Zombie bill intent on dirtying your water

With fall approaching and Halloween right around the corner, I thought I’d share a frightening tale with you. Here at PennFuture, we have been dealing with a “zombie bill” for over a year and just like real zombies, this bill rises up again and again from the (almost) dead. It may well take an outpouring of citizens to finally kill the bill as the clock moves toward midnight at the end of the legislative session.

What ghoulish bill do I speak of? House Bill 1565 (insert blood-curdling scream)! This proposed legislation would remove riparian forest buffer requirements for our best waters -- those designated as exceptional value (EV) or high quality (HQ). These requirements, established just a few years ago, acknowledge the importance of forested buffers to our water quality, wildlife, and communities. Now, there are some in Harrisburg who want to remove these protections because they believe we can either get by without them or engineer controls, such as rain gardens and wet detention ponds, to do the same things forested buffers do, but that’s just not true.

The unique benefits of maintaining or installing forested buffers are many, including:

           ·          filtering pollution from agriculture and other land uses, improving water quality

           ·          natural flood control for downstream communities

           ·          preventing erosion and stabilizing the stream bank. This helps to maintain the natural width, depth, and sediments of a stream

           ·          improving stream health, which increases the level of in-stream processing of pollutants

           ·          providing habit and food for aquatic life, and shade which keeps temperatures stable

           ·          increased opportunities for fishing, kayaking, and hiking

           ·          increased property values by preserving scenic beauty and natural character

It’s clear that forested buffers provide more than just water retention and sediment removal. How could we engineer shade, aquatic food and habitat, or scenic beauty? A better question might be, why pay to engineer and maintain systems when forest buffers do everything they do, and more, for free?

Additionally, under the Chesapeake Bay pollution limits, Pennsylvania committed to establish forest buffers to reduce pollution from its part of the watershed, but we have fallen behind in meeting our commitments. To achieve our 2017 goal, we need to establish roughly 50 acres of riparian forest buffers every day through 2017. In the recent Chesapeake Bay Agreement, Pennsylvania, along with the other Bay states, has also agreed to conserve existing forest buffers until at least 70 percent of riparian areas throughout the Bay watershed are forested. Given our commitments, we should be doing everything we can to preserve existing buffers and establish new ones, but HB 1565 will do just the opposite (insert second blood-curdling scream).

Sharpen your wooden stake…no wait, that’s for vampires. Get your silver bullet…sorry, wrong again. That’s for werewolves. Stay tuned to find out how you can help put an end, once and for all, to this zombie bill.

Jennifer Quinn is central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Harrisburg. She tweets @QuinnJen1.

The Delaware River Watershed needs you

We've told you recently about the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, or CDRW (we're a steering committee member and founder), and we're once again inviting groups working up and down the watershed to apply to become members of the coalition.  

Here's another way you can get involved to protect the watershed. The CDRW has just launched working groups led by members and staff based on some key issues that were identified at a watershed-wide forum in fall 2013. Take a look at the list below and see if your watershed group's interests and expertise fit one of these. Then contact us at gibbons (at) pennfuture (dot) org to get involved in this effort. 

Here's short info (full details here) from the Delaware River Watershed Forum's website on each of the work groups:

Federal Funding – The Delaware River Watershed does not receive significant, dedicated federal funding for protection and restoration efforts. Passage of the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act (pending in Congress) would bring significant resources to the basin and place the watershed on the national radar screen, but other federal programs also exist that can bring needed funds for protection and restoration. To successfully secure any of these funds requires a coordinated and sustained effort from the watershed community.

Compiling A Delaware Watershed Blueprint – The Delaware River Watershed is home to numerous plans prepared by NGOs, public agencies, and others across the basin. These plans contain a treasure trove of valuable information but are scattered and typically address different resources/regions/issues. 

Fish and Wildlife Habitat– To thrive, wildlife need clean water and healthy habitat. From sturgeon to shad, red knots to bald eagles, and bog turtles to black ducks, the fish and wildlife of the basin are iconic keys to conservation. This workgroup will bring together practitioners, public agencies, and other stakeholders working across the basin to protect and restore habitats and the fish and wildlife populations they support.

Marketing and Messaging  – The Delaware River Watershed is an irreplaceable national resource - full of history, an engine of commerce, and the source of drinking water for 16 million people. But the Delaware does not evoke the type of connection to the resource seen in places like the Chesapeake Bay and suffers for a lack of popular demand for its protection. The watershed is home to an incredible number of successful outreach and educational efforts, but in order to truly be seen for the important resource it is, we need a coordinated effort.

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

Sanctuaries in our midst

Did you know that nearly 27 million Americans play golf on nearly 16,000 courses nationwide? That's about 1.79 million acres of greens and fairways – covering half the area of Pennsylvania's state parks and forests combined!  That's a lot of valuable green space.

Golf courses can serve as a safe haven for animals, birds, and native flora species – that's the idea behind the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary for Golf Courses (ACSP) program.

In my first blog post on green golf courses, you saw a big-picture view of Hershey Country Club (HCC) and its continuing habitat-creation efforts as a certified member of ACSP. Today, we'll dive in and take a closer look at these activities, as well as how ACSP-certification practices have improved water quality at HCC courses.

Photo by Alicia Riegel Kanth

  
What do bluebirds and golf have in common?  Through HCC – quite a bit! Some years ago, HCC teamed up with the Bluebird Society of Pennsylvania to install wooden and PVC bluebird nesting boxes – crafted by Milton Hershey School and Palmyra High School – at strategic locations throughout the three golf courses (bluebird photos included!).  

Photo by Alicia Riegel Kanth

Last year, HCC noted 66 successful hatchings of bluebirds. Competition for these boxes can be quite fierce. Jen Quinn, PennFuture's central Pa. outreach coordinator, and I narrowly escaped involvement in a battle between a pair of bluebirds and some American tree swallows for possession of a nearby box on an East Course hole (pictures not included). 

To enhance the course habitats, HCC staff also installed wood duck and kestrel boxes as well as piling branches in some tree groves for burrowing animals.  Vegetated buffers along stream banks attract blue herons (see photo) scoping out prey. Incorporating the bird boxes around the property provides wonderful educational opportunities for students and the public because they can see these birds in a more natural setting.

Photo by Alicia Riegel Kanth

Photo by Alicia Riegel Kanth

The photos you're seeing of stream bank and fairway buffers, as well as signage indicating an environmentally-sensitive naturalized meadow, are among the ways that HCC incorporates naturalized areas into their courses (see photos). 

These naturalized areas and buffers – allowed to grow as they will with removal of invasive species – are left unwatered, unfertilized, and unmowed. This practice decreases erosion and sedimentation in the streams and other waterbodies on the property. Additionally, HCC applies fertilizer and pest management products about 15-25 feet from waterbodies (ACSP has setback requirements for application of turf care products.).

Photo by Alicia Riegel Kanth

We’ve seen that course care can be more environmentally friendly, and that integrating wildlife habitat and altering management practices are simple, low-cost efforts that provide environmental benefits.

Is there an ACSP-certified golf course in your area?  If so, check it out! I may not become a golfer, but I can enjoy these places from afar and appreciate that more recreational areas in the Commonwealth are being sensibly managed, with our native species enjoying the benefits.

Alicia Riegel-Kanth is a volunteer policy associate in our Harrisburg office.

A view from a greener golf course

After this long, difficult winter, another harbinger of spring are those die-hard golfers who return to the golf course. We’ve all seen golf courses on TV, but have you ever wondered how such landscapes are created?  Do you believe that course care can be done in a more environmentally-friendly way?

The answer is, yes, it can. I was lucky enough to tour such a course a few weeks ago. This “greener” golf course is one of a handful in south central Pennsylvania certified by the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary for Golf Courses (ACSP for Golf) program.


(Photographer: Alicia Riegel-Kanth)

For 23 years, Audubon International has operated the ACSP for Golf program that helps to maintain habitats for animals and birds around the world within the private and public golf course environment. ACSP for Golf offers certification for public and private courses that meet certain requirements related to chemical use reduction and safety, outreach and education, water quality management, integrated pest management, wildlife and habitat management, and many other areas. There are 29 ACSP-certified golf courses in Pennsylvania, or 4.3 percent of the Keystone state's 667 golf courses.

On a picture-perfect day, central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator Jen Quinn and I took a field trip to check out the closest certified course to PennFuture's Harrisburg office, the Hershey Country Club, which has been certified since 2010.

(Photographer: Alicia Riegel-Kanth)

Hershey Country Club (HCC) was founded in 1930 by Milton S. Hershey, the Hershey Kisses inventor and Milton Hershey School founder. Some of golf's greatest champions including Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan (former HCC pro), Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard (former HCC pro), and Nancy Lopez have traversed HCC courses over the years. Jen and I toured three HCC courses: East, West, and Spring Creek. Each has its own character and scenic beauty.

On our field trip, we learned that HCC plans its landscapes carefully, with an eye toward balancing aesthetics and conserving natural areas in order to provide habitats for animals and birds. Expanded naturalized areas and removal of invasive species has helped these habitats take root. With community partners, staff conduct education and outreach alongside environmental planning and water conservation. 

(Photographer: Alicia Riegel-Kanth)

Birders, take note: The variety of birds you'll see at HCC will surprise you! Stay tuned for my next guest post, where I'll share some of my favorite bird and nature photos with you and discuss HCC habitat creation and water conservation in greater detail.

Alicia Riegel-Kanth is a Volunteer Policy Associate in our Harrisburg office.