Pennsylvania’s County Conservation Districts Friday were awarded more than $55,000 for 30 projects in 26 counties.

The projects promote water pollution prevention activities through the Non-point Source Pollution Prevention Educational Mini-Grant Program. The projects will take place over the next 13 months.

“This funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection allows conservation districts to address priorities locally. This furthers the conservation district mission of ensuring there is enough clean water and healthy soil for future generations,” said Shannon Wehinger, Director of Communications for the PA Association of Conservation Districts.

Projects include field days for farmers, rain barrel workshops, stormwater tours and more.

Funding for the grants, up to $2,000 each, is provided through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act, administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The following projects were funded as a part of the 2015 – 2016 NPS Pollution Prevention Educational Mini-grant round:

-- Blair: Rain Garden Series for the Public and Municipalities

-- Bradford: Bradford County Nutrient Management Education and Outreach Program

-- Bucks: Project Wet Teacher Training

-- Cameron: Cameron County Conservation District Watershed Awareness Workshop Series

-- Centre: Centre County NPS Pollution Tour in the Bald Eagle Creek Watershed

-- Columbia: First Annual Women in Agriculture Conference

-- Cumberland: Creek Friendly Landscape Makeover Program

-- Elk: Minimizing Non-Point Source Pollution Through Education & Outreach

-- Erie: Mill Creek Flood Tour

-- Fulton: Soil Health, Soil Erosion and Water Quality

-- Jefferson: Adaptive Grazing: Taking Soil Health to a New Level

-- Juniata: Fayette Area Lion's Den Streamside Buffer and Rain Garden NPS Pollution Prevention Educational Signage

-- Lackawanna: Sweeney “Beach” Environmental Education Center Rain Garden

-- Lehigh: Rain Barrel Workshop

-- McKean: Improving Water Quality & Healthy Watersheds

-- Mifflin: Mifflin County Agricultural Water Quality Field Days, Mifflin County Rain Barrel Workshops

-- Montgomery: Perkiomen Demonstration Rain Garden and Workshop

-- Northampton: FUNdamentals of Stream Ecology”

-- Potter: Erosion & Sedimentation Educational Workshops, 2016 PennYork Ag Expo  

-- Schuylkill: "Woods in Your Backyard"

-- Snyder: AG BMP Tour, Soil Health Informational Meetings

-- Somerset: Rain Barrel Workshop

-- Tioga: Tioga County Stream BMP Demonstration and Training, Tioga County Agriculture Education

-- Venango: Agricultural Field Day

-- Washington: Washington County Conservation District Equine Environmental Stewardship Workshops

-- Westmoreland: After the Storms – Homeowner Driveway Program

A description of the 2014-15 funded projects is available online.  Questions?  Contact Shannon Wehinger, PACD, by sending email to: shannon-wehinger@pacd.org or call 717-238-7223.

3/30/2015