UNDATED – The first babies of 2018 have been introduced at two Valley hospitals. The first is Aniyah Jade Kauffman, born just before 1 a.m. New Year’s Day at Evangelical Community Hospital. The baby weighed eight pounds, and measured 19 inches. The parents are Mifflinburg residents Serena Hall and Jonathan Kauffman. It’s the couple’s first child, and the mother said her ‘due date’ was Christmas Eve.
The second baby of the New Year was born just before 2 a.m. New Year’s Day at Geisinger. The baby’s name is Jackson Tyler Reese, born at 10 pounds, 1 ounce, and 22-and-a-half-inches long. He is the son of Deneen and Tyler Reese of Schuylkill County. It’s the couple’s second child…they also have a daughter, Charlotte. (Matt Catrillo)
LIMESTONEVILLE – A partnership between conservation groups and government entities is cleaning up streams across The Valley. Limestone Run in Montour County showcases the results of the multi-year collaboration to reduce sediment due to stream bank erosion.
Mark Roberts of U.S. Fish and Wildlife says the ultimate goal of improving Limestone Run was to allow brook trout to thrive in the stream, “We worked with a lot of partners in the watershed twelve years ago to start doing some of the conservation work, putting riparian buffer and in-stream habitat on this particular farm and several others. This last round of habitat work was to really put a lot of wood structures in to provide overhead cover, establish some deeper pools with the overall mission of allowing places for the trout to hide.”
Jason Fellon, DEP watershed manager, says stabilizing the stream bank will remove sediment from the creek over time, “What we’ll expect is now it’s a little bit narrow, it won’t have that new source of sediment from the banks falling in and velocity coming through, once we get a little more rain, will start to strip away some of that fine sediment and you’ll the nice gravels in that section of stream.”
Removing the sediment is key to improving the stream and establishing a suitable habitat for trout according to Sean Levan of Montour County Conservation District, “We want to see rock in here because that’s the place where the bug life is going to be and that’s important for establishing trout. They need food, so our main key is we want to come back here and start seeing the rock appear, like after we flush all this mud out. That bug life basically shows us how healthy the stream is. That’s how we monitor it.”
The Fish and Boat Commission plans to stock small brook trout from neighboring streams in Limestone Run on October 7. You can hear more about the rehabilitation of Limestone Run as part of our Boroughs to the Bay and Beyond series on WKOK Sunrise.
MIDDLEBURG – Want to be part of the solution when it comes to our local environment? A day focused on improving stream health will take place at the New Berlin Commons. The Snyder County Conservation District and the Lower Penns Creek Watershed Association will host a Penns Creek Ecology Day on July 30.
Participants will learn about stream ecology through in-stream activities, microscope, and learning stations. Susquehanna University, Watershed Group, and Conservation District Staff will be available from 10 a.m to 2 p.m to guide your learning experience.
Be prepared to get wet and muddy and dress accordingly. Reservations are preferred and can be made by contacting Jason Winey at the Snyder County Conservation District office at 570-837-3000 ext. 112. (Alex Reichenbach)
SUNBURY – Honey bees are vital to the Valley’s agriculture and colony collapse disorder is an increasing threat to the population. David Hackenberg, president of the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association and owner of Hackenberg Apiaries in New Columbia, talked about the significance of colony collapse disorder (CCD).
Hackenberg discussed the status of CCD, “The colony collapse disorder is still with us. I guess you would say it’s really colony health, honeybee health. Not only honeybee health, but all pollinator health. It’s not only honeybees but also the birds and all other things that depend on the environment. It’s the health of our environment that we’re really talking about. Honeybees are just the environmental indicators that there is something wrong.”
Hackenberg says pesticide use and overuse is to blame, “The thing that changed in our environment in our country and around the world is the fact that in the early 2000s we changed our pesticide programs to go from hard, knock them down chemicals that kill things dead to what was supposed to be a more softer idea and the fact that they we came up with what are known as systemic pesticides, neonicotinoids that basically what they do is break down immune systems of insects.”
Honey bees are prolific pollinators and CCD can be detrimental to the farming industry, “The sad part about this whole thing is that people want to point their finger at agriculture and how much chemicals we use. The unfortunate part about this whole thing is residential use of pesticides is 180 times what is used in agriculture.”
Hackenberg says residents can help by not using harmful pesticides on lawns for weed control. You can hear more from David Hackenberg and all segments of the Boroughs to the Bay and Beyond series online at wkok.com. (Alex Reichenbach)
SUNBURY — A Bloomsburg University student going from farm to farm in the Valley, helping promote an effort to clean up streams—the river—and the Chesapeake Bay. Alana O’Rourke is an intern with the Union County Conservation District where she is conducting a program which pays farmers if they convert streamside land to riparian buffer zones.
O’Rourke explains the specifics of the project and her role, “Our conservation district is incentivizing this by compensating farmers monetarily by offering $300 per acre of land that they can turn into a buffer zone. I am marketing this program. I have created brochures. I’ve made lists of all the farmers in Union County that have impaired agricultural streams with little to no vegetation along the stream banks. I’ve narrowed it down by townships.”
O’Rourke discussed what a buffer is and how it can benefit the environment and wildlife, “A buffer is a zone along the streambank that has vegetated plants, trees, or shrubs on it that acts as a filter system. We’re filtering out nitrogen, phosphorous, agricultural nonpoint runoff. It actually helps hold back erosion and sediment from the streambank. The roots of the plants and the trees help keep soil from entering into the stream.”
O’Rourke talked about what she hopes to accomplish with the program, “Some long term goals are obviously to clean up the streams of Union County and teach the public why riparian buffers is a good thing. I’d also like to create habitats for animals. Also, eventually, have plants and shrubbery that create money for the farmers such as berries and nut trees.”
O’Rourke is a senior at Bloomsburg studying environmental geo-science. She said she hopes to become a game warden after college. (Alex Reichenbach)
SUNBURY – What do Mt. Carmel, Joseph Priestley and James Fennimore Cooper have in common? They are among the documentary subjects for a group of students at Bucknell University. Associate Professor of English Alf Siewers says his students are studying the rich cultural history of this part of the state, the local communities and the river.
Interviewing Dr. Siewers helped us launch this summer’s Boroughs to the Bay and Beyond series on WKOK.
Siewers explained how the team works to reveal the river’s culture, past, and future, “We’ve been working for awhile on the stories of the Susquehanna Valley project at Bucknell. One of the components of that is video documentary. We had our first student produced video broadcast on WVIA last month. It’s the first of a series of half hour video documentaries and the goal is to tell compelling stories of the heritage and the people of the river valley and to encourage a sense of being connected to the water shed and each other in this region.”
Siewers hopes Valley residents can more fully appreciate our environment, “I think that we all have all tendency to get caught up in our daily lives and in the bubbles that we live in. We can get some extra meaning in our lives by realizing how our bubbles, our daily lives, overlap with others and our shared environment. As we do that, hopefully we can develop a better connection with the environment, a deeper sense of meaning.”
Siewers discussed the importance of the Susquehanna River and what people need to do in order to keep the river in top condition for the future, “We have to develop a sustainable balance, a sustainable way of living. Part of that is figuring out how we can live meaningful lives with perhaps a reduced footprint of waste and exploitation of the river so we can have a better balanced and grounded life, especially for younger people because the new generations are coming up too.”
Dr. Siewers and student Sasha Weilbaker were on WKOK Sunrise today. You can hear more from Alf Siewers and Sasha Weilbaker online at wkok.com. (Alex Reichenbach)
Click here to download the program
Carol Parenzan, Middle Susquehanna RiverKeeper, and Tara Michaels, Fit for Funds, on the upcoming paddling event, BBQ, and other aspects of the RiverKeeper program. This is an update on last week’s appearance, and is part of our Boroughs to the Bay and Beyond series.