EPCAMR’s grant coordination will be conducted in the Fall of 2020 with students from the Wilkes-Barre Area School District as we continue to work with Mike Corcoran, who has been a long-time partner with EPCAMR on many grants over the last few decades.  Mike will help to decide which classes can participate in the grant in the Elementary School System.

“This grant will help us build stewardship for our watersheds in our local youth and their families. We recognize that children are our future leaders, so it is crucial to teach them about local environmental issues and help them understand they have the power to directly help,” says Environmental Educator at EPCAMR, Laura Rinehimer, who is leading the project. EPCAMR Program Manager Michael Hewitt added, “It’s important for kids to understand what they do. Their habits can greatly impact our environment and society, in general. If we learn good habits early, it’s not so hard for us to change them later.” 

The original grant, which consisted of students going on an interactive field trip and leading their own action project, needed to be changed due to Covid-19. Instead of being able to physically take students to locations in our watersheds, EPCAMR will be creating boxed kits to send to the students with everything they need for a virtual tour. Accompanying videos will be created to allow students to “visit” the locations from the safety of their homes. These boxes include an informative guided nature journal, an original board game created by EPCAMR staff, and other materials to complete science exploration activities. Laura Rinehimer stated, “We want the kits to be a hands-on way for children to have fun exploring and learning about their local environment so that they can fall in love with nature in their own communities and feel empowered to protect it.”

Students from the Bear Creek Charter School learning about how to identify macroinvertebrates with EPCAMR.

The kits will teach children about the different types of pollution impacting our watersheds, emphasizing abandoned mine discharge (AMD) leading to iron oxide deposits in our water. This is harmful to aquatic life, coating the gills of small fish, inadvertent drinking of the polluted mine water by small animals, reducing light needed for photosynthesis in aquatic plants and algae, and leading to sediment buildup which smothers food sources and spawning beds. The emphasis, however, will be about the solutions to our environmental problems. Michael Hewitt stated, “We find it important to treat mine drainage and other nonpoint source pollution at its source in the headwater tributaries to limit the impacts of dead zones and sediment downstream and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay.”

EPCAMR Executive Director Bobby Hughes with some excited and enthused fellow students from the Heights Murray Elementary School in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District at an outdoor Environmental Education Program at Francis Slocum State Park.

Students will learn about active and passive treatment systems used to reduce the AMD entering our waterways. They will also learn about ways to directly help keep our waters clean, such as protecting and planting riparian buffer zones, conducting streamside cleanups, and making their voices heard in future environmental litigation. Cleanup materials will be included in the kits so that students can make a difference in their own communities. Families are encouraged to send footage of litter cleanups so that EPCAMR can compile them into one video showing the powerful synergistic impact of many people making small positive changes.

Students on an AMD Tour to the Audenreid AMD Treatment System in the Catawissa Creek Watershed.

Executive Director of EPCAMR, Bobby Hughes said, “EPCAMR teaches area youth that their local neighborhoods are a part of nature and the environment when they don’t often see “outside” as a part of their watershed address. We do our best to give them our place-based education philosophy. Our goal is to provide them meaningful outdoor learning experiences so that they can connect with their surrounding landscapes. No matter where they live in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District they are indirectly tied to the Chesapeake Bay through the Susquehanna River and its headwater tributaries.” 

Contact Laura Rinehimer, EPCAMR Environmental Educator for project details @ 570-371-3522 or lrinehimer@epcamr.org.

The post Chesapeake Bay Foundation Awards EPCAMR $5000 Watershed Education Experience Grant to Provide Virtual Watershed Tours in a Box to Wilkes-Barre Area School District Students appeared first on epcamr.org.

In 1999, along with Growing Greener, Pennsylvania signed into law the Environmental Good Samaritan Act (EGSA).  This law is intended to encourage landowners and others to undertake projects to reclaim abandoned mineral extraction lands and abate water pollution caused by abandoned mines and oil and gas wells. The EGSA protects landowners and individuals who volunteer to do such projects from civil and environmental liability. Eligibility and specific protections are described in this Fact Sheet.

WPCAMR and EPCAMR, along with multiple local and national environmental agencies and organizations, have been pushing for Federal Good Samaritan legislation for abandoned mine reclamation projects for several years now. Recently, lawmakers have been taking notice and a proposal is expected soon that will be modeled after Pennsylvania’s EGSA. Further, proponents of the law hope that projects already registered with the PA EGSA will automatically benefit from the added protections of a federal law.

Not all AMD remediation projects across Pennsylvania have been registered with the PA EGSA. The lack of PA EGSA registration for your project could be putting your organization and project cooperators in jeopardy. WPCAMR and EPCAMR are pushing to have a great number of existing systems registered in the next couple months as any proposed federal legislation gains steam. A full list of registered projects can be viewed at HERE.

It is up to local watershed organizations, who own most of PA’s AML projects, to become the best example they can be to further the movement of any Federal Good Samaritan legislation. Please do your part and register your AMD treatment systems for the PA EGSA. Anne Daymut of WPCAMR will be directly contacting those responsible for AMD treatment systems across Pennsylvania that have yet to register in the coming months.

Registration materials can be found HERE.

Any Watershed Groups, Conservation Districts, Conservancy Groups, or other organizations that have received funding through Growing Greener over the last 7 years should seriously consider registering their completed projects for coverage under the PA EGSA legislation. Groups in the EPCAMR Region are encouraged to contact Anne Daymut, should they need assistance.

The post Register Your AMD Project for PA Environmental Good Samaritan Act Volunteer Protection Today!! appeared first on epcamr.org.

by Cliff Denholm, Stream Restoration, Inc.

Stream Restoration, Inc. is pleased to announce the availability of FREE training workshops for those interested in learning how to use the features of Datashed (www.datashed.org).

Initially designed to support and highlight the efforts of students and volunteers, Datashed has grown to become a valuable tool for watershed groups, conservation districts, researchers, non-profits, government agencies, and anyone involved / interested in treating abandoned mine drainage and restoring AMD-impacted watersheds.  In addition to storing and managing water monitoring data, the website can be used to store electronic copies of documents, such as, design drawings, reports, O&M information, photographs, etc.  The use of Datashed is free.  A free user account is needed in order to add or edit data, but not to view data.

Datashed is used to store, organize, and display:

• Project information to provide a historical record of site activities
• Water monitoring data for discharges, treatment systems and streams
• Restoration plans, reports, and other important documents
• Design Engineering Drawings, As-Built Drawings, and Schematics
• Maps
• Photos
• … and more

The workshops will cover:

• Finding, viewing, and using stored information  and water quality data
• Creating webpages for projects not on Datashed (Passive and Active Systems, Streams, etc.)
• Creating sample points in the database and uploading water monitoring data
• Uploading documents, photos, etc.
• Using the site to record site inspections, maintenance events, and field data
• Using the help section
• … and more

The following is the schedule for the training workshops:

Date            Time              Register By  Location
10/18/16      10AM-4PM      10/11/16      Westmoreland Conservation District, Greensburg, PA
11/3/16         5:30PM-?       10/27/16       Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Ashley, PA
11/4/16        10AM-4PM      10/27/16      Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Ashley, PA
11/17/16      10AM-4PM      11/10/16       Patton Township Building, State College, PA
11/19/16      10AM-4PM      11/12/16       St. Francis University, Loretto, PA

Most training sessions (except the 11/3/16 EPCAMR evening session) start at 10AM and are planned to end by 3:30PMwith about an hour break for lunch. Lunch is on your own and options will vary depending upon location.  Most locations are reserved until at least 4PM so additional time will be made available to address specific questions of participants.  Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop, if they have one as most locations have none or a limited number of laptops or desktops for use.  When registering, please let us know if you will or won’t be able to bring a laptop.  Additional specific information will be provided to participants prior to the events.

To register or to seek additional info, please contact Cliff Denholm, Stream Restoration Inc. at 724-776-0161 orsri@streamrestorationinc.org.  While walk-ins will be accepted if room is available, seating may be limited and we would greatly appreciate being able to plan appropriately for the event.  Events that do not have sufficient registration will be canceled.

SRI greatly appreciate the cooperation and support from our generous hosts who are providing the use of their facilities free-of-charge!

The post Datashed Training Workshops! EPCAMR Hosting 2 in Ashley, PA appeared first on epcamr.org.