Jim Resh has been an employee of the Indiana County Conservation District for 21 years where he served as District Manager and will be retiring this week.  Since 2001 he has been an active and  respected member of the AMR community for nearly as long and has served as the Secretary for Western Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation since February 2013.

During his professional career, Jim was instrumental in a  number of on-the-ground abandoned mine reclamation projects including the Waterworks Conservation Area, an Indiana County Park located along Twolick Creek that incorporates a lime dosing silo into the park. 

With Jim's direction, an abandoned mine drainage treatment system was constructed on Little Mahoning Creek, the only  high quality coldwater fishery in Indiana County. 

Additionally, Jim contributed to the Bear Run Watershed Renaissance, a multi-partner effort to rehabilitate a portion of the West Branch Susquehanna River Watershed headwaters that built several abandoned  mine drainage treatment systems, reclaimed several acres of abandoned mine lands, and rehabilitated several miles of stream. 

Bear Run is once again supporting reproducing  wild trout due in part to Jim's efforts.

Other successes Jim helped ICCD realize include the  oversight of the enormously successful Dirt and Gravel Road Program, the  installation of a manure digester at one of the county's larger farms, and the  establishment of a county-wide farmer's market.

Lucky for WPCAMR, although Jim is retiring, he is not leaving his post on our Executive Committee.  Jim intends to remain WPCAMR Secretary while he pursues personal, travel,  and business interests. 

Jim has a trip to Turkey planned for the near future, that is if he can find the time to get away from his shop where he invented the increasingly popular Poultry Butler, an automatic chicken door for backyard flocks. Congratulations  Jim on your retirement and thanks for all of your successful work!

(Written By Anne Daymut, Watershed Coordinator, Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, reprinted from WPCAMR Abandoned Mine Posts.)

6/2/2014