Recognizing Efforts to Keep Your Community’s Water Clean

- Okay, good afternoon, everybody and welcome to our webinar recognizing efforts to keep your communities water clean.

My name is Daniel Rhea and I'm a water resources educator in Jefferson County and on our webinar today the other presenters are Andy Henshaw, who's a water resources educator in Cumberland County.

Jen Feder, who's a water resources educator, and Dolphin County, Leon Ressler, who's an agronomy educator in Lancaster County, Kristin Koch, who is a broad program manager for the Ag and environment center, and Jessica Chow, who is our water team intern for this summer.

So today, we're going to be introducing a new resource called a Roadside Guide to Clean Water.

You can see the cover there on your screen.

A whole team of extension educators put this together as a way to help identify and celebrate good practices happening in our communities.

So today, we'll introduce the new book the website and teach you about some of the common practices that are included in the guide.

And so some general housekeeping things.

Today, if you have a question, please put that in the q&a.

If you have just some technical difficulties, you can put that in the chat or if you want to introduce yourselves, and just do some general conversation that can all go in the chat as well.

And one final thing, we will be recording the webinar today as well.

So I will turn it over to Jane and she'll get us started.

- Great, Danielle, thank you so much.

And welcome, everybody.

Thank you for joining us this afternoon.

We're pretty excited to share this new resource with you and to teach you a little bit about the things going on in your community to keep water clean, and how you might engage and using this tool and recognizing those efforts.

So we're just going to go back to our presentation here.

My apologies.

I clicked right off of it.

So I think the most important thing and something probably everyone Buddy who's tuned in today already knows as we all need clean water to live, right.

So whether you're using water for drinking for preparing food for washing at home, or perhaps you're involved in growing and raising food and you're using water for that, you're using water for helping to generate electricity or for the manufacturing of products and goods and services.

We go through a lot of water.

And luckily, in Pennsylvania, we have abundant water resources.

We are really blessed with a significant amount of water available to us here.

Not just in Pennsylvania, but in the Mid Atlantic region.

In general we have over 85,000 miles of streams, if you were to put them end to end that's including our rivers.

We have over 99,000 acres of just public lakes that's not including all the private ponds and lakes that exist across Pennsylvania.

We have over 376,000 acres of wetlands And we're able to tap into over a billion gallons per day of groundwater.

And there's quite a bit more than that underground.

But that's about what we're using here in Pennsylvania every day.

So we're not resource strapped when it comes to water.

That's definitely not the case everywhere in the country or everywhere in the world.

We know parts of the United States are water stress, California has been struggling for years to meet their water needs.

And the same goes for a lot of other parts of the country.

And then globally across the world, we know there's a lot of countries where access to water is what's leading to wars and conflict because it's not a guaranteed opportunity the way it really is here in Pennsylvania.

But we do have a problem with and Pennsylvania is the fact that our water is not all clean.

So we have over 18,000 miles of impaired streams In Pennsylvania, this map is from the 2016.

DEP report, their more recent version is just going through finishing the approval process.

So we're still working with the most recently approved map.

That number does change from year to year.

But if you look at this map, those red lines indicate all the stream segments that have been listed as impaired for various reasons, but generally it's because of pollution from stormwater runoff.

And you can see that there's not a single county in Pennsylvania that doesn't have some kind of impaired stream situation.

So this isn't specific to one region or one community type.

It's not just around agriculture, it's not just in the cities.

We have stream impairment everywhere in our state.

So usually, we see this typical message of polluted water ways flooding, muddy streams, algae ridden ponds eroding stream banks.

When we talk about this water issue in Pennsylvania, we focus pretty heavily on the problems that we have.

And some of the messaging is lost in all the great solutions that are available and the ones that are already being applied and already being used in our community.

And that's what led us to develop this new publication called the Roadside Guide to Clean Water.

We were fortunate to be awarded a grant to develop this guide and that funding comes from the department of environmental protections environmental education grants program.

The guide is designed to be like a field guide just like you would use to go out into your community to identify birds or another book that you might have identified trees.

This book is meant to be used to identify good practices happening for water in your community, so that you recognize them and you can sort of share the good messaging and not focus on that negative messaging alone.

So inside this book, what you'll find our little two page spreads about each of the various best management practices that we feature.

There are 10 Best Management Practices featured in the book and several more that we feature online in addition to the 10 that are in the book.

So on each page, you'll find a whole suite of photos to help you start to become familiar familiar with what you'd be looking for out in your community.

If you were going to start recognizing these best practices, a little bit of information about what it is at a glance, how they work, and some unique things.

Each of the pictures maybe shares a unique difference that you might see from community to community or from location to location, and then perhaps even some additional information that you might be able to find on our website to help grow that out.

You'll also notice on each page, there's a series of icons.

So we use these easy to follow icons to help you just like a lot of field guides have, they sort of help you narrow down the places you might find these best management practices.

So whether it's an urban or suburban or rural location, so maybe it's something that's more suited for a city environment on a farm, or vice versa, or something you might find in a residential area out in the suburbs.

So that's what those icons are for.

And the second set of icons are the community benefits of each of the practices.

So what part of the water sphere is this BMP benefiting?

Is it helping get more groundwater back into the ground?

Is it helping to reduce stormwater runoff.

So that was volumes of water that rush over the land during rainstorms and end up carrying pollution into our streams.

Is it reducing pollution that's ending up in our waterways?

Is it helping to slow or reduce flooding issues in your community?

Is it promoting resiliency to our changing climate?

Does it provide wildlife habitat, which is something I think a lot of people are interested in?

Is it something that's going to help provide more homes?

For folks that are interested in bird watching or maybe hunting?

Is this a practice that might benefit those activities?

Does it provide cost savings in some way?

And of course, something that we really love about a lot of these practices is does it beautify the landscape does it offer some kind of aesthetic appeal?

So in addition to the printed book, which is hard for us to get into folks hands right now, because we're still responding to and reacting to our shutdown for COVID 19.

But we do hope to be out in the community and handing the books out as soon as we can be back out in the public.

We do have a website that you can tap into right now, all of those best practices are written as articles on our website as well.

So the link is there on the screen.

And we'll be sure to share that in the chat.

So it's easy for you to click on as well as we go through today's presentation.

So all those practices and as I mentioned, there's three bonus practices 13 total on the website, have, like I said a similar layout.

So all those photos are available.

The same information that's in the book is listed on the website, how to identify what to look for, and what kinds of community benefits come from each of these practices so you can start thinking about and learning about these practices.

So I'd like to ask you before we dive into telling you more about all of these practices, what of our best management practices Do you think you could recognize right now, before we really get into teaching you about them or providing you with this resource to help you recognize them, you can click on as many of these choices as you want in the poll window that's popped up on your screen.

And let us know which ones you think you might be able to recognize.

And then after almost everybody's had a chance to respond, we'll share the results up on the screen.

If you're having trouble seeing the poll, if it's not appearing on your screen, it is a pop up window and sometimes it pops up behind the presentation instead of in front of it.

So you might have to kind of minimize the presentation window.

There's a button that says exit full screen and it'll give you the opportunity to look behind the window and see if you can't find the polls pop up window.

Save just another second here for folks to send in their responses, make sure you hit the submit button at the bottom after you've clicked off the boxes of practices that you think you would recognize.

And now I'm going to go ahead and end the poll.

And I'm going to share these results up on the screen.

So the most popular the one most people think they're probably would recognize out in the community is rain gardens, maybe storm water basins and riparian buffers.

We're going to talk about each of those today.

Some of the ones folks are pretty sure they wouldn't recognize if they solid a grasp waterway and manure storage.

We are going to talk about manure storage and a little bit.

So this is great.

We're glad that this tool is going to be helpful for a lot of folks.

So with that, I'm going to turn the microphone over to Andy and he's going to start us off with talking about some of our different best practices.

- Thanks, Jane.

I'm trying to get rid of a poll here.

Hang with me for a second everybody.

Maybe I'll just live with the poll.

All right.

Well, welcome everybody.

Thanks again for joining us.

As has been mentioned my name's Andy.

I'm a water resources educator and I'm going to talk about rain gardens real briefly.

We're going to showcase six practices here for you all.

And for each one, we're just gonna follow the same format.

First, we're going to define it then we're going to talk about how it works.

Then how to recognize it and what the benefits are.

So what is a rain garden?

Well, apparently many of you already know this judging by the poll, but we'll go over it anyway.

Quickly here.

Rain gardens are shallow depressions short, sort of a little excavation created in a landscape to accept stormwater runoff.

Storm water is just the rainwater or melted snow that otherwise flows across our landscapes.

They're usually not very deep, usually less than six inches, they can be a little bit deeper, they can be a little shallower.

Oftentimes they have kind of a dam around them.

We call that a berm and that berm can be created out of variety of materials.

It helps define it sometimes makes it look nicer sometimes it actually serves a role in holding more water.

Almost always planted with native perennials.

This helps beautify them.

It helps them work better to help them infiltrate water a little bit better.

All right, let's move right along.

Oh, one thing about this, I don't know if you can see it, but where does the water come into this rain garden.

And if you notice, you have to have a sharp eye but if you look up towards the right hand corner of that picture, there's a little little tiny bit of white visible and that's a little gravel area that a downspout drains into and the water comes in there and then fills up this basin.

Okay, well I already talked about how they capture storm water To increase their ability to capture stormwater, they're usually put in a location where stormwater is nearby that's often beneath the downspout.

It could be below a patio next to a driveway near a sidewalk or even at the bottom of a hill that's got a lot of turf grass on it.

We don't encourage putting them that close to a home we'd like to say at least 10 feet distance because they do infiltrate water and you don't want that water soaking back into your house.

A lot of people think these gardens should be wet, but that not really rain gardens, despite the name really are dry gardens that accept rainwater and then quickly within a day or two, get it into the ground where it can become groundwater and keep it from becoming stormwater runoff runoff, which we're trying to minimize.

And then I talked about how they're planted with native plants.

Could be perennials, beautiful flowers, or it could be trees and shrubs.

Trees and shrubs are great choices for rain gardens, especially in Pennsylvania.

All right.

Keep moving on here.

So how do you recognize these?

Sometimes it can be a little tricky because often when they're done right, in my opinion when they're done right, they sort of kind of match the existing landscape of the property they are created on.

So sometimes they just look like they were always there.

But what you're looking for is number one, look for a shallow dug out area.

Number two, is that area near a source of runoff?

Is it beneath the downspout?

Is it next to a driveway?

Is it next to a part of the street that's kind of sloped towards it?

Those are clues that it might be a rain garden.

You can see that these gardens fit in both residential kind of suburban or commercial locations and then urban locations.

So rain gardens are super adaptable.

That's one of the nice things about this practice.

They work in a lot of different places and can accept runoff from a lot of different sources.

They're they're super beneficial as well.

We list eight possible benefits and rain gardens get just about all of them, they can reduce the sudden flush of stormwater.

When we get a heavy downpour pour by kind of capturing it temporarily preventing it from flashing across the landscape.

Some of that water will recharge right away.

When the rainstorm stops, the water that's left behind that will recharge more slowly.

We already talked about how they can beautify the landscape, their great habitat because of those native plants for insects, including pollinators, little critters, birds can find food and nesting sites in them, they can remove some pollutants, so they improve water quality.

They provide that flood water storage which helps with climate resiliency, so they might become an even more impractical important practice down the road.

And then, overall, not only do they stop that initial flush of water But they can help reduce the duration and the intensity of just overall flooding when we run into wet periods.

All right, so that is the rain gardens onto the next one, riparian buffers.

- All right thanks, Sandy.

So our next featured best management practice is riparian buffers.

And about 75% of you, I think, said that you could recognize a riparian buffer.

And I think for the rest of you, maybe what trips most people up is the word riparian, and that's basically the technical word that we use to refer to the area along a stream.

And so we'll see, some conservation organizations will actually refer to these as stream side buffers now or stream side plantings, just because it's an easier recognized word.

But basically, a riparian buffer is just an area that we can plant or retain native trees, shrubs or tall grasses along the banks of rivers, streams and lakes.

So a pretty simple practice and it can be found pretty much anywhere and urban, rural and residential areas and so kind of the challenge with an urban area is having enough space but really anywhere that we can either plant or retain vegetation.

We can have a riparian buffer.

I don't know.

Sorry, folks.

- Hang on a second Danielle.

Let me try to bring it back for you.

- Okay, thanks.

I'm having trouble seeing all the icons.

- You should have it.

- Okay.

I think I'm good now.

So how riparian buffers work.

So the riparian area is very important for improving water quality.

And Andy did a good job about talking about stormwater.

And so as stormwater flows over the land, it can pick up pollutants and all kinds of things.

And so that riparian stream site area is the streams last line of defense.

And so as we plant different types of native vegetation, the roots can grow into a really robust root system which can improve the soils ability to act like a sponge.

Kind of Another benefit is as vegetation grows taller does a much better job of slowing water as it flows over the land surface.

So further slows the water as it's flowing over that riparian area, really promoting that soaking in infiltration.

So that's why riparian areas are really good at absorbing runoff as well as pollutants like nutrients, sediment, and anything else that it could have picked up as it float over the land.

Something else that that robust root system is really good at is holding the stream banks in place, which is another way that they reduce pollution as well.

And so oftentimes during high flow events, especially in those streams that we see those vertical banks, a lot of it gets washed away during the stream we see those streams turned like a chocolate milk brown and the roots instead Hold that stream bank in place.

So it's really good for reducing property loss and pollution.

Another benefit that kind of comes later on in life is that it shades the streams and rivers to regulate the water temperature.

So the picture that's on the slide right now shows an older, more mature buffer.

And you can see that that's a pretty tall, pretty tall trees made up of pretty tall trees that can shade the water, which is really important for the things living in the stream.

So all streams have a riparian area because that riparian areas just that stream side stream bank area, but as far as recognizing buffers, they can look different in different scenarios.

And so kind of the most simple buffer could be that first first picture, there are no mole zone, which is a good first step to creating a riparian buffer.

So we don't necessarily have to plant plants in order to create this we can just simply stop mowing and creating a lawn area next to the stream.

So I guess these are most easily Recognize kind of as shown in the picture, you can see that area that's nicely manicured, and then the area right next to the stream is a little more natural looking.

Maybe more commonly recognized are the plastic tree shelters that are used in riparian buffers.

And so these tree shelters are placed along every are placed around every tree to protect the tree from wildlife and weeds.

And some people see them and they get really confused.

Why are there all these plastic tubes in that field or along that stream in a park or whatever.

And those tree shelters are really important for giving the those little baby trees their fighting chance when they're first planted.

And another thing to keep in mind is the shelters are temporary.

So they only need to be on the trees for the first few years of their lives until the trunks get to be about the width of that tube.

Another indicator that a riparian buffer is there is stream bank fencing.

And so this is something that we would see more commonly on a farm that has livestock but in order for a buffer To truly be a buffer, the livestock should be excluded.

And so farmers can do this by installing fences along the stream.

And so regardless of if they're planting plants or just excluding the livestock and allowing the grasses to grow up nice and tall, that creates a buffer that way.

So there's lots of benefits to riparian buffers, and we've kind of been mentioning them all along the way.

But as we talked about, the native vegetation promotes a lot of water absorption into the soil, which of course leads to recharge of groundwater.

And then as water soaks into the ground, we're going to see less flooding as well.

Buffers also promote climate change resiliency, both in those ways by reducing flooding and recharging groundwater but also as they hold stream banks in place and shade the water and regulating water temperature.

We think buffers beautify the landscape, which of course is all personal preference.

But if you think about an eroding stream that has, a two foot vertical bank compared to one that has a lot have nice vegetation planted around it.

I think most people would pick the one that's nicely vegetated over the steep erosion that's causing property loss.

And so the nice thing about buffers is you have a lot of flexibility in choosing native plants that are aesthetically pleasing to you.

So that you can make your buffer look the way that you want it to.

And so something that you think would beautify the landscape.

Finally, or I guess we know we mentioned a couple times that buffers reduce water pollution, but they also create wildlife habitat both for terrestrial wildlife and aquatic so those native forests and meadows create a lot of habitat for birds for pollinators for a lot of other things that like to live in those more natural settings, and it creates a really good habitat for aquatic critters as well.

- All right, oh, what did I do?

All right, well, the next practice Oh, and he gets that up for me.

And we can go back a slide Thank you, is streaming and floodplain restoration.

So this is a another practice that can fit in all three of the scenarios that urban residential or rural areas because it's really alongside our stream.

So wherever our streams are, this practice can fit in.

And it's the idea of changing altering the flow of the water and that stream bank and floodplain area to create a healthier, more stabilized and naturally functioning stream.

A lot of those storm water that and pollution and increased flows that our use of the landscape creates, causes that erosion and causes changes in our in our streams, and so the Practice helps protect them and revert them back to a more natural system.

And I still can't seem to change the slides.

And just keep going.

Thanks, Andy.

So how does this work?

Oh, if you're talking about stream bank restoration that's really trying to alter that flow to make the flow the water be in the center of the stream.

So you can see in this picture, those logs are placed at an angle in that stream so that the water flows directly to the center where that sort of bubbling white area is there of the stream, so that it's not, during high flow events able to scour away at the stream bank, increasing erosion, increasing that property loss, and sometimes on the same, it'll just use structures like that.

Other times, it will, these practices will actually great away to stream banks remove soil from the floodplain.

So those surrounding area that riparian area is equal level with the water surface so that if it rains even just a little bit, it can flood out onto the floodplain so that water can slow down absorb into the soil.

And that flooding occurs there in an area where there's room and is designated and that has the ability to clean that water and slow it down and save our downstream areas from being flooded.

Later on if that water would otherwise just rushed continue to rush downstream.

And so it can also improve the fish and wildlife habitat because those structures and that changing the flow are creating more pools and riffles and changing habitat but our aquatic wildlife really appreciates.

I'm just gonna say next thank you.

So how to recognize this.

Recognize this.

This is a practice that definitely involves construction, there's engineering behind it, there's a science and how to get those streams to flow and function the way that they're supposed to.

So you might if you would see construction equipment actually in or near the stream, it could be because they're doing this stream restoration project.

You can also a lot of times CD structures there are large logs or rock that are sort of very strategically placed.

And so if it looks like it didn't just fall the fall there and was at a at an angle, there's several of them.

Generally, you're not just going to see a single structure, there would be multiple longest stretch of stream that could be because it was a stream restoration project.

And these are often partnered with riparian buffers and planted with trees or wetland vegetation that grows up alongside to those roots are able to provide backup essentially to the the restoration project.

Enhance it long term as well as provide all those additional benefits that a riparian buffer creates to so you get the naturally functioning stream flow with the restoration, and then the riparian buffer and all of its benefits added on top of it.

So again, it is able to reduce that pollution by allowing the water to spread out and slow down over the floodplain so those pollutants can settle out.

All that extra vegetation is able to absorb those pollutants and all of that sort of able to again, slow down that stormwater runoff and absorb into the soil, mitigate the flooding downstream by allowing it to flood right there where you're selecting it and then all of the wildlife habitat that comes with it.

- So urban and suburban trees.

Trees can be found planted and growing in parks parking lots, along sidewalks and around properties.

We often see a lot of trees in our daily lives, but we might not always be thinking about their purpose.

It's nice to be reminded of all the great benefits of the trees that we see every day.

So how do trees help to keep water clean?

Trees can grow to have really large canopies with leaves and branches that intercept rainfall, they can become become kind of like umbrellas and keep rain from reaching the ground.

Trees also develop extensive breeding systems that increase the infiltration of storm water into the soil.

They also return water back to the atmosphere through evaporated transpiration and also remove nutrients and pollutants from polluted stormwater.

You can find trees planted along the curb or alongside sidewalk or road.

These are all Often designed to be out of location for water flows into the planter.

Similarly, you can also find trees in a roadside swale, also designed to manage stormwater runoff, as well can look like a sunken area or sunken channel with generally sloping sides.

You can also identify trees and parking lots.

And these trees are often there to provide shade and to keep the pavement cool.

Stormwater is also directed into these areas to help filter oils and greases from the parking lot.

Trees are really great to help yourself and also your vehicle stay cool in the summer sun.

The pavement of parking lots can also absorb a lot of heat.

And he can also make the adjacent buildings hotter as well so the trees pull down pavement, which can also pull down buildings that are nearby.

That helps with energy conservation by providing shade which saves money and trees overall can filter pollutants from the air removing particulates ground level levels zone in carbon dioxide and they generate oxygen.

Trees also benefit us by beautifying the landscape and enhancing the value of the town or city.

They can also filter, like I said before parking lot runoff, which has relatively high concentrations of trace metals, oil grease that can harm water quality of rivers and streams.

They can also increase the amount of vegetation with the canopy area and ground space for collecting and treating urban stormwater.

And next we'll have Leon talking about manure storage.

- Good afternoon, I recall true in Pennsylvania is heavily backbone of our agriculture most of about 85% of our total farm income is related to animal production.

So of course manures, a normal byproduct of animal production, but it is a great resource and valuable fertilizer for our farms.

Manure storage is are very important because they enable farmers to apply in order to crop land at the proper time when the crops need the manure and when the weather is cooperative.

Of course in Pennsylvania we have a highly regulated manure application program called nutrient management program.

And so farmers who are going to apply them and or apply it using a regulated plan.

And I can, there we go.

So manure comes in liquid and solid forms depends on the animals most of our livestock cattle and hogs are on systems where the manure is handled as a liquid.

Poultry industry usually handles manure in a dry form, but both types need to be properly stored to protect the environment.

You as you travel in the countryside, you'll see a number of different kinds of structures.

One picture here is an above ground steel structure.

There's also a lot of inner ground structures which are usually concrete.

With a liner underneath it could be bentonite clay, or it could be vinyl liner.

But, again, because of the storage, farmers are able to apply manure at the proper time for both the crops and the environment.

Prior to having manure storage, just farmers are kind of stuck in a system where they had a home manure almost every day.

And of course, I would include days when it's raining or snowing.

And days when the weather's not cooperative.

It also mean winter months when the crops aren't growing, until there's no crop out there to take in the nutrient value of the manure and therefore there's a much greater risk of losing those nutrients into the environment.

And the larger the farm and you may they may be required to have a commercial plan for applying them in or written by professionals or Smaller and lower management plan for those who have less manure will be acceptable and I could even write one of those cells but they do have to follow state regulations.

So how do you recognize manure storage is?

Well, first of all, there's usually almost always a fence surrounding it.

You look at the middle photo on the right there is a fence around a manure lagoon and in ground storage, anytime there is a tractor with a pump parked on the edge of the lagoons.

You see on the left, the manure pump is used to stir or mix them in or before it's hauled to the field so that you have a uniform distribution nutrients in the manure.

During a spring and fall when the manure storage is are emptied, you'll often have the time when the farmers are hauling manure, you'll see a tractor and a tanker backed up to storage like you see in the middle picture.

And then there'll be another tractor with a pump and a pipe going up to the tank to fill up.

Solid manure is usually stored in stacks and a picture On the right there is a system where the manure is handled a solid basis and a stacked in the concrete storage to the back there.

One of the big benefits of storing manure financially for the farmers is they're able to maximize the fertilizer value of the manure applied to the crops.

A pitcher here is applying manure to a cover crop right.

And so when manure is put on in the spring, the rye cover crop is growing and it's immediately starts to absorb the nitrogen on the other nutrients in the manure.

Fertilizer is very expensive.

So by applying manure to maximize the fertilizer value, farmers are able to reduce their costs significantly.

And as mentioned, the right timing is very important both from a weather standpoint and from an efficiency standpoint for nutrients for their crop.

- All right, so I have the privilege to talk to you a little bit about stormwater basins and storm water basins.

You've probably all seen at least one in your lifetime, probably many more.

But what's unfortunate is that they usually go pretty well unnoticed, even though they are serving to benefit water quality in our communities.

They often look a lot like what you see in the picture here, just a mowed lawn and the only thing that makes them stand out is maybe that concrete inlet or outlet structure at one end or the other of the storm water basin.

They are depressed but sometimes they're so large that you don't even notice that it's a depression because they're as big as a soccer playing field or even larger.

But they can be found in pretty urbanized city scape areas and residential communities especially in homeowners associations in larger suburban developments and even out on farms and Rural properties where large buildings generate a lot of roof runoff and they're looking for ways to capture that roof runoff and help reduce its impacts on the environment.

So we basically the way that a storm water basin works, I just have this little recurring issue, but we'll get there.

So the way that a storm water basin works is like you can see here there's some standing water in the basin.

It's a little bit like what Andy described earlier in a rain garden.

They're meant to capture that first flush, especially during a heavy downpour or when a hot day comes, the sun is shining.

After we've had a heavy snow, we get a large snow melt very suddenly and keep that large amount of stormwater runoff from going directly into our streams and creeks and rivers and other bodies to water without giving it a chance to settle out pollutants that might have picked up along the way.

And to give it a chance to maybe infiltrate them The ground depends on the type of face and we'll talk about that in just a minute.

But otherwise just dose that water back into the environment slowly instead of in that big rush that comes when we have our large storms and all that water gathers on the impervious surfaces around the basin.

So here this basin is collecting water from that road through sheet flow.

It's also collecting water from a parking lot that's at the top of the hill on the left, and there's both sheet flow and storm drains that collect the water in that parking lot and then outflow, those storm drains into this basin where they have a chance to settle out and then slowly exit the basin through a drain.

So depending on how the water is released is sort of how we describe the different types of basins you might see.

So here are a couple of different things you might look for out in your community.

We have dry basins these are often referred to as retention basins.

These basins will hold water temporarily, but then basically release all of it back to the environment.

Often you see a concrete riser or control box in the basin somewhere.

So that's meant to keep the basin from filling so cool that it floods out into the roadways in the parking lots that it's meant to collect the water from.

So that's like kind of an emergency overflow device.

But it's meant to hold at least, the first several inches of a rainstorm below that control device, and then dose it out slowly into the environment otherwise, and then middle we have more of an infiltration basin.

These are designed with poor soils so that a lot of that water actually has a chance to infiltrate into the ground instead of just being dosed back out into the streams and rivers.

And in some cases, that like this one, they're actually planted up like a very large rain garden and in that case, We often refer to them as bio infiltration basins and not just an infiltration basin.

So it's got all that biological material there to use up that water and help to add some aesthetics.

And then on the right, we have wet basins or wet ponds that are meant to basically hold water all the time.

But they've got a lot of capacity to hold a bunch more water when there's a storm event so they serve as a pond and also as a storm water control feature.

And here we see that wet basin collecting the runoff through five different outlets there that are collecting water off the roof and off the parking lot of that warehouse in the back of the scene.

So the benefits of storm water basins, right?

They reduce stormwater runoff and that heavy amount of runoff that we get during a rainstorm during a big snow melt generates a lot of power and the water power alone.

Going into the stream is enough to create the stream bank erosion that leads to the need for stream bank repair like Kristen was talking about earlier, but it also picks up a lot of pollution off the ground on the way to our waterways, when it's rushing quickly like that.

So the storm water basins also reduce pollution.

The flooding is mitigated and that is part of the climate change resiliency that these storm water basins benefit.

So releasing the water out to the environment slowly instead of allowing it to fill our streams that they spill over banks onto our roads and wash out our bridges can be an issue and of course for that they provide quite a bit of cost savings.

Here's a really good example of a storm water basin that was so large that it's hard to even tell it's a storm water basin because it's mowed and treated an awful lot like a lawn or turf field.

So with that, we have one more poll question for you today to help help you think about how you might use this book and this tool and how we're hoping you're going to use it.

On this next poll question.

Have you ever talked to someone about a water quality BMP that they had on their property?

And we have a couple of different choices for you to pick from?

And you might have more than one answer to this question.

Maybe you've never talked to anyone about a BMP.

And that's perfectly fine.

Maybe you're realizing now that you talk to someone about a BMP.

But you didn't know that's what you were doing at the time.

Maybe you recognize that as a BMP, and you did kind of talk to the landowner or the person who put that in.

And then this last one, because we really want you to get thinking is did you talk to that person?

And when you did, did you take the time to thank them for having put that BMP in to help protect our local community water resources.

And that's really where we'd like to drive this conversation.

A little Little bit.

One of the big benefits of having this guide and this resource is to just help folks better recognize that they are looking at BMPs.

But also to help us celebrate those members of the community who really are spending their resources are using their land and their space to help protect our communities water resources.

While some of these things are regulated and required, many of them are optional, and they do come at quite an expense that's either sometimes supported through federal or private grant funding, but they may also be investing out of pocket and on the cost of the BMP itself.

They might be investing their sweat equity in maintaining it and keeping it functioning.

So I'm going to end the poll and share the results for you.

Make it see most folks have never talked to anybody about a BMP on their property, and very few folks have had an opportunity to stop and thank someone for helping to protect the local waters.

And that's something we're trying to help draw out through this process and having this publication.

So with that, I'm going to turn the screen share over to Kristin, who is gonna talk to us a little bit more about some of the other features of our roadside guide to clean water project.

- Yeah, so you've heard about a couple of the BMPs and the guide so far, but as was mentioned earlier, there are quite a few additional ones back to disconnected here, try There we go.

So there's there are quite a few additional ones on the website.

So I'm on the website now scrolling down here and you can see this full list and several of these BMPs also have videos to go along with them.

The right riparian buffer BMP, manure, storage, temporary sediment filters and cover crops and so I'm going to head to the cover crops one now since that's not one that we've talked about so far today.

And share with you one of these videos so you can get a taste of what they're like.

We encourage you to watch the rest of them whenever you have time.

The benefit of these is that we have interviewed some of landowners who have implemented these practices, and so we get a chance to hear from them, why they implemented these practices and the good things that they're doing for their property.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Have you ever seen crops poking out of the ground during winter?

Chances are that you were seeing a cover crop planted to keep soil in place and intact during the winter months.

When a field is tilled, or crop is harvested, it leaves the soil bare and vulnerable to erosion.

Erosion can move the soil particles from the fields and into our waterways.

This has a negative impact on the water that people and wildlife drink and use every day.

But at times, tilling and harvesting are necessary.

Soil erosion can be reduced by planting cover crops.

Cover Crops keep the soil covered when it would normally be bare.

The plants leaves deflect the splashing raindrops and their roots hold the soil in place.

Sometimes, you may see young cover crop seedlings planted as early as late summer or the beginning of fall after the harvest of the summer crops like corn and soybeans planted early.

These crops can get tall later in the winter and early spring.

This rye is ready for spring harvest, if possible.

Cover crops are planted in the summer within a crop that's still growing.

To get a head start on fall establishment.

This is called interceding.

A method that has the additional advantage of saving fuel as it can be done at the same time as other field operations.

Several different plant species are commonly used as cover crops.

These include small grain crops, such as rye, or barley.

Other species of cover crops include legumes such as red clover, cow peas, and hairy vetch.

Harvesting these cover crops in the spring can provide spring feed for livestock operations.

Michael Brubaker runs a dairy farm in Mount joy, Pennsylvania, and relies on his cover crops for forage and cylogy.

- Rye, rye is a very important forage for us here at our farm.

I'm standing in a rye field and this rye field is also double crop with corn for salads.

- [Narrator] He is certain about the benefits of growing rye to protect the soil and ultimately, our surface water.

- Other than the fact that it's a great forage for my dairy, rye is probably the number one small grain crop for conservation for protecting the soil that grows very quickly in the fall and covers a soil quickly, which would help prevent erosion.

- [Narrator] Vernon heisey talks about the benefits of growing barley to control runoff.

- Yeah, right had barley said there was a whole lot better control of runoff and what that was stuff they had the grass they had on.

I mean, it was despite invalid so it's all God facing.

Barley has a much better root system established.

- [Narrator] Cover crops are one of many best management practices being used in communities to protect water quality.

When you see these crops in winter, thank a farmer for working to protect this resource.

- So we hope you enjoyed that video and we'll check out the other ones.

We were really excited to be able to work with some of our farmers and other landowners and got a chance to thank them for their practices and hopefully you will be able to do the same.

- Andy is gonna pull our presentation back up for us here we want to talk to you a little bit about the publication itself how you might and there were some questions and I promised we were going to talk about this in our presentation today how you can get a copy of the guide.

So just as a reminder, the remainder of the practices that are in the guide and on the website, either one or both of those locations.

We talk about grass waterways, native meadows, porous and permeable.

Paving, proper pet waste disposal, those temporary sediment barriers that we see around construction sites and vegetated swales.

So Danielle is posted a link in the chat directly to the website version of the guide.

So you can start looking at it in that format.

Now, I mean, we do want to just make sure we acknowledge all the other contributors, the folks here on this call today is just a small portion of the team that was instrumental and helping to develop the guide.

We have lots of other authors, our designers and video production team and of course, our funders for the project, all really important to recognize there on the screen.

So again, here's the link to the roadside guide that Danielle just put in the chat.

So you can start looking at the website version.

Now while we're still kind of in this shutdown situation, it's hard for us to get out to events, but we do have an exhibit and a display that we hope to get out to events near you soon where we're going to be handing out copies of the guide, they'll be free in this initial launch until we exhaust the supply that we're able to pay for using the grant funding.

And then after that, we'll be seeking maybe some additional funding to help continue printing the guide at no cost.

But if we have to, we'll make the guide continued to be available at low cost to anybody who wants it, just at the caustic make is for us to produce it.

Something that we talked to our staff about this morning, so this isn't as pertinent to you, but I know some of you actually work for organizations, nonprofits, watershed associations, I've seen a lot of comments out there.

So maybe this is worth letting as well, that, there's tools out there to help recognize folks that are practicing good clean water practices on their property, and that you can point them to the fact that we're trying to celebrate the work that they're doing, that you might direct your friends, neighbors and peers to our website, but also if you From an organization, you might direct your own clientele, to our website to look at the guide, maybe use copies of it.

If you're having a big Expo event, watershed festival that we might display our exhibit and the future when we're allowed to get back out into the public like that.

Let us know that might be something we can come to for you.

And of course, this is just a good personal development opportunity for you as well.

So here's the exciting part.

I didn't tell you rewarding those of you who stuck around all the way to the end of the webinar, we do have enough funding to pay the postage, to mail about 75 copies of the book out right now.

So Danielle's gonna post in our chat pod this link, if you click on it, and let us know that you'd like a printed copy of the guide, we're going to basically do a random number generator and mail out copies of this guide, single copies to anybody who's interested And having you'll be the first edition.

First owners, I don't even have a printed copy of the guide yet.

Because it's being printed, there's actually on the print wheels yesterday, so it should be in our warehouse next week.

So we'll be printing them or mailing them out by the end of this month.

But we'd be really excited to send you a copy in the mail.

If after learning all about it you'd still like one.

If you don't get one now we will be.

Of course, getting these out into the community at exhibits and events you can reach out to us in the future, we'll be able to get them sent to our extension offices at no cost.

So we'll have them there.

So don't put your address in the chat pod.

Make sure you click the link that Danielle posted in the chat pod and go fill in the survey.

It's okay John you might get some mail from some of the other attendees today.

But not a big deal.

We just want to make sure you get into that random number generation So that you might get a chance to get pulled or pretty close to being able to someone, almost everybody that's here today.

So your odds are in your favor.

The other thing is there was a question about helping partners get copies of these we as part of our grant as part of the process and deciding how we were going to feature best management practices.

And what we're going to feature we did partner with our conservation districts, and so we'll be sending stacks of copies out to them as well.

So they also have them available to distribute.

If your organization might benefit from being able to distribute copies as well let us know we can send a small stack to you when the time comes, that we can get back in the office and start sending things out in bulk like that.

But right now, most of the offices are still closed, so we aren't doing that mailing currently.

So with that, that link will stay in the chat pod.

We are also going to send an evaluation out to everyone but Danielle is going to put that link in the chat as well, we hope that you'll share some of your thoughts about what you learned today in our evaluation.

When you close this window today and leave the zoom, you should be directed to the Roadside Guide website.

I tried to set it up that way and also to a pop up that has the link to the evaluation as a reminder, if you don't do it right now in the chat, so you should get a couple of reminders that way to help.

And at this point, Jessica, do you are there questions in the q&a for us to answer before folks go?

- Yeah, someone asked if the polluted water that collects and wet basins can affect the wildlife negatively.

- So yeah, there's the potential for that.

Oftentimes, those wet basins will have what we call like a fore bay before the wet ponds so that that first flush of pollutants goes into a smaller wet area, and then the overflow water after it's had a chance to settle out for days what actually goes into the larger ponds are trying to keep the pollution into the smallest possible area.

But it's certainly keeping it out of our streams and rivers where it can spread more rapidly and actually be a bigger issue.

So those ponds really are managed as pollution collection systems and not necessarily as wildlife habitat.

But of course, they can look appealing and attractive to wildlife so that there is some potential there.

- All right, is there any way safe way to discharge sewage into related death?

- You are muted Can you hear me now?

Okay, are there any safe way to discharge sewage into a river or should that never be done?

- Jen, did we lose you there?

You went mute, Jen.

- Well, the answer to that question is never a safe way.

Unless it's treated, - And then a rain garden question, maybe Andy can answer this one.

Will rain gardens be effective during winter storms, especially with climate change and more cloudy rainy days?

- Yeah, that's a good question.

A little bit of research on rain garden performance in winter.

And surprisingly, if they're planted with perennials, they still continue to infiltrate fairly well, not quite as well, the soils don't seem to have quite the same capacity.

But unless you're way, way up north climates that Pennsylvania should just doesn't experience they function pretty well in the winter.

And I've not heard any concerns going forward that climate change could impact their ability to provide storm water benefit.

So I think the answer is they'll continue to function well I don't know.

Jane, are you out there?

We can see your picture but you're muted.

Jessica, any other questions?

- One more question on how do you figure out who the property owner as if you want to identify certain BMPs?

- Well, boy, anybody want to grab it that one?

Like for rain garden?

The easiest answer is you would, if it's a residential rain garden, chances are it's owned by the homeowner or it might be part of a property owners association that controls it.

If you see a rain garden in an urban area.

Oftentimes, it's the municipal government that's managing it sometimes a business nearby might be so I don't know if one stop shopping though anybody else - I would just say sometimes it can.

It can be very difficult to figure out who landowner is and I don't necessarily think we're wanting to send you out on a wild goose chase to do that.

But whenever you come across and talking to your neighbors and talking to maybe those small businesses that you're visiting and seeing those practices that they're using, those are the great ones to be able to say thank you.

- One more thing I can add, it just occurred to me that if you are in more of a densely populated area, it's possible you may be in a regulated community for stormwater.

And in that case, your township or your borough is sort of in charge of that program.

And I do believe they're required to do an inventory of all their stormwater management control structures, which would include storm water basins and larger rain gardens.

So they might be able to help you they're awful busy, really understaffed, but they're worth a try.

They may have a list and can quickly tell you whose basin it might be.

So that'd be your township or borough official, and you'd wanna ask their stormwater management specialist.

- Alright, those are most of the questions.

I can see Jane trying to get in here.

Jane, do we have you back?

- Yeah, just a little internet.

Foible there for a second.

But thank you again, everybody for joining us today.

We'll look forward to mailing those guides out to you as soon as we have them in our warehouse and, again, look at our website and utilize the resources as much as you can make available we'll be sending the recording to this webinar out to you.

So if you wanted to review anything we talked about today, that'll come to you in an email here in the next day or two.