A Fish Drawn to Water: My Yellow Breeches Journey

I’ve always explained my fascination with bodies of water by my astrological predisposition: as a Pisces, I am, by nature, drawn to the sea. And on a local level, as we know, all watersheds lead to the ocean.

Where I live now in Mechanicsburg, all watersheds first flow to the Mighty Susquehanna. From tiny tributaries like Trout Run at the foot of my suburban neighborhood to larger streams like the Conodoguinet and Yellow Breeches that wind through miles of Cumberland County, eventually all end up dumping into the river that forms the boundary between what locals refer to as the West and East Shores.

I’ve inherited my love of the watershed. Growing up in Blair County, my grandfather, an avid fisherman, would frequently take me out to his “fly club” where they stocked trout in Clover Creek (which, as he pronounced it, rhymed with “stick”). I have happy memories of weekend afternoons spent exploring this small tributary of the Juniata River and learning, by watching my grandfather, how important it was to take care of it.  

When I first came to South Central Pennsylvania to attend college in the early 1990s, I found ways to maintain this connection to my newly adopted waterways: I loved swimming in Laurel Lake, running along the Susquehanna, and camping at Lake Pinchot. But as I got older and became a permanent resident of the area, my recreational connection to the local streams and lakes blossomed into a deeper desire to invest in the watershed.

Fate intervened for the first time in January 2024 when a waterfront property search came back with a new listing: two adjacent parcels along Sheepford Road in Lower Allen Township, Mechanicsburg — just about a half-acre of vacant property alongside the Yellow Breeches. Although I knew the property’s Flood Plain designation would preclude us from ever building and living there, my husband and I decided to purchase the property as a creekside retreat where we could park our camper — at least for 180 consecutive days per year, according to Lower Allen Township code.

The parcel was not much to look at: the Emerald Ash Borer had decimated most of the trees on the property decades earlier. But I immediately fell in love with the four gigantic sycamore trees close to the creek that seemed to watch over the property. As I learned later, a rustic cabin had once been located on the property, one of a number that were washed away by flooding from Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Fifty years of neglect had left the parcel overgrown with invasive species, rife with poison ivy, and infested with ticks. Despite all this, I was undeterred. I knew it was an investment in the future. 

Fate intervened a second time a few weeks later when I discovered the Penn State Extension’s Watershed Steward Program during an Internet search for information about best practices for rehabilitating the property. Several emails and Zoom sessions later, I was a full-fledged member of the Spring 2024 Cumberland Valley cohort.

I learned so much in those weekly sessions: from the fragility of the macroinvertebrates who call the watershed home to the importance of riparian buffers in managing erosion and sedimentation of streams. But even beyond the value of the information itself, the MWS program made me aware of the existence of an entire network of individuals and organizations who, like me, were passionate about protecting and preserving local waterways. This knowledge led me to connect with a number of groups, including the Yellow Breeches Watershed Association, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, all three of which have been instrumental in my education as a steward of the watershed.

As I write this, it has been a little over a year since I first dipped my toes into the prospect of stewarding a small piece of the Yellow Breeches. I am proud to say that over the past 12 months, my partnership with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay has resulted in the planting of 140 native trees through the ACB’s Riparian Buffer program. Even more meaningfully for my husband and me, the volunteer tree planters who came to our property in October 2024 were students of our alma mater, Dickinson College.

As winter turns to spring here in south-central Pennsylvania, I am eager to continue to apply the knowledge I’ve gained from the MWS program and leverage the connections I’ve forged through my partnership. I hope, too, that my stewardship can help inspire other property owners along the Yellow Breeches to think about the land that they own. I proudly display my Watershed Friendly Property designation and frequently answer questions from curious passers-by who notice the work we have been doing on the property.

I know I still have lots to do in order to restore the riparian buffer and to work to balance the property’s invasive species with native plantings. But I am confident that the knowledge, support, and connections that I’ve been able to build throughout this process will help to sustain my efforts and, ultimately, to leave this piece of the watershed better than I found it.