization would not be able to address pollution, threatening the region’s drinking water, aquatic life, and recreational opportunities. In rural settings with few private funders, small nonprofits like the Mountain Watershed Association depend on the state to complete community projects. Otherwise, streams would continue running orange, having cascading effects on our health and that of local wildlife.

 

Celery Swamp – Restoring a Historic Wetland

Ducks Unlimited has been working on a multi-faceted project in Celery Swamp, located in Mercer and Lawrence counties. Starting in 2019 and expecting to complete it by 2023, this four-phased project is one of the organization’s most sizeable endeavors in Pennsylvania. The first phase of the project involved acquiring a 126-acre property, whose historic wetlands were excavated to produce ponds for farmed koi and grass carp and donating the property to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Now, Ducks Unlimited and their multiple local and national partners are working on restoring Celery Swamp by removing leftover infrastructure, redistributing the site’s topography, and reconnecting the ponds so that they follow their original hydrology. The aim is to bring back the original wetland and its many benefits and add necessary infrastructure so that the PA Game Commission can add the property to State Gamelands 151 and manage it accordingly. They also seek to make the sites accessible to people with disabilities.

This project has been possible due to a series of partnerships and grant sources, including private, state, and federal funding. With help from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Community Conservation Partnership Program (C2P2) and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, among other funding sources, Ducks Unlimited and partnership will be able to leverage four grants through the project’s lifespan. If it were not for these funding streams, they wouldn’t be able to create a habitat where Northwestern PA waterfowl species can flourish. Restoring and conserving Celery Swamp does not merely increase habitat availability; it brings other direct ecosystemic benefits, such as increased water quality and water retention to prevent flooding downstream. The site will welcome fishing, hunting, opportunities for veterans to engage with the outdoors, and a site to host educational programs from local schools and universities.

A Home Run for York and the Chesapeake Bay

New pedestrian bridge and streambank stabilization work in progress.

Like many Pennsylvania municipalities, York City has a system of aging parks. It also has a growing need to address regulations aimed at improving water quality and reducing flood damage.

While these could be challenges, York has embraced them as opportunities through its Green Infrastructure Action Plan. One resulting project: the Poorhouse Run Stream Restoration.

The project took place just beyond the ballfields at Memorial Park, along a stream known as Poorhouse Run. The work combined water quality protection with outdoor recreation.

Improvements made include:

  • Streambank stabilization
  • Streamside tree planting
  • New pedestrian bridge and walking path
  • Educational signs

Installing the new walking path (photos credit: Chaz Green).

DCNR supported these improvements with a $200,000 Rivers Program grant from the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund. The city matched the grant dollar-for-dollar, for a $400,000 investment in the park.

“I grew up in York near Memorial Park and can remember splashing around in this stream,” says Chaz Green, the city’s Director of Public Works. “The restoration of Poorhouse Run will encourage local access to the water and provide green stormwater infrastructure.”

These improvements not only make Memorial Park better, they also benefit people downstream. The new trees and stabilized streambanks will reduce pollution in Codorus Creek, the Susquehanna River, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.

Edible and Effective Streamside Forest Restoration Work Continues with Local Families and ClearWater Conservancy

Written by ClearWater Conservancy

Work on the Schaeffer family’s 3.7 acre buffer along Halfmoon Creek began in fall 2020. Initial efforts on the family’s organic farm included site preparation with assistance from local farmers, invasive species removal by ClearWater’s AmeriCorps member, Sidney Shultz, and planting of native trees and shrubs along Halfmoon Creek by Native Creations.

Soon, the buffer will be completed with the planting of two native grass and wildflower meadows adjacent to the trees and shrubs. Some of the eroding stream banks will also be strengthened with live stakes (planting branches of live plants directly into the stream banks), and work to control invasive plant species will continue. Native wildflower meadows will benefit pollinators and will be gently harvested for cut flowers. While the native plants grow to protect the stream and soil and provide wildlife habitat, the Schaeffer family also plans to steward their multifunctional buffer in order to harvest fruit, nuts, and herbs for cooking, and flash graze their pigs in the meadows. Of course they’ll also enjoy the beauty of the newly planted streamside forest-stay tuned for more photos as the trees and shrubs leaf out and the wildflowers and herbs start flowering.

Implementation of the 9-acre buffer along Slab Cabin Run on Joe Dionisio’s property began in summer 2020 with the removal of a large thicket of invasive shrubs along the stream. Due to the impenetrable thickness and size of the invasive shrubs, the work could not be completed by hand, but Bud Snyder Excavating was able to use a forestry mulcher machine to remove the invasive shrubs in a few days. In Fall 2020, Native Creations was able to then plant native trees and shrubs, a streamside forest, along Slab Cabin Run.

Due to powerlines over the stream, strategic location of the trees and shrubs was carefully planned to avoid creating any future problems for local electric service. Walking paths for the landowners and access points to the stream for the family dogs were also planned into the strategy for the streamside forest.

The Dionisio buffer installation will soon be completed with the planting of three acres of switchgrass, a native grass with deep roots for great soil conversation. Switchgrass can be harvested as a perennial crop for silt sock stuffing, biofuels, hay, pasture and other markets. Additional steps include planting a 3-acre wildflower meadow for pollinators, live staking to stabilize eroding stream banks and continued invasive species control work. Mr. Dionisio plans to enjoy his multifunctional stream buffer by harvesting switchgrass, fruit, nuts, and an existing hay field on the slope above the trees. Most importantly, though, he looks forward to walking his dogs on the paths throughout the buffer.

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) approved both streamside forest projects as part of the DCNR multifunctional riparian forest buffer grants (funded by the Environmental Stewardship Fund, also known as Growing Greener) awarded to ClearWater Conservancy. The required funds to match DCNR grants are provided by partners at Native Creations Landscape Services, North Central PA Conservancy, and the Chesapeake Conservancy. In-kind match is provided by the landowners and ClearWater’s wonderful cadre of volunteers who help complete different aspects the buffer work, like planting wildflowers and live staking streambanks. A big thanks to all those involved with this important work!

PA’s Obligation to the Chesapeake Bay — Funding Needed!

In 2014 the state of Pennsylvania signed the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement along with five other states. Joining the regional effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, the Commonwealth pledged to avert more than 565 million pounds of nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment from entering the Bay every year by 2025. Since then, PA has implemented thousands of agricultural best management practices and different types of natural infrastructure across the watershed to reduce sediment runoff. In 2018, the state recognized it was far from achieving its obligation and created a pilot program by funding five local governments, York, Franklin, Adams, and Lancaster counties, provided they limit nutrient and sediment loads entering their streams.

As a result of this pilot program, York County developed the York Countywide Action Plan to prevent 4 million pounds of nitrogen from flowing into York waterways by 2025. Since then, the Planning Commission for York County has provided the PA Department of Environmental Protection with an annual list of potential projects, such as stormwater management, stream restoration, bio-retention, and riparian buffers. Despite the amount of money that has gone into these projects and their inherent success, Pennsylvania will need to make significantly greater investments in these and similar projects so that York County and the other 42 counties in the watershed can meet their total maximum nutrient and sediment loads. A standard stream restoration project prevents approximately 1,200 pounds of nitrogen from running into the waterway every year — only 0.03% of York County’s total goal.