We need YOU this fall to help protect the Delaware River Watershed

Save the date: The third annual Delaware River Watershed Forum is set for October 5-6 and this year, the event moves to the city of Newark, Delaware.

The Forum is led by the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed (CDRW) and the first two forums -- in Philadelphia and Bethlehem, Pa. -- provided hundreds of attendees with terrific opportunities for updates, collaboration, and work to protect the watershed of the Delaware River, encompassing four states.

Photo credit: Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed

Join the Coalition on the University of Delaware campus this fall for two days of information, site visits, facilitated discussions and networking. PennFuture has been a steering committee member since the Coalition's founding so we hope to see our Pennsylvania watershed and conservation colleagues there this fall. More event details are coming soon.

Visit our information page for more on the CDRW and how your organization can join with others on behalf of our waterways.

Kate Gibbons is Northeastern Pennsylvania outreach coordinator and is based in Wilkes-Barre.

Guest post: Speak out on protecting exceptional streams in NE PA

Note: This week, we have a guest blog post from Barbara "Bonnie" Smith, president of the watershed protection group North Pocono CARE (Citizens Alert Regarding the Environment) and member of PennFuture's board of directors. NP CARE is working to protect over 20 Exceptional Value (EV) streams in the Lehigh River headwaters affected by a planned transmission line. PennFuture recently submitted technical comments on this project.

Thanks to the efforts of many local citizens and the Thornhurst Township Board of Supervisors, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has scheduled a public hearing as part of DEP's review of the PPL permit applications. The hearing is on the proposed PPL West Pocono-North Pocono 230kV electric transmission line in Buck Township, Luzerne County and Thornhurst, Clifton and Covington townships, Lackawanna County. This section of the line has an extraordinary number of exceptional value (EV) stream crossings and EV wetland crossings in its 21-mile length, all of which are highly sensitive to pollution. These permits -- NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) Permit (PAI023514002) and Water Obstruction and Encroachment Permits (E40-761and E35-456) -- address water and wetland protection issues that are so important to maintaining the health of our Lehigh River and its tributaries. This is our opportunity to provide comments.

Sand Spring Creek

We encourage all those who hike, fish, live alongside, and enjoy these streams and forests to attend and pre-register to speak at the hearing.

Details: DEP public hearing, Thursday, April 23, 2015, 6:00 p.m.
Thornhurst Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company, 351 Old River Road (formerly 125 River Rd.), Thornhurst, Lackawanna County

Keep in mind that the parameters of DEP's review are limited to environmental issues, and comments will be most actionable in setting permit conditions if they fall under the following areas:
•    Impacts on water quality - polluting streams, wetlands and the Lehigh River
•    Concern about forest destruction and fragmentation
•    Vehicles and equipment introducing invasive species into our woodlands and waters
•    Herbicide use that would be harmful to streams and wetlands

Please save the date and make plans to add your voice. Many thanks, Bonnie Smith, President, North Pocono CARE (Citizens Alert Regarding the Environment).

An ancient fish makes an appearance

Those in the Philadelphia area -- okay, at least conservationists and anglers -- were abuzz with the news that a fisherman snagged a shortnose sturgeon this past summer near the Fairmount Dam. The fish has been on the federal endangered species list since 1967 and has not been identified in the Schuylkill River before, either by water testing agencies or known in the historical record.

The sturgeon is one of those near-mythical creatures that grabs our imagination and attention. It has remained mostly unchanged for tens of millions of years, making it commonly referred to as a "living fossil." Among 25 sturgeon species worldwide, some can reach 18 feet in size, live anywhere from 30 to 100 years, and some can even reach 4,000 lbs. in weight. As well, several species from Russia and Asia are a source of caviar.

However, the 25 sturgeon species are almost all classified as threatened, endangered, or critically endangered because of commercial overfishing (including demand for caviar and subsequent illegal fishing), damming of native river habitats, and the species' high sensitivity to water pollution and environmental threats.

Sturgeon have a presence in various Northeast rivers including the Delaware and in the Atlantic Ocean, but, to date, not in the Schuylkill. So the creature's appearance in Philly is welcome news for water quality, all thanks to a still-unknown angler who snapped a photo holding his find.

Kate Gibbons is northeastern Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Wilkes-Barre.

Touring Crabby Creek with Congressman Jim Gerlach

This guest blog was written by Katy Dunlap.  Katy is the Eastern Water Project Director for Trout Unlimited and works primarily in Pennsylvania and New York.

Today, Valley Forge TU Chapter members took Congressman Jim Gerlach (6th District, Pennsylvania) to visit two sites on Crabby Creek—a tributary to Valley Creek—where the chapter has worked with countless partners over the past five years to restore the stream channel for trout habitat and address stormwater runoff downstream. 

Just northwest of Philadelphia, the Crabby Creek watershed is a major tributary to the 23-square mile Valley Creek watershed which is designated as an Exceptional Value and Class A Wild Trout watershed, the two highest water quality and biological designations that a stream can receive in Pennsylvania. Yet, despite its high quality, the Valley Creek watershed has been plagued with excess stormwater runoff and sedimentation, flooding, stream bank erosion, and channel scour, affecting the hydrology of the stream as well as its naturally reproducing population of wild trout. Crabby Creek has been one of the main stormwater-contributing culprits and more work is needed to restore the watershed.

The Crabby Creek project, like hundreds of other projects currently underway or being planned in the Delaware River watershed, could benefit greatly from passage of the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act (DRBCA). The DRBCA, co-sponsored by Congressman Gerlach, would create a voluntary, non-regulatory program in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to coordinate conservation and restoration activities in the Delaware River watershed and provide for a competitive grant program to help fund on-the-ground projects like the Crabby Creek project. We thank Congressman Gerlach for recognizing the importance of the Delaware River watershed and urge Congress to support the DRBCA and related restoration efforts.