Two separate Growing Greener grants awarded to Penn State's Center for Watershed Stewardship over the past three years have helped support a wide range of assessment, riparian buffer planning and implementation, community capacity-building, and watershed outreach in two Chesapeake Bay watersheds, according to Lysle S. Sherwin, director of the center's graduate education program established in 1998 by Penn State and the Heinz Endowments.
The 2002 Sinking Valley/Spruce Creek Keystone Projects grant produced watershed assessments and stewardship plans for Sinking Run in Blair County and Spruce Creek in Centre and Huntingdon counties, both headwaters of the Little Juniata River. The community-based planning was a catalyst facilitating the formation of watershed associations in both communities.
A follow-up 2004 Growing Greener grant Halfmoon Creek Restoration Plan is focused on addressing water quality impairment of a 23-square mile Spruce Creek subwatershed by sediment from agricultural activities.
In addition, during the past year, remaining 2002 Growing Greener funds supported a team of graduate students at the center working with the newly formed Spruce Creek Watershed Association and county Conservation District partners on organizational development and with other partners implementing key program recommendations in the stewardship plan produced by the center in the initial phase of the watershed initiative.
Primary activities and accomplishments of the stewardship plan implementation phase for Spruce Creek supported by Growing Greener in 2004/2005 include:
-- Free drinking water well analysis for bacteria, nitrates, suspended solids and arsenic of 50 private wells and educational programs on protecting drinking water sources in collaboration with Penn State Cooperative Extension and the Master Well Owner Network.
-- Installation of a 600-foot riparian forest buffer at the Weaver Forest site managed by Penn State School of Forest Resources. The Weaver Forest site is an early-action demonstration project located in the impaired segment of Halfmoon Creek, using 900 native trees and shrubs donated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation 2005 Plant Give-A-Way.
-- Watershed Activity Day, April 23. More than 40 watershed residents, Boy Scouts and families participated in planting a second riparian buffer along 500 feet of Warriors Mark Run. Attendees observed electrofishing to census fish populations, took part in macroinvertebrate collection and identification to assess stream health and toured milkhouse operations, stream fencing and nutrient management facilities at Evergreen Farms, Pennsylvania's largest dairy, hosted by the Harpster family.
In addition to Growing Greener grants and the partners already noted, multiple funding sources have provided support of the Sinking Run and Spruce Creek watershed initiatives and 30 Center for Watershed Stewardship graduate students who have been involved over the past three years. Matching funds have been provided by the Heinz Endowments, Penn State School of Forest Resources, Department of Landscape Architecture, Penn State Institutes of the Environment and Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center, College of Arts and Architecture, College of Agricultural Sciences and the Agricultural Experiment Station, and the Environmental Protection Agency.