11/18/24 - 107 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/3zb7jppr
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Feature- Q & A With John Dawes, Foundation For Pennsylvania Watersheds
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By Lexi Belculfine and Carmen J. Lee For 16 years, the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds has tirelessly sought to provide groups across the state with the support they need to protect or restore their local watersheds. And while the economy is tight, Executive Director John Dawes describes his organization as devoted and tenacious in its work, traits that trickle down to the foundation’s grantees — many of whom are now able to share their love of local streams and lakes with future generations.
Q: What has been your organization’s biggest triumph of the past year? A: Well, the biggest triumph has been participating in the implementation of the federal $6 billion Abandoned Mine Lands Fund that’s administered through the U.S. Office of Surface Mining and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Our foundation has a strong commitment to the reclamation of abandoned mine lands throughout the state, and we were successful in leading the process of getting that legislation through Congress.
In Pennsylvania, there are 250,000 acres of abandoned mine land — land that is biologically dead and not producing any plant material — primarily located in the western bituminous region. Furthermore, every time it rains, that land produces acid mine drainage, which results in 5,000 stream miles of biologically dead streams, supporting no fish, no macro-invertebrates and no living organisms.
Because Pennsylvania has more of these sites than any other state in the nation, of $6 billion nationwide, $1.4 billion came to Pennsylvania, and our state spent almost $50 million last year.
Q: What has been the biggest trial? A: The biggest trial has been the diminishment of state-legislated Growing Greener funds for the restoration and conservation of lands, and stream bank stabilization. Because Growing Greener II was structured as a bond, Growing Greener I is now paying the interest on that bond, and there is very little state money for the projects that we are interested in funding.
Q: What issue or event has had the most impact — positive or negative — on your organization in the past year and how have you responded? A: There is an initiative to renew Growing Greener that involves a coalition of 22 groups, including PennFuture, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association. We are strategizing for dedicated funding to renew Growing Greener, which runs out at the end of 2011.
In such a tight economy, our elected officials want us to come up with a scenario for a self-funded program or one that would provide dedicated funding to this important part of environmental restoration for citizens throughout the state.
It’s very much a bipartisan issue. It was started by Gov. Ridge, who provided more than $1 billion for Growing Greener, and Gov. Rendell established Growing Greener II with a very well-used $625 million bond. But the money has run out. So we’re currently working in the Pennsylvania House and Senate for additional funding. One of the first down payments on a renewed program would be a severance tax on Marcellus Shale gas drilling, but we really need specific legislation to renew Growing Greener.
Q: What new initiatives has your organization started? A: In addition to working to renew Growing Greener, we have embarked upon a program with Rhiza Labs, located in Pittsburgh, to put our entire grant-making history online. This will house project profiles, contact information for our grantees, photos of site specific restoration projects, a project location map and outcomes based upon progress reports turned into our foundation.
The wonderful thing about Rhiza Labs is that it aggregates outcomes to compile the amount of money that we have granted. Then the funding can be broken down by program area, year, county or legislative district. It also aggregates the total project cost, which includes the amount of money that we have leveraged. Currently, Rhiza’s findings show that we have more than $90 million in project cost, while we have awarded about $7.5 million. So it’s a wonderful way to tell a story.
Q: As head of this organization, what goals do you have for the next year? A: We wish to continue our largest program area, which is the abatement of acid mine drainage and the reclamation of abandoned mine land. Acid mine drainage from abandoned mines still results in the No. 1 water quality problem in the state. So we want our small grants to empower watershed associations to access the larger federal program of collected fees from coal companies, which created the Abandoned Mine Land Fund.
Q: So if your organization was a person, what type of personality would you say it had? A: It would be dogged and determined — ready to get knocked down, stand up and go at the issue another time, another way.
Q: What is one of the biggest misconceptions about your organization? A: We are not an independent philanthropy. While we make grants, we have to raise all of the money that we distribute.
Q: Can you share a short story about an incident or event that illustrates the impact you believe your organization is having on your local community or the region? A: We have supported the Mountain Watershed Association, ably led by Bev Braverman, through small grants, organizational activities and matching funds, in order for it to access these larger government programs. As one of our 150 grantees, the association has done a marvelous job of assessing 11 sites within a watershed in Westmoreland County through the past 11 years.
If addressed — with the help of money from the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund, Growing Greener and even the Department of Agriculture — 97 percent of the acid mine drainage in the watershed will be abated. And that small watershed will have cleaner water restored to an area where people have been used to dead, toxic water for about 75 years. Mountain Watershed is working on site No. 7 now, and because of its efforts, there are long stretches of stream, which have been put back on the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s “stockable” list of waterways that can support fish life.
Q: Could you share a short story about an individual’s experience that captures what your organization is meant to be to the community? A: We work with the national environmental group Trout Unlimited’s Wood Duck Chapter, which has a membership of about 20 elderly gentlemen, mean age of 82. The group is based upon friendship and mutual commitment to the environment, and it has been focused on very site-specific remediation projects around Philipsburg, Centre County, to abate that region’s 100-year legacy of mining. The area has some really toxic, degraded sites, and the men have been writing proposals for grants and getting agency funding through the Pennsylvania DEP and the Office of Surface Mining.
The projects that they embark upon are usually multi-decade. They have to commit to a site that may take 20 years of work in order to reclaim. The goal of these gentlemen has been to restore their childhood fishing site so they can take their grandchildren to it and share that experience with them — something they are finally able to do. So it is a very concrete type of dedication that these grantees demonstrate. They have addressed three major acid mine drainage discharges in their watershed and multi-mile segments of one particular creek has been restored. Fish life has returned to downtown Philipsburg.
Foundation For PA Watersheds Developing Grant Program On Drilling Impacts
Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, has heard your concerns about Marcellus drilling. We have taken action, met with our funders, and are pleased to announce that we’ll be unveiling some big things in the coming weeks and months.
As a start, we have received $50,000 for our efforts. These funds will assist with web-base applications that will assist everyone in learning about where drilling is occurring.
We have a pledge of $250,000 pending for additional work that will support developing mini-grants for groups interested in completing independent studies on drilling’s environmental, health, and economic impacts.
Foundation wants to remain objective, gather information, and ensure that drilling does not create a legacy mimicking that of past, unregulated mining. Stay tuned for more details.
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6/28/2010 |
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