Sixteen local governments, including six from Pennsylvania, were recognized for their dedication to protecting and restoring local waters and the Chesapeake Bay under the Bay Partner Community Program.

The Pennsylvania communities include:

· Gold: Plymouth Township (Luzerne County), College Township (Centre County), City of Lancaster, South Middleton Township (Cumberland County); and

· Silver: Chester County, Borough of Lewisburg (Union County).

Since 1997, the Bay Partner Community program has recognized local governments in the Chesapeake Bay watershed for their commitment to protecting and restoring the Bay and its rivers.

Communities are evaluated on their completion of a set of programs, activities or benchmarks that protect and restore their part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Selection is based on the municipality's population and the percentage of benchmarks met in four categories: improving water quality, promoting sound land use, protecting and restoring living resources and habitat, and engaging the community. Gold level partners have met a higher percentage of benchmarks than silver partners.

Ten award recipients received the opportunity to apply for $1,000 mini-grants to support the development of a local on-the-ground or community education/outreach project.

Plymouth Township will use its mini-grant to conduct a watershed field study with fourth-grade students, in partnership with the Luzerne County Conservation District and the Greater Nanticoke Area School District. The field study will allow students to create tie-dyed t-shirts with recycled acid mine drainage from local streams.

Chester County plans to improve riparian corridors at Nottingham County Park -- enhancing water quality as well as stabilizing the banks using native plant materials.

The City of Lancaster is using the grant to fund development of Binns Park using environmentally sound landscaping practices and installing informational signage and brochures.

College Township has chosen to return a portion of land to a riparian buffer for use as a demonstration site.

The Bay Partner Community Awards are sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Program and its Local Government Advisory Committee. The Committee was created in 1988 in recognition of the critical role that the more than 1,650 local governments in the watershed play in the partnership's ability to achieve its goals.

Currently, 73 local governments are Bay Partner Communities.

For more information, visit the Chesapeake Bay Local Government Information Network website.

1/27/2006