EPCAMR Joins Statewide Partnership to Plant 10 Million Trees, Clean Up PA Waterways

March 11, 2020

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ASHLEY, PA – EPCAMR is joining an ambitious statewide effort to plant 10 million trees throughout Pennsylvania by the end of 2025.

The Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership, coordinated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, brings together a broad array of agencies, conservation groups, outdoors enthusiasts, businesses, and individuals to address a critical threat to Pennsylvania communities: polluted water.

Roughly 40,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams are impaired by polluted runoff and the legacy of coal mining, including Solomon Creek, Nanticoke Creek, Newport Creek, just to name a few in the Wyoming Valley.

Trees are a key part of the solution. They filter and absorb polluted runoff from the land, stabilize streambanks, improve soil quality, reduce flooding, and provide habitat for wildlife.

EPCAMR will be in Centralia, PA planting apple tree seedlings on April 4th and will be getting free native trees and tubes for our planned Fall Annual Cleanup in October. See details here to volunteer! Trees planted here are within the Mahanoy Creek Watershed.

“Trees, especially when alongside streams and streets, are one of the most cost-effective ways to restore and protect stream health, help keep nutrients and soils on the land, and cleanse drinking water sources,” said Harry Campbell, CBF Executive Director in Pennsylvania. “More trees benefit our farmers, our communities, and our health and welfare.”

“EPCAMR has joined the 10 Million Trees Partnership because we see it as a natural fit for the work that we are doing to reclaim our abandoned mine lands and restore our mining impacted waterways that need riparian, floodplain, and habitat improvement projects in order to improve the water quality that is going to our major streams and rivers in both the Susquehanna and Delaware River Basins. Trees are sequestering carbon. We’re reducing our overall footprint by planting the trees and we are helping to improve soil health, watershed health, and the wildlife habitat areas that they will be planted in for both freshwater aquatic species and mammals, birds, insects, butterflies, and pollinators alike. It’s ecosystem restoration and it involves people from the coalfield communities getting their hands dirty and sometimes, their feet wet! stated Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director.

“We’re already a part of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Inititiative (ARRI) in partnership with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and have signed the Statement of Mutual Intent (SMI) many years ago and have already pledged to work together to promote and encourage the restoration of high-value, hardwood forests on reclaimed coal mined lands in Appalachia using the Forestry Reclamation Approach and this partnership just makes sense to be a part of,” Hughes, said enthusiastically.

The partnership will help achieve Pennsylvania’s commitment to reduce pollution in local streams and rivers. The Commonwealth’s Clean Water Blueprint calls for planting 95,000 acres of forest in the Bay watershed by the end of 2025.

“Clean rivers and streams are essential to our wellbeing,” said Brenda Sieglitz, CBF Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership Manager. “By working together to plant 10 million trees, we can ensure our waterways are a vibrant part of our communities for years to come.”

Find out about local projects and get involved by becoming an active EPCAMR Volunteer through our website.  To learn more about the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership visit www.TenMillionTrees.org.

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