Juniata Watershed Journal
Juniata Watershed Journal
Newsletter of the Juniata
Clean Water Partnership
Volume 1,
Issue 3 Spring, 2000
Public Meetings – Round Two
February 2, 2000 – As the bell tolled for the beginning of Round Two, Juniata Clean Water Partnership (JCWP) staff and partners reentered the ring at the Bald Eagle Fire Hall, armed only with the draft version of the Juniata Watershed Management Plan.
At this "main event," though, no one came with the intention of boxing. Rather, concerned citizens joined with the JCWP to address water-related problems in their backyards.
This meeting marked the commencement of the latest phase in the process of developing a conservation plan for the Juniata River watershed. One year ago, the JCWP held meetings to ask residents what kind of things threaten the quality of their local land and water resources. During February and March of this year, the JCWP returned to all nine of the previous meeting locations to ask residents to review the recommendations of the Juniata Watershed Management Plan.
Deb Nardone, Juniata Project coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Dave Hockman-Wert, environmental planner for the JCWP, began the meetings by presenting a review of the planning process, a compilation of results from the first round of public meetings, and an overview of the Plan and its contents. After this brief presentation, attendees spent the rest of the evening in small groups, discussing the plan’s recommendations and suggesting needed projects.
Although it probably took a good deal of motivation to leave home on a cold winter’s night, all those who ventured out to Bald Eagle and the eight other meetings helped guide the JCWP in developing a high quality watershed plan. Attendees suggested local projects that would solve water-related problems in their neighborhoods. They also gave helpful feedback on the watershed plan that will improve its content and structure.
More than 370 comments were shared by the nearly 160 people who attended the meetings. These comments included project ideas, responses to the plan’s contents and structure, suggestions of what’s missing in the plan, suggestions for how to refine the planning and implementation processes, and reiterations of important watershed needs and concerns.
Many of those at the meetings wished that more of their neighbors and local leaders would join them in their efforts to improve the watershed. Attendees also expressed the need for more educational activities to increase awareness among citizens and municipal officials alike. Some concerns were expressed about the plan being too difficult to implement because of taking on too many issues or lacking funding and widespread support. However, a general consensus found the plan to be comprehensive, relevant, and ambitious, with a good list of recommendations that adequately address local concerns.
Nearly half of the comments were locally-specific project ideas, which will help to focus the more broad recommendations included in the draft plan. Project ideas addressed a wide range of issues, with the categories of solid waste (illegal dumping, debris in streams), sewage, and environmental education being mentioned the most often.
Average attendance per meeting was 18. The Hollidaysburg meeting featured the highest attendance with 44 people. Besides Hollidaysburg and Bald Eagle, the other public meetings were held in Robertsdale (Broad Top), Bedford, Huntingdon/Mill Creek, Orbisonia, Lewistown, Mifflintown, and Newport.
Nearly two months after it began, Round Two ended. The JCWP contenders stepped out of the ring at the Perry Valley Grange Hall, no worse for wear. As the JCWP head back to their corner, they will take what they learned from Juniata watershed residents and use it to refine and improve the Plan. The aim is to produce a watershed plan that empowers concerned citizens and municipal officials to identify and solve their local environmental problems. As with any partnership, the JCWP’s success depends on the efforts of all of its members, who include anyone who cares about the health of the watershed.
Let’s knockout pollution and make the watershed a healthier, cleaner home for everyone!
This newsletter has something new and interesting inside. So what’s new? It’s the educational columns that will help you to become a better local leader and decision maker. This newsletter features two new ways to do that. The first is a column featuring events/activities in your community and how you can be involved. The second new feature is a series of articles that will appear over the next year on how important watershed associations are to your local community and how you can start one. We hope that these articles will give everyone the information and tools necessary to become better stewards of the land and water that surround us.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended and participated in the second round of public meetings in February and March. We received many helpful suggestions to improve the Juniata Watershed Management Plan. We also received many innovative project ideas to improve existing environmental problems. I am truly looking forward to completing the Plan and beginning the next phase of project implementation. It won’t be long now!
Lawn Care Tips for a Healthy Watershed
Today, having and maintaining a beautiful healthy lawn can be possible while limiting the environmental impacts on local streams and their watershed. There is a growing concern that common yard care practices may be impacting community ground water supplies and poisoning our lakes and rivers. Listed below are several ways to help reduce this impact.
Mow the Lawn at a Proper Height
It is best to maintain your lawn’s height at about 3 inches. Tall grasses shade out weeds and produce a strong root system. A strong root system will help the grass sustain itself through long dry periods, requiring little to no watering. Also, allowing the clippings to remain on the yard may provide up to 50% of the nitrogen needed by the lawn throughout the growing season, reducing the need to fertilize.
Cover All Bare Spots
Reestablish bare spots quickly by reseeding and using mulch to reduce erosion. When selecting a seed type, choose a hardy pest- and disease-resistant seed.
Reduce Lawn Size
First, decide how much lawn you really need. Then decide how you could increase natural areas within your yard. You can create natural areas by planting buffers of native trees, shrubs and gardens. These areas will act as natural sponges for precipitation and nutrients, reducing soil erosion and improving the aesthetics.
Plant Native Species
Whenever possible, plant native shrubs and trees. These plants are more adapted to the local climate and are less susceptible to disease and pests. For more information on the 100+ species of Pennsylvania’s native trees contact your county conservation district or your local cooperative extension agency.
Have Your Soil Tested
Soil testing is a simple process that can save a lot of time and money. Your soil may already contain the necessary nutrients without the need for additional fertilizers. For information on how to get a soil test kit, call your local cooperative extension agency.
Fertilize Only When and Where Necessary
Whenever possible, use a natural fertilizer such as compost. The compost could consist of food waste, grass clippings, and yard waste. If chemical fertilizers are necessary, make sure you use only the amount necessary for the application. Remember to never apply before a rainstorm. After determining the proper amount of fertilizer needed, chose a slow release fertilizer (typically dry formulations) which allows the grass to use all the nutrients provided over a period of time. It is best to fertilize your yard in the fall, allowing for deep healthy root systems to establish themselves. Spring applications have a tendency to increase blade growth and minimize root growth, producing a less hardy plant.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
If you feel the need to use pesticides, consider IPM. IPM methods can greatly reduce the amount of pesticides needed to control weed and insect pests. "IPM is an ecological approach to pest management that integrates cultural, genetic, mechanical, biological and chemical control methods" according to Lake Notes Fertilizers and Pesticides. IPM works by understanding the natural relationship between plants and pests and creating a balance between them. An example of an IPM, that would help reduce the pest population would be the introduction of insect predators such as ground beetles or praying mantises.
Information from this article was provided by:
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Ten Ways to a Bay Friendly Lawn
- Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Yard Care for Bay Repair
- Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Lake Notes, Fertilizers and Pesticides
Getting Started in Your Watershed: How to Organize a Watershed Association
By Deb Nardone
Watershed conservation is described as the effort to protect and restore the integrity of rivers, streams and other water bodies in an area. A very important group in many watersheds is the local river advocacy organization, or watershed association. This article is the first in a series of articles that will focus on the role of watershed associations and how you can help form a group and keep it running smoothly.
So what is a watershed association?
Watershed associations generally serve as the catalysts for grassroots initiatives that improve the health of the watershed, and hence your local community. Generally, effective watershed associations serve as committed protectors of a clean and healthy stream or river. This may entail rallying around a specific issue, initiating communication with your local officials, building community consensus, resolving disputes, forming partnerships, and finding proactive solutions to the problems and challenges affecting water quality. Basically, a watershed group can be effective in developing and carrying out local solutions to existing problems, and help to prevent future problems.
How do I form a watershed association?
A watershed association can be organized by just a few key concerned citizens. The first step is to find partners and get organized.
Finding Partners
First, determine who should be involved in the organization. Potential partners may include conservation or sportsmen’s groups, schools, local government officials, sewer and water authority officials, park and recreation boards, agencies such as Fish and Boat Commission, Game Commission, and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, county conservation districts, county commissioners, major land owners, businesses and industries, and heritage and tourism groups. Don’t forget that the regular concerned citizen is a key partner too!
Generally, a concerned citizen who wishes to set up a watershed group can get some help in the next few steps from their local conservation district or conservation groups in the area, such as the JCWP.
Establishing the Organization
Now that you have identified some key partners, it’s time to set up a meeting date and place. Usually you can find a place to meet for free, such as a local school, library or government building. Set up a meeting time when most people will be able to attend.
You may want to send out a personal invitation to those on your created list. Don’t forget to run a press announcement in the local papers to announce the meeting date and time!
This will ensure that you get a broad turnout of people who are concerned about their watershed. You may want to identify yourself as the initial contact, so that there is a name, address, and telephone number for people with questions.
Develop a Mission Statement
So, what do you do at the first meeting? The single most important thing for a watershed group to do is to develop a mission. This step will help you and everyone who is involved to seriously discuss what this group is about and what it hopes to do. The creation of a mission statement is usually much more involved than just saying you want to save such and such a stream. The mission statement is your organization’s reason for existing. It is the source from which all your organizational plans, strategies, objectives and goals emerge. It determines the role your organization will play within the watershed.
At the first meeting, ask everyone to answer why they attended the meeting. What concerns do they have? Did they come because of concerns about floodplain development? Do they want to work on growth policies with local municipalities? Are they concerned about point-source discharges into the stream?
Once people have discussed what they are concerned about, you’ll need to create a mission statement that actively represents the group’s concerns. The mission statement that you develop is the single consistent message that tells people what you are about. A mission statement should contain three elements:
- What/where is the focus of the group?
- What is the goal you hope to achieve?
- Here are some examples of mission statements from other groups:
"To protect and conserve the natural resources of the Perkiomen Creek watershed through education, monitoring, detection and pollution studies and attempting to maintain high water quality through local ordinances."
---- Perkiomen Valley Watershed Association, PA
"To protect and restore rivers in Connecticut through public policy development, grassroots and volunteer action, and public education."
---- Rivers Alliance of Connecticut, CT
"To protect and improve the surface and groundwater resources and natural systems of the Cannon River watershed by providing for its cooperative management and protection and by instilling a sense of watershed pride."
---- Cannon River Watershed Partnership, MN
Don’t expect the mission to remain consistent through time. Often, it will take many meetings over months of time to polish the statement to accurately reflect the organization. Your mission statement is a good one as long as you have adequately described the purpose of your organization, and you have reached consensus among the group.
The next newsletter will feature the second step in creating a watershed group – choosing a name, electing officers, and creating bylaws.
If you are interested in forming a watershed group, and would like additional information or assistance, please contact the Juniata Clean Water Partnership at (814) 627-5082 or (814) 627-5391. We will be happy to assist you with the creation of a watershed group.
— Some information in this article was provided by Starting Up, A Handbook for New River and Watershed Organizations, published by the River Network.
What’s Going on in
Your Watershed?The following are a few short updates on events and projects happening within the Juniata River watershed.
Senior Environment Corps
The Mifflin-Juniata Area Agency on Aging, Inc., along with the Mifflin and Juniata Conservation Districts and Mid-State Resource Conservation and Development Council, is looking for volunteers interested in protecting the beauty and vitality of the Juniata Valley. In particular, they would like to form a Senior Environment Corps, whose focus would be monitoring the water quality of local streams. If you’d like to help keep Mifflin and Juniata County’s water resources clean and healthy for your children and grandchildren, get involved with the Senior Environment Corps! Call Janet Warner at 717-242-0315 or 1-800-348-2277 to get involved.
Mifflin County Brownfields Pilot Project
Last fall, Mifflin County received a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify and assess four to six "brownfield" properties for their remediation/redevelopment potential. Brownfields are defined as sites that may have site contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse.
Revitalizing downtown areas through brownfield redevelopment can improve the economic quality of life in a community and reduce the development of rural farm and forest lands ("greenfields") that can have negative impacts on land and water quality.
Since beginning the pilot project, 33 possible brownfield sites were identified at six regional forums and in interviews with about 25 local leaders. With the assistance of Gannett Fleming, Mifflin County Planning Commission’s Environmental Resources Committee is in the process of selecting the final brownfield sites. These sites will undergo environmental site assessments, sampling and analysis for possible contamination, and remediation/redevelopment plans.
Raystown Lake Workshop and Conference
On February 25, Juniata College’s Environmental Science and Studies Department hosted the first-ever Raystown Lake Conference. The conference brought together a number of environmental professionals who study and/or manage the lake and its surrounding watershed. Two reports, from the Army Corps of Engineers and a former Juniata College student, described the water quality of the lake from data collected over the past few years. Other speakers discussed activities such as mining and logging that affect the lake and its water quality. The conference was considered a first step in bringing together all of the available information about the lake in order to get a better assessment of its overall health. Future conferences and a website are planned to keep the connections alive between those who are working to maintain the health of this great resource.
Time for Spring Cleaning: PA CleanWays Initiatives
PA CleanWays is a non-profit organization helping communities fight illegal dumping and littering along township roads and other public areas. PA CleanWays also helps communities address recycling opportunities and encourage the need for waste education programs. Recently, several groups have begun to form throughout the Juniata River watershed.
PA CleanWays of Huntingdon County
The Huntingdon County CleanWays chapter was organized in April of 1999. The chapter, made up solely of volunteers, has already begun cleaning up the county.
The chapter held its first trash cleanup on November 13, 1999 at a dump on McMullen Road in Tell Township. The cleanup was supported by local businesses, which provided gloves, trash bags and lunch for the volunteers. Dumpster service was provided by Park’s Garbage Service and landfill charges were donated by Waste Systems International-Sandy Run Landfill. According to the chapter’s newsletter, the successful cleanup removed about eight tons of trash, one ton of recyclable scrap metal and 15 tires from the property.
The chapter focuses not only on after-the-fact trash cleanups but also on preemptive approaches, such as education, recycling and road adoption programs. Chapter members handed out hundreds of Kids Litter Activity Booklets at the Huntingdon County Fair and challenged kids of all ages to test their litter IQ on a PA CleanWays electronic litter board. The chapter held an appliance collection day last October to encourage recycling of bulky items. Lastly the chapter encourages the adoption of township roads and provides signage identifying the road as a trash free area. So far, the county chapter has adopted over three miles of roadway in Dublin and Tell Townships.
PA CleanWays of Huntingdon County holds meetings on the second Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Huntingdon County Courthouse. To learn more about the Huntingdon chapter, contact Ralph Park at 814-542-4251.
PA CleanWays of Blair County
Concerned citizens, community leaders, municipal officials and conservation agency representatives came together in January and February, 2000, to begin forming the Blair County chapter of PA CleanWays. The Blair County chapter will take a comprehensive approach in identifying and cleaning up illegal dumpsites. Dumpsites will be prioritized for cleanup based on local interest and willingness to be involved. The chapter’s first cleanup took place on April 15 at a dumpsite along the Lower Trail in Catharine Township.
The newly formed chapter is looking for hard-working volunteers who want to make a difference in the environment. PA CleanWays of Blair County will hold regular meetings on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the basement conference room of the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg. For more information, call Dave Thomas at 814-941-2035.
In addition to existing PA CleanWays chapters, efforts are underway to form a chapter in Bedford County. Those interested please call Lorelle Steach at the Bedford County Conservation District at 814-623-7900 extension #3.
PA Forest Lands Beautification Program
In December of 1998, Governor Tom Ridge signed the Pennsylvania Forest Lands Beautification Act (FLB) into law. In a survey conducted in 1998, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) district foresters identified more than 150 illegal dumpsites on DCNR properties across the state. The FLB Act will provide up to $7.5 million over the next five years to clean up existing dumps on state forest and state park lands.
DCNR has awarded the first grant under the FLB Act to PA CleanWays, to develop a systematic process for cleaning dumpsites and keeping them clean. As the first step in this process, PA CleanWays will be conducting a pilot cleanup program at eight sites this year. Three of the preliminary sites are located within the Juniata River watershed: the Allensville Road site (Rothrock State Forest), the Tuscarora Wild Area site (Tuscarora State Forest), and the Oregon Road site in Buchanan State Forest.
In addition to the actual on-the-ground cleanups, there are several other aspects of the Forest Lands Beautification Program. The program understands the need for public education about proper disposal of trash and recycling opportunities. Helen Ostermiller, project manager of PA CleanWays states, "Changing local behavior in order to keep the sites clean is the major challenge for DCNR and PA CleanWays." In conjunction with PA CleanWays, Pennsylvania Environmental Council will be facilitating local advisory teams for each site location. These teams will consist of community members addressing the issues that contribute to illegal dumping in their communities. For more information about specific cleanup sites or to report an illegal dumpsite, call 1-877-7PA-FOREST or contact PA CleanWays-State via e-mail at paforest@ pacleanways.org and on the web at www.pacleanways.org.
Spotlight on Community Watershed Associations:
Little Juniata River Association
By Mark Nale
The Little Juniata River has its humble beginnings near Altoona, Blair County, and flows northeast to Tyrone. There the river cuts through the gap between Brush and Bald Eagle mountains and winds across Huntingdon County on a course to meet with the Frankstown Branch near Petersburg. It is a trout stream of state-wide importance for much of its length.
Sometime during late 1995 or early 1996, an unknown pollutant wiped out up to 95% of the aquatic insects in the Little Juniata River between Ironville and Barree. This section of river, famous for its great mayfly hatches, had lost almost its entire mayfly population. The brown trout, which depend on the aquatic insects for food, suddenly found little to eat.
The Little Juniata River Association (LJRA)-- a non-profit, citizen water-monitoring group -- was formed in 1997 as a direct result of this tragedy. Spearheaded by Stormstown resident John Pascavage and assisted by Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) biologist Bill Botts, the LJRA has active members from Centre, Blair, Huntingdon, and Cambria counties. Much of the insect sorting is performed by Tyrone Area High School biology students.
The association has been monitoring the river for over three years with equipment and training supplied by DEP. According to Pascavage, "Our biggest boost comes from Juniata College aquatic entomologist Paula Martin. She has trained and assisted our other members and really moved us along with our identification of the aquatic macro-invertebrates."
The LJRA follows a modified US Environmental Protection Agency’s Rapid Bioassessment Protocol. Two D-net samples are taken at each of the nine monitoring sites from Grazierville to Barree. Samples are sorted and a sub-sample is taken from each for identification. Six to eight man-hours go into the collecting, sorting, and identification of aquatic insects from each sample. The group meets at Tyrone Area High School or Juniata College to conduct its efforts.
In the months following the pollution, LJRA biological monitoring has documented that blackfly larva, a pollution tolerant insect, has replaced the usually numerous mayfly nymphs and caddis larva. It has been a gradual recovery of caddis and mayflies since then. Botts reported that the latest data shows some sections of the river are near complete recovery.
As a result of the evidence of a rebounding macro-invertebrate population, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission has resumed the stocking of brown trout fingerlings. Under the watchful eyes of the LJRA, the Little Juniata is once again returning to its spot in the top five trout fisheries of Pennsylvania. For more information on the Little Juniata River Association contact John Pascavage at (814) 692-7062.
Find out where the Little Juniata River is located in the Juniata Watershed (Click for larger image)
Click here for a closer look at the Little Juniata River Watershed