11/25/24 - 156 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/54ukts8z
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CBF Student Leaders Recognize Sen. Yaw For Eastern Hellbender Designation; But We’re Far, Far, Far From Done, We Need $324 Million This Year
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Chesapeake Bay Foundation student leaders went to Williamsport recently to celebrate the salamander that is Pennsylvania’s new official state amphibian and to salute the state senator whose support was key to making it happen. Working together, CBF’s Student Leadership Council and Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) were able to have the Eastern hellbender designated as the Commonwealth’s state amphibian. “Senator Yaw showed us how we could make an impact,” current SLC President and Halifax Area High School senior Lenka Platt said during the tribute to the senator at Lycoming College. “Sitting at Senator Yaw’s table, he acknowledged that what we believe in matters and that we have the power to create change.” Students spearheaded the campaign to recognize North America’s largest salamander and create greater awareness of the critical need to reduce pollution in Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams. Hellbenders are an indicator species for clean water. They survive where there is cold, clear, swift-running water. Students studied hellbenders extensively, installed nesting boxes in streams, and wrote the first draft of legislation that eventually became Senate Bill 9. It was sponsored by Senator Yaw. The first bill making the designation-- Senate Bill 658-- was introduced in May of 2017 and passed the Senate, but died in the House at the end of 2018. Senate Bill 9 was passed overwhelmingly by the Senate and House earlier this year and the hellbender bill signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf on April 23. Emma Stone is former president of the SLC and was involved in the effort from its early days in 2016. “From the beginning, Senator Yaw saw the importance of the designation and recognized the value of it, not only with regards for youth involvement but also for a legacy of clean water in Pennsylvania,” the Carlisle Area High School graduate said. She now attends Mansfield University. “It’s a pleasure for me and a real honor,” Sen. Yaw said of the experience of working with the students. “The look on your faces in the pictures and the number of you that were in my office when it started, to see the whole thing through and then see the governor sign it. And now say we started this from scratch and now we have a symbol for the next hundred years. It’s gonna be there. That’s a really special accomplishment on your part and an honor for me to participate just a little bit.” During their visit to Lycoming College, the students also visited with Dr. Peter Petokas, noted hellbender researcher at the college’s Clean Water Institute and met “Frank” the institute’s 10-year-old Eastern hellbender. Much of the research behind the designation campaign was gleaned from Dr. Petokas and the CWI, directed by Dr. Mel Zimmerman. A lack of streamside trees along Commonwealth waterways allows waters to warm, polluted runoff to enter rivers and streams, and silt to build up in streambeds. As a result, habitat for hellbenders has been degraded and hellbender numbers have been decimated in streams where they were plentiful as recently as 1990. “Through combining knowledge with passion and tenacity, these student leaders leave a legacy for generations of young people in the Commonwealth to learn about this unique, sentinel species found only in our state’s most pristine waters,” Harry Campbell, CBF executive director in Pennsylvania said. To honor Sen. Yaw, the students presented him a one-of-a-kind wood-carving of a hellbender. Lycoming College president Kent Trachte presented a framed certificate to the Senator, who is a 1970 graduate of the college. CBF’s Student Leadership Program is open to high school students and is designed to give them a voice and an active role in clean water efforts in Pennsylvania. “Through everything that went into the hellbender bill, we have educated our peers and communities, we have worked side by side with our elected officials, and we have learned that our student voices are powerful and can create real change,” Lenka Platt added. “As students, it is our responsibility to make sure that the world we grow up in is the world we want and the world that we need.” For more on Chesapeake Bay-related issues in Pennsylvania, visit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA webpage. Click Here to sign up for Pennsylvania updates (bottom of left column). Click Here to support their work. Visit DEP’s PA Chesapeake Bay Plan to learn more about what the state is doing to meet its Chesapeake Bay Watershed clean water obligations. Students - We Aren’t Done Yet Student members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation PA Student Leadership Council worked hard on getting the Eastern Hellbender recognized as Pennsylvania's state amphibian and clean water ambassador. Here's a letter from Emma Stone, President of the Council, in April saying they aren't done yet-- On April 23, I sat next to Gov. Tom Wolf as he signed into law Senate Bill 9, officially designating the Eastern hellbender salamander as Pennsylvania’s first state amphibian. It was a moment of immense pride and hope. For more than two years, my fellow students on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Pennsylvania Student Leadership Council led the charge to focus public attention on the hellbender and water quality issues across the Commonwealth. We worked countless hours with scientists at Lycoming College’s Clean Water Institute to learn more about the hellbender, and countless more hours learning the intricacies of the legislative process. The signing of Senate Bill 9 – legislation that we crafted – was a huge win. But we’re not done yet. Streams and rivers throughout Pennsylvania are vulnerable to pollution because they lack streamside trees to protect them from runoff. This is bad news for the hellbender, which requires clean and cool water to survive. But it’s also bad news for the rest of us, who depend on clean water for drinking, fishing, and swimming. As I finish my senior year at Carlisle High School, I am determined to build on our progress and do more for clean water. My hope is that other student leaders across the Commonwealth will be inspired by our work and encouraged that they, too, can make a difference. Emma Stone Mt. Holly Springs, Cumberland County President, CBF PA Student Leadership Council The Need There is a tremendous need for additional state funding to address critical drinking water, wastewater and nutrient and sediment reduction issues all across Pennsylvania. For the 43-county Chesapeake Bay Watershed alone, the need is $324 million each year for the next 6 years to implement the ground-up, stakeholder-driven plan submitted to EPA to meet Pennsylvania’s clean water obligations. Funding needs to start in FY 2019-20, if Pennsylvania has any chance of meeting our 2025 cleanup milestones. If the funding is not provided, Pennsylvania will be subject to sanctions from EPA and additional legal actions by other states in the Bay Watershed. And worst of all, Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams will not get cleaned up. Limping along with existing resources means meeting the 2025 milestones will be pushed back to 2044-- 19 years. The General Assembly did provide $6 million in additional funding through the PA Farm Bill in July, but that still leaves the farm community tens of millions of dollars short-- $171 million to put a number on it-- to support putting cost-effective conservation practices on the ground just this year. However, the General Assembly also cut $16 million from the Environmental Stewardship Fund which funded local, on-the-ground conservation practices. That $16 million could have planted 32,000 acres of stream buffers. DCNR’s goal is to plant 95,000 acres of stream buffers by 2025. Click Here for more background on water quality funding needs in Pennsylvania. (Photo: Former and current members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Student Leadership Council, from left, Emma Stone, Lenka Platt, and Andrew Waldman, present a wooden hellbender carving to state Sen. Gene Yaw right.) NewsClips: Over 300 PA Environment & Energy NewsClips Waiting For You To Read Them Related Articles This Week: Is It Raining Where You Are In Pennsylvania? Better Read This Governor Signs Keystone Tree Fund Bill Into Law; Where’s The Rest Of The $324 Million We Need This Year? Berks Conservation District Seeking Volunteers For A Riparian Buffer Tree Planting Event Nov. 9 Related Articles - Water Quality Funding: Student Leader Involved In Passing Hellbender Recognition Says: We're Not Done [Posted: November 4, 2019] |
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11/11/2019 |
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