The Coldwater Heritage Partnership recently announced that $35,000 in grants have been awarded to local organizations to protect and conserve Pennsylvania’s coldwater stream habitats.

The Coldwater Heritage Partnership is a cooperative initiative of Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Fish and Boat Commission, and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds.

“Pennsylvania Trout is excited to award grants to worthy organizations for the conservation and protection of their local streams,” stated Ken Undercoffer, President of the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited.

Funded organizations will be responsible for creating a Coldwater Conservation plan that: gathers existing data about the coldwater ecosystem; identifies potential impacts, threats, problems and opportunities to our coldwater streams; formulates a plan of action for proposed conservation and protection strategies; and, builds community awareness and support for the conservation of our coldwater streams.

Grants have been made to the following organizations:

Western PA Conservancy: $5,000 to assess the aquatic health and status of coldwater fisheries in the Browns Run watershed in Warren County.

Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association: $5,000 to prepare a watershed action plan for the W. Branch of Crum Creek, Chester County, that identifies specific sites, recommendations for actions and programs to maintain and enhance stream health and habitat.

Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy: $5,000 to help establish broader partnerships within the upper Perkiomen Creek watershed and identify feasible water quality and habitat improvement projects in Montgomery, Berks and Lehigh Counties.

Clinton County Conservation District: $5,000 to collect and analyze data to determine existing and potential impacts to Fishing Creek and Cedar Run and get community investment in order to complete a conservation plan for the restoration and protection of the watersheds in Clinton and Centre Counties.

Fayette County Conservation District, in partnership with Penns Corner Conservancy: $5,000 to collect water samples, macroinvertebrate samples and conduct electro fishing to determine the health of Ramcat Run and how to improve the fishery in Fayette County.

Bob’s Creek Stream Guardians: $5,000 to conduct an assessment including land use, water chemistry, aquatic insect investigation, and fishery population studies on named tributary of the wild trout section of Bob's Creek, Bedford County.

Clean Water Fund: $5,000 to collect data and create CHP Plan on Waltz Creek and Greenwalk Creek in Northampton County to Exceptional Value status.

Besides offering grants, the Coldwater Heritage Partnership works to provide technical and educational assistance to organizations interested in protecting coldwater ecosystems.

For more information, please contact the Deborah Nardone at 814-359-5233, or by sending email to: dnardone@coldwaterheritage.org.

3/7/2008