Angelica Park Stream Restoration Project, Reading, one of the tours from the Schuylkill Watershed Congress

“When you’re a watershed person, it’s more than just facts and figures, you feel it deeply and every day of your life.”

That’s how keynote speaker Cindy Dunn, Director of DCNR’s Bureau of Conservation and Recreation, described the commitment people have to protecting and restoring their watersheds at the Schuylkill Watershed Congress in Pottstown last weekend.

Video Blog: Cindy Dunn Talks About Connecting People to Natural Resources

200 people attended the Congress to take advantage of more than 25 workshop sessions covering a broad range of watershed topics as well as exhibits by watershed organizations, consulting firms and government agencies.

Dunn told participants that Pennsylvania loses 110,000 acres a year to development and at that rate 20 percent of the remaining open space and farmland will disappear in the next 20 years.

Pennsylvania’s natural areas and greenways are major contributors to the Commonwealth’s economy Dunn said, in big and small ways.

Outdoor recreation-based travel spending generates $4 billion in Pennsylvania and on a smaller scale the proximity of a home or other property to a park, trail or greenway increases property values by 15 percent and exercise by 25 percent.

“We realized we were not serving the people of the Commonwealth to our full potential if we just stayed in the boundaries of our 117 State Parks and 2.1 million acres of forest land,” said Dunn. “We have to become an advocate for natural resources to be better stewards.”

“Social value + economic value = political value which results in an increased ability to expand our ability to do more,” said Dunn.

Dunn outlined a number of DCNR programs has available, including the Rivers Conservation Program, to help watershed groups assess watershed needs and fund implementation projects.

She ended her presentation by urging participants to “reach people where they are” like Pennsylvania’s own Rachel Carson who wrote Silent Spring to reach people about issues like the impact of pesticides on bird eggs, instead of just publishing research papers.

In addition to the workshop session, participants could take tours of two stream restoration projects in Berks and Montgomery counties.

Watch additional Video Blog stories from the Schuylkill Watershed Congress, including a tour of the Angelica Park Restoration Project in Reading, over the next few weeks. To see them now, visit the PA Environment Digest Video Blog.

Session Schedule

The Senate and House return to voting session March 12.

PA Environment Digest Video Blog

· Cindy Dunn of DCNR, Connecting People to Natural Resources

On the Hill

· On the Senate/House Agenda/Bills Introduced

· Senate Environmental Committee Sets Confirmation Hearing, Action on Bills

· New Waste Fees Would Cost Households $6.13 Per Year DEP Tells Senate/House

· Game Commission Defends Habitat Approach to Controlling Deer Population

· Ethanol-Driven Commodity Prices Drive Up Costs for PA Farmers - Wolff

Other News

· Senator, CMU Professor, PPG Researcher Win 2007 Shades of Green Awards

· Reminder: Western PA Environmental Award Nominations Due March 16

· American Water Accepting Applications for Environmental Grant Program

· POWR Insurance Sharing Program for Watershed Groups Renewed for 2007

· EPA Promoting Use of Green Infrastructure to Protect Water Quality

· YO! Mark a Storm Drain, Save the Schuylkill

· Lancaster Farmland Trust Supports New Dollars for Farm Conservation – REAP

· PA Joins 16 States Announcing Strategy for Brook Trout Restoration

· Rain Barrel Workshops Coming Up in Allegheny County

· Senior Environment Corps, Students Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution

· DCNR Announces $23 Million in Recreation, Conservation Grants

· Grants Applications Due April 27 for Volunteer Forest Firefighters

· Engineers’ Society Sponsors 12th Brownfields Conference April 18-20

· Winter Edition of EPA Land Revitalization Newsletter Now Online

· Check Properties for Superfund Liens Through This New Website

· Backyard Composting Courses Offered By Penn State Extension, DEP

· Penn State Offers Conservation Leadership School In Two Summer Sessions

· EE Connections Newsletter Now Available from PA Environmental Ed Center

· Rachel Carson Forum on Reauthorization of the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund

· Doug Scott, Wilderness Historian, Author, Advocate Featured Speaker

· Celebrating Pennsylvania’s Native Elegance at Pennsylvania Garden Expo

· BP Solar Selected for Solar America Initiative Grant Award

· Lape Named New Director of EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program

· Grace Appointed DCNR Deputy Secretary for State Parks and Forestry

· McDonnell Named Deputy Secretary for DEP's Office of Administration

· PA Recycling Markets Center Names Bylone Executive Director

Feature

· Westminister Students Present Research Findings at Slippery Rock Meeting

Go To: PA Environment Digest Calendar Page

3/9/2007