2006

Project Report

A Summary of Our New and Ongoing Programs

Our outreach to the Amish community in the Lancaster County portion of the watershed continues with grants from the Lancaster County Community Foundation and the Alcoa Corporation. The focus of our outreach to this point has been on the farmer and has consisted of distributing outreach materials concerning watershed health, soil quality and Best Management Practices (BMP’s). We have, however, decided to expand our outreach to focus on all members of the family.

For Amish women, we are developing outreach materials that discuss more sustainable yard and gardening ideas, including planting native flowers, composting, building bird and owl boxes, and raised bed gardening. We plan to deliver these materials in the spring along with a flat of flowers for every household we visit. We will also distribute new materials to the Amish men and boys about household and farm safety issues, and for the whole family we are working on materials about health issues such as diabetes and mental illness. These issues have proven to be inextricable from making an Amish farm sustainable, both ecologically and financially. We have applied for grants to private foundations in Lancaster County for funding for this project.

The PA Department of Environmental Protection should be responding soon to our grant request to implement the Outreach to Amish Schoolchildren project—this time visiting Amish schools in Chester County and distributing tree seedlings and environmental education curricula.

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A proposal was submitted to the William Penn Foundation that will allow us to assist Amish farmers in Chester County with the preservation of their farms through private land trusts. For this project we have been working with the Lancaster Farmland Trust and with the Brandywine Conservancy. Our role in this project will be to serve as liaisons to the Amish community and to discuss additional ways farmers can make their farms more financially and environmentally sustainable. We are currently wrapping up a grant from the Claneil Foundation that dealt with this project as well.

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Much of the autumn season was spent working on our Agricultural Best Management Practices Calendar, funded by a grant to us from the Water Resources Education Network and by a grant awarded to the Lancaster County Conservation District from the PA Association of Conservation Districts. Photos were taken of farm areas in the Octoraro watershed that exhibited the BMP’s highlighted in each month of the calendar. Those BMP’s include: Conservation Plans and Farmland Preservation, Terraces, No-Till, Tree Planting, Riparian Buffers, Streambank Fencing, Animal Waste Management Systems, Contour Strip Cropping, Cover Crops, Grass Waterways, Barnyard Runoff Controls and Spring Developments. If you are interested in knowing more about any of these practices, please get in touch with us at the watershed office or view the calendar online at http://pa.lwv.org/wren/products/other_pubs.html

Throughout December, calendars were dropped off at businesses around the watershed that are Amish-owned or frequented by Amish farmers. Calendars were also delivered during visits to farms and mailed to our grantors and project partners. In all, over 200 calendars were distributed to residents of the watershed, and we are now preparing to refer any interested farmers or watershed residents to businesses and conservation districts in the watershed who can assist with researching or implementing BMP’s.

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There will soon be new material to distribute during farm visits that focuses on Source Water Protection. We have a grant from the Clean Water Fund to develop and print this material, which will aim to educate residents and ultimately improve source water and drinking water quality.

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Octoraro Watershed Association

Newsletter and Update

Spring 2006

Dedicated to preserving and protecting the natural and historic resources of the Octoraro Watershed

MBSS biologists, only at a smaller watershed scale. Thus, volunteer data will fit seamlessly into results from the MBSS.

For additional information regarding programs and events in Cecil County, please contact Board member and Cecil County resident, Rupert Rossetti at 410-378-3473 or RupertRossetti@aol.com.

Finally, we would also like to extend our thanks to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for being instrumental in the dam removal project which occurred along the Octoraro Creek in Cecil County last

October.

CHESTER COUNTY

Members of the Oxford Area Vision Project have taken an active approach to keeping up with local land use decisions. Members attend municipal meetings within the Oxford School District as well as meetings in neighboring municipalities and other areas of Chester County. Members learn of current activities by attending and networking at different training and task force sessions where intergovernmental cooperation is informally exercised.

It is extremely important for all Octoraro watershed residents to be aware of the fact that the composition of a board of township supervisors can change every two years. Staying knowledgeable about the actions of these governing bodies can greatly influence the watershed’s future. While much of the municipal control is dictated by Pennsylvania’s Municipal Planning Code, the local officials are involved in each individual application for potential change to our watershed. With citizen involvement, more attention tends to be paid to the protection of an area’s natural resources.

The Route 896 Task Force is an example of a group that was formed to provide a forum for corridor municipalities to discuss concerns and interests related to the highway and determine a coordinated long-term approach to meeting the needs of the highway’s users and surrounding communities. Upper Oxford is a participant from the Octoraro Watershed. Another task force has been set up involving stakeholders from West Sadsbury, Parkesburg, Atglen, Highland, and West Fallowfield townships in order to explore common issues of planning in this region. Both task forces meet once a month.

Additionally, the Octoraro Nitrates Task Force will meet monthly throughout 2006 and will be open to anyone interested in learning about the environmental issues facing the Octoraro.

We are also continuing to seek funding to provide farmers with cost-share arrangements for installations of BMP’s. We are currently wrapping up our grant with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation for streambank fencing and riparian buffer planting and have submitted a proposal for the 2006 grant round. This project will also deal with streambank fencing, will continue our ongoing partnership with Ducks Unlimited, and will focus on Nickel Mines, Meetinghouse and Bowery Runs. We have commitments from many landowners and are awaiting additional funds to begin implementation.

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Watershed Area News

Important Information from the Watershed’s Counties

CECIL COUNTY

A team of volunteers in Cecil County has been monitoring 12 tributaries that flow into the Susquehanna Flats, an area located at the top of the Chesapeake Bay. These tributaries include the Octoraro main stem, Stone Run and Basin Run, all in the Cecil County portion of the Octoraro watershed. The project will provide a full year of data, which will be used to establish a baseline for water quality and help determine what actions, including implementation of BMP’s, need to be taken to protect and restore the water quality in the individual streams and in the North Bay. While the overall quality is good, there is some definite variation in baseline readings from stream to stream. A full year of data and some expert analysis will aid in drawing conclusions about water quality. In the meantime, many thanks to the Cecil Land Trust, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and to all the volunteers.

Another monitoring program to occur in the Cecil County portion of the watershed is the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Maryland Biological Stream Survey (MBSS). This year the survey will include the Octoraro and will work with the Stream Waders Program, which prepares and organizes volunteers across the state to collect and analyze stream samples. After one day of training, adult volunteers sample aquatic invertebrates in the same watersheds across Maryland as those sampled by

The site, www.lancasterwatersheds.org, should be up and running in April.

Planting and maintenance projects coming up this spring include work on the stream site along Route 896 just north of its intersection with Route 372. This project was originally fenced and planted last April through a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation. Many thanks to the watershed association members and supporters who volunteered their time last spring, and we hope to have help for evaluating survival rates and completing necessary maintenance. Also planned for maintenance is the site below Maplehoffe Dairy on Route 222, which suffered some damage recently from flooding. This project was completed in 2004 through a grant from Growing Greener and included in-channel restoration, fencing and planting.

The tentative volunteer maintenance day for both sites is Saturday, April 22nd. Details for these volunteer days will be available closer to the date of implementation. Please email owa1@epix.net or call 717-529-2132 to request details.

Office Updates

Notes for Members and Partners

We would like to announce our new Octoraro Watershed Association website, www.theowa.org. As some of you may have noticed, we were offline for a few months while we switched servers and redesigned the site. Thanks to Angela Fasano for designing and compiling information for the new site!

We would also like to reiterate a change in our mailing address. All mail must be addressed to 517 Pine Grove Road. This was a required change of our postal address—the office is still at the same physical location. Please update your bookmarks and address books to reflect these changes.

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CHESTER COUNTY (cont.)

The meetings are held the second Thursday of each month at 9AM in the Colerain Township building in Kirkwood.

Please contact Board member Blair Fleischmann with specific questions or if interested in participating in municipal networking efforts: bwf79@epix.net or 717-529-6114.

Below are important developments from some Chester County townships:

• East Nottingham continues to be the fastest growing township in the state of Pennsylvania. Updates have recently been made to their zoning map and will soon be followed by updates to the East Nottingham Comprehensive Plan as well. They utilize an Open Space Committee and have preserved two farms in their first year of Open Space funding, and also have the area's largest new development, called Hickory Hill.

• The Lower Oxford board is pushing hard for sewage expansion down the Route 10 corridor. Approval of this expansion is delayed by both bog turtle habitat and American Rivers’ listing of the Susquehanna River as the “Most Endangered River in the U.S.” Lower Oxford preserved two farms in its first year of Open Space funding.

• Oxford Borough Council is working hard to protect residents from shouldering the costs of new sewage and water systems primarily destined for growth in the neighboring townships. Oxford Historic Association is applying for a National Historic Register.

• Upper Oxford has one new supervisor, completing a board that supports agricultural preservation and is working on agricultural zoning for the township. Two farms were preserved in the first year and two more in the second year of Open Space funding.

• West Nottingham recently updated the township’s comprehensive plan and is the first township to finish the Chester County Historic Building Inventory. There does not appear to be current interest for providing township matching funding for Open Space.

LANCASTER COUNTY

The Lancaster County Conservation District recently received funding to develop a watershed website, which will serve as a central clearinghouse for information on local watershed associations, watershed education, volunteer projects and opportunities, and other related events. Educational materials, articles detailing local issues and a message forum will be available on the site for teachers, students and other Lancaster County residents.

Native tree seedlings at site of streambank planting.

The date of our Annual Meeting this year will be Thursday, April 20th at Black Rock Retreat in Quarryville, PA. Our featured speaker will be Steve Sylvester, a Research Specialist from the Department of Earth and Environment at Franklin & Marshall College. Please mark your calendars and return your registration forms at your earliest convenience.

Octoraro Communities

Geographic and Municipal Boundaries of the Watershed

The Octoraro Watershed encompasses 208 squares miles, crossing many different political boundaries. This can be beneficial at times, giving us the opportunity to work with people who feel strong ties to the different localities of the watershed and appreciate our efforts to do all that we can to preserve the area’s resources and character.

On the other hand, however, we occasionally experience limitations with our projects in regards to different local policies or grantors’ preferences for funds to be used in a particular state or county. The areas where we are able to conduct outreach or complete in-the-ground conservation projects are dictated by local attitudes and participation as well as available funding.

For these reasons, we need all the localized help our members and partners are willing to provide. Working to increase awareness of watershed issues in your community can make a huge difference where you live and throughout the natural boundaries of the Octoraro Watershed and beyond.

Below is a list of the Pennsylvania and Maryland areas that encompass the Octoraro Watershed. If you are interested in attending meetings in your township or borough as a Satellite Group and keeping the watershed association abreast of current issues and achievements, please contact the watershed office.

Octoraro Watershed Association ∙ 517 Pine Grove Road ∙ Nottingham, PA 19362

p: 717.529.2132 f: 717.529.2041 theowa.org owa1@epix.net

Lancaster County, PA

Bart Township

Colerain Township

Little Britain Township

East Drumore Township

Eden Township

Fulton Township

Sadsbury Township

Salisbury Township

Paradise Township

Christiana Borough

Maryland

Cecil County

Rising Sun

Chester County, PA

West Sadsbury Township

Sadsbury Township

West Fallowfield Township

Upper Oxford Township

Lower Oxford Township

West Nottingham Township

East Nottingham Township

Highland Township

Oxford Borough

Atglen Borough

Parkesburg Borough