Watershed Winds Newsletter
The central and eastern parts of the state were saturated by frequent heavy rains in early August before being drenched by Hurricane Irene and then inundated by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. The resulting flooding could have contaminated many private water wells.
As many Pennsylvania residents are in the midst of significant flooding, there will be exceptional demand for credible information. Extension can provide science based information for homeowners and businesses that are affected by flooding.
A lot of citizens in the Marcellus Shale Region of Pennsylvania are concerned about the streams that run through their watershed or on their property. The first step is to identify the "Aquatic Life Use Designation" for that stream.
"Forty years ago, the federal Clean Water Act set the ultimate goal of achieving water quality improvements that would allow people to fish from and swim in our rivers, lakes and streams. The quality of our water is directly related to the quality of our life. It is a vital resource for human health, but water quality is often taken for granted. Forty years after the passage of the Clean Water Act, we must continue the work of enforcing the Clean Water Act while raising awareness about the activities that pollute our waterways." according to the EPA report just released. Combined sewer systems collect sewage from buildings and stormwater from street drains and transport the wastewater to a treatment plant. When the volume of wastewater exceeds the capacity of the sewer system or treatment plant, the systems are designed to overflow and discharge directly to nearby streams, rivers, lakes, and other water bodies. Many Combined Sewer Overflows still remain in Pennsylvania. Learn about CSOs and why this is important to your community in this Environmental Protection Agency report.
When you’re visiting a nature center, local park, or even driving on the highway you often see signs that identify the name of the local watershed that you are in. However, when you return home that same sign doesn’t hang at the entrance to your neighborhood or at end of your driveway. So how do you know what watershed you live in?
If your well was flooded after the recent visit by Hurricane Irene - or any other high water event, there are some steps you should take to ensure the safety of your water supply.
The Conewago Creek Conservation Initiative is Pennsylvania’s ‘Discovery Watershed’, a place to target resources and test approaches to improve water quality. This article discusses using surveys as a tool to initially describe the context for conservation efforts, then assess the effectiveness of these efforts and describe preliminary results from the initial survey.
Going green on your horse farm is not difficult or expensive. You may already be doing environmentally friendly methods of horse-keeping and just need to make some adjustments. This is part 2 of a two part series.
Going green on your horse farm is not difficult or expensive. You may already be doing environmentally friendly methods of horse-keeping and just need to make some adjustments. This is part one of a two-part series. Part one: Clean Water and Manure Management
Livestock farms use nutrient management plans to match nutrient application on fields to crop removal of nutrients. This planning effort is an important part of maintaining productivity and environmental quality for these producers.
Adopting watershed-friendly practices in urban and suburban yards is increasingly important because development is the fastest growing land use in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. And it is not the only one.
A riparian buffer is a simple project that even private landowners can do to help preserve their property and water quality. As an awareness of environmental stewardship increases many are using buffers on their own properties.
An online guide to assist homeowners identify and choose plants native to the Chesapeake Bay Region is available. The Native Plant Center is a joint project of The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The guide allows users to search for native plants by name, plant type, sun exposure, soil texture and moisture. Users can even find native plants with the same characteristics as some of their favorite non-native plants. The website also includes a geo-locator feature to identify plants suited to a user’s specific location. Use of native plants is important to restoring the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Native plants require less fertilizer, water and pesticide application, provide critical habitat for pollinators and reduce contaminated stormwater runoff. The portal uses the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service’s native plant database, associated with the publication, "Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping: Chesapeake Bay Watershed."
It takes a lot of work to clean up a watershed area and keep it clean.
The Chesapeake Commons is a geospatial data sharing tool that lets users easily upload data,pin it to specific geographical points (i.e. latitude and longitude), then share, rate and discuss the results. The Chesapeake Commons helps people find data, ask questions and quickly test assumptions with easy to use mapping tools. With Chesapeake Commons, users can share their data with others and track how it is used. the Commons is still in its soft-release' phase, but already has some impressive datasets available. As more members grow and data is added, more potential arises for map creation and sharing. All of the data on the Commons is public and the Commons itself is completely open-source. Public information like this helps to ensure that that data is up-to-date, accurate and transparent allowing faster, more impressive updates to the system. From WAY E-News Watershed Alliance of York Gary Peacock, Editor
One of the challenges livestock farmers face is managing the nitrogen needs of their corn crop when applying manure. Farmers have the challenge of maintaining optimum crop yields while minimizing cost and reducing nitrogen loss to the environment.
Studies by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have confirmed that the presence of Escherichia coli pathogens in surface waters could result from the pathogen's ability to survive for months in underwater sediments. Read about new research from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory.
Survey part of national White-Nose Syndrome monitoring effort
The fresh water resources that we all use for our needs are inter-connected through a series of watersheds or drainage areas linking rivers, lakes, streams and even oceans.
Improving local water quality and the Chesapeake Bay starts with feeding cows. The amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that goes in the front end of the cow directly impacts how much comes out the back end.
