By Jennifer L. Hawbaker, PA Township News

When time and money are tight and townships are facing environmental issues from stormwater management and soil erosion to rapid development, how can they address every concern of their own?

Fortunately, they don’t have to.

In all but one of the states 67 counties, conservation districts are here to help municipalities care for their natural resources in an ever-changing world. Their programs have expanded to keep pace with the needs of the residents, local governments, and the many other groups they serve.

Now it’s up to townships to make the most of the education, guidance and technical assistance available.

Pike County

The long-time residents of Delaware Township in Pike County treasure their scenic vistas and slower-paced way of life. So do a lot of recent transplants from metropolitan New York and New Jersey, some of whom arrive not very well-versed in the intricacies of the rural lifestyles.

“We had people move in who thought their septic system was an irrigation system and started to pull it all apart,” says township supervisor Ileana Hernandez. “People have to understand that whatever they do in their yard affects not just that property but all the groundwater in the area.”

The need to educate a population that has doubled over the last 10 years is clear, as is the need to manage the natural resources throughout Pennsylvania’s fastest growing county. That’s a tall order for townships that already have their hands full with the day-today business of running a municipality. And that’s where the Pike County Conservation District comes in, providing education and technical assistance to make sure that a growing population doesn’t mean dwindling or deteriorating resources.

The Evolution of Conservation Districts

Conservation districts developed as a reaction to the drought-stricken “dust bowl” days of the 1930s, mainly to prevent soil erosion and conserve water resources.

The state legislature authorized counties to establish these districts in 1945, and today, every county but Philadelphia has one. They are just as diverse as the groups they serve, with varying levels of resources and different focuses depending on local needs.

“In the first 20-some years of their existence, they dealt mostly with the federal Soil Conservation Services on agriculture-related issues,” said Karl Brown, executive secretary for the State Conservation Commission. “In the early ‘70s, there was a shift in focus when they took on responsibility for erosion and sedimentation control from the state, and that has been evolving ever since.”

And that’s just the beginning.

Many Pennsylvania townships associate the conservation districts with dirt and gravel road funding, since the state allocates funds to the districts, which in turn pass that money on to municipalities.

Their charge does well beyond that, however, to include environmental education; forest, stormwater, floodplain and nutrient management; agricultural preservation; abandoned mine land reclamation; biosolids; erosion and sedimentation pollution control; and more.

“One of the things that makes each conservation district different,” Brown says, “is that they’re created as independent entities like a municipal authority would be created. Over the years, they’ve established varying relationships with their county governments.”

About half of the districts, Brown says, operate almost completely independently of the county, while the other half have varying degrees of county oversight. Each is led by a board of directors made up of local volunteers, and the Pennsylvania Conservation Commission provides state-level oversight and support to the 66 district offices.

The funding that allows the districts to carry out their mission and offer most of their services for no charges comes from a variety of sources, a reality that many township supervisors can related to.

Some funds come from line items in the budgets of the state departments of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, and others include Chesapeake Bay money allocated to DEP, the Nutrient Management Fund administered by the state Department of Agriculture and various grant sources.

In fact, says John Orr, the Dauphin County Conservation District manager, “I think we have 25 different funding sources. It is very complex.”

One thing that remains uniform statewide is the districts’ charge to work with local governments. “The law allows them to meet and work with municipalities,” Brown says. More specifically, it empowers county conservation districts to help local governments with subdivision and land development reviews, developing and implementing stormwater management plans, and administering programs for flood control, and other natural resource concerns.

As the responsibilities of township supervisors have evolved, so has the focus of the conservation districts. Now more than ever, townships across the state are finding out just how valuable a collaborative relationship with county conservation districts can be.

Community Planning in Pike County

That’s especially true in Pike County, where the conservation district is providing planning services that would otherwise take a big bite out of the townships’ budgets.

To make sure natural resources remain a principal focus in the face of unprecedented growth, the district partnered with the county commissioners and county planning office to obtain state funding for a community planning initiative. Townships are a primary beneficiary.

“We’re providing a couple of things to municipalities through the initiative,” says Susan Beecher, manager of Pike County Conservation District. “We’re offering natural resource inventories and build-out analyses based on current zoning and land use regulations. We’re also doing municipal ordinance evaluations, looking at how land use plans support resource conservation, and making recommendations and providing funds for townships that want to implement any of those recommendations.”

Part of the project includes providing the municipalities with natural resource inventories in GIS – or geographic information system—format. A township official can pop a CD supplied by the conservation district into the computer and quickly see how to see resources relate to any property in the township. And better yet: Townships won’t be on their own in the effort.

“We’re hoping to have one of the people in the county planning office go in and do a tutorial and show them how to manipulate the information,” Beecher says. “A lot of our focus in the last 10 years has been to provide education and outreach to municipal officials on not just natural resource conservation topics but growth management and open space conservation.”

In addition to offering planning and conservation-related workshops to township officials, the conservation district is taking the lead in helping all the area newcomers get acquainted with their surroundings.

“A lot of people from New Jersey or New York don’t understand the concept of local government,” says Ileana Hernandez, a supervisor for Delaware Township in Pike County, “so the district has held workshops on how local government works. They’ve also had a great series of workshops on open space and land development rights.”

Although the conservation district has been providing townships with planning-related resource management information for years, the townships did not have the means to use that information on their own.

“They were very receptive to the concepts but were telling us that they didn’t have the financial and technical resources to get the information into their ordinances,” Beecher says. That’s when the district started looking for funding to help the municipalities and found it through the state’s Land Use Planning and Technical Assistance Program.

Lehman township, which supervisor Paul Menditto says is the fastest growing township in Pike County, looks to the conservation district for expertise in stormwater management, land use planning, and a host of other concerns. “We have our applicants submit plans to the conservation district for review, which takes the burden off of us,” Menditto says. “Otherwise, we would have to hire outside help and spend more in engineering review fees. Having the conservation district as a partner helps us be more efficient and avoid putting an extra burden on the taxpayers.”

Spelling Out Expectations in Westmoreland County

Townships in Westmoreland County know all about partnerships and have solidified their relationships with the county conservation district in writing.

“When I first started here 20 years ago, we developed some municipal memorandums of understanding, and they grew into cooperative partnership agreements,” said Anthony Quadro, assistant district manager for the Westmoreland County conservation district. “It spells out our relationship with them in a mutual agreement so they don’t perceive us as coming in and stepping on their toes.”

As a result, everyone involved knows what their role is and how they can contribute to the overall goal of resource conservation. “We’ve worked very hard to say, ‘We want to help you out, and we think you can help us out to result in a mutual benefit,’” Quadro says. “We have been able to accomplish a lot.”

Those accomplishments include addressing issues unique to certain parts of the state, such as timber harvesting. When a company harvests on private land and issues arise with erosion and sedimentation control, Quadro says, the landowner often asks the township to do something to keep the problems in check.

“It sometimes acts as the impetus for an ordinance,” he says. “We try to direct the municipalities and be proactive to work together on that and head off any problems.”

The conservation district has done that in part through the timber harvesting workshops it holds for municipal officials. Some municipalities, including Allegheny township, also have an agreement that the district will review any logging plans before the township issues permits. This helps to identify and correct potential issues before they become a reality, saving time and money for everyone involved.

“When the conservation district comes out on site, it speeds up the resolution process,” says township manager David Soboslay. “People know they are the experts, and it certainly makes a difference.

“Also,” he adds, “it’s hard to beat the price.”

The conservation district is also keeping townships up to speed on the new federal regulations for municipal separate storm sewer systems, or MS4s, and recently offered a workshop on the topic.

“We’re trying to act as a ‘go-between’ for the state and the municipalities,” Quadro says, “and help them figure out exactly what they need to do.”

With a mix of rural, agricultural, and developing areas in this county, the issues go beyond timber harvesting and stormwater management. Donegal township, for example, started working with the conservation district years ago, mainly to address pollution issues on the 25 miles of dirt roads in the township.

“The dirt and gravel road projects got us working with them quite a bit,” says Tom Stull, Jr., township supervisor and roadmaster. “they’ve also helped us in getting permits to put a small bridge in and have worked with local farmers to improve the water erosion problems on their properties.”

On one road, the township is still looking for solutions to erosion and stormwater runoff caused by years of strip mining, and the conservation district is helping to provide the answer. After a heavy rain, residents who live beside the road find their yards awash in sediment and new streams flowing where none had been before.

“This area had been strip-mined in the ‘70s and also in the late ‘90s and was never put back 100 percent right,” Strull says. “When the private property owners alerted us to how the streams had moved, we went to look and see if our road was causing it, but it was the strip mining. Now we’re working with the conservation district to see how we can alleviate the excess runoff.”

The township has also worked with the conservation district on other road erosion problems that are especially prevalent in this mountainous area.

“Probably eight or 10 times a year, we meet with the soil conservation staff and talk about different things we’re doing to get their professional opinion,” Stull says. “I feel they’ve really helped us improve the quality of the streams in our township.”

At one time, Stull says, if a township supervisor heard the words “conservation district,” he would wonder what he had done wrong. Fortunately, that attitude is changing.

“Don’t be afraid of using the conservation districts, because they will work with you,” he says. “They’re not out to fine or panelize you. They’re here to help.”

Next Week, Part II – See how townships are working with conservation districts in Dauphin, Chester and McKean counties.

Reprinted with permission from Pennsylvania Township News, January 2006 edition.

2/3/2006