The Fish and Boat Commission this week recognized significant accomplishments of conservationists in Pennsylvania and took action to approve grants, regulation changes, and property acquisitions.

Barbara Yeaman of Milanville in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, has been named the recipient of the Ralph W. Abele Conservation Heritage Award for 2007. The honor is the highest recognition the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission can confer on persons who distinguish themselves in the cause of conservation.

Yeaman earned recognition as the 2007 Abele Award winner through her work on the upper Delaware River. She believed in the preservation of such special lands, wildlife habitats, and prime scenic properties. Her major accomplishments include founding the Delaware Highlands Conservancy, conserving thousands of acres of Pennsylvania land through conservation easements and securing millions of dollars in funds to protect property for species of special concern, endangered species, and their habitats.

Several Fish and Boat Commission staff and a McKean County partner received the Greiner Award at the Fish and Boat Commission meeting for their work on the Norfolk Southern legal case and settlement of $3,675,000 for the disastrous environmental effects of a rail car derailment.

The accident spilled liquid sodium hydroxide into wetlands, Big Fill Run, Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek, and the Driftwood Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek in McKean County, contaminating soils, sediments, surface water, groundwater, and wetlands. It also killed or injured fish and other aquatic life and terrestrial plant and animal life.

The award is a memorial to Waterways Conservation Officer Gerald L. Greiner who effectively enforced pollution laws that brought many violators into compliance.

Recipients of the 2008 Greiner Award are Chief Counsel of the Fish and Boat Commission Laurie Shepler, Waterways Conservation Officer William Crisp, Waterways Conservation Officer Robert Mader, Chief of Aquatic Resources for the Fish and Boat Commission Mark Hartle, and McKean County District Attorney John Pavlock.

Boating-at-large Commissioner Steve Ketterer of Harrisburg received recognition from the National Water Safety Congress for his involvement in saving a person who fell through the ice on the Susquehanna River in March 2007. Commissioner Ketterer was recognized for this heroic action at the International Boating and Water Safety Summit held in San Diego, California, last week.

The Commission approved the Boating Infrastructure Grant, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in the amount of $1.35 million to the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh.

The grant is for construction of a 525-foot tie-up facility for transient boaters and day dockage uses for up to seventeen 26-foot or larger non-trailerable boats. The main purpose of the project is to provide transient recreational boaters with access to the South Shore Riverfront Park and the SouthSide Works, a major mixed-use development, along with multiple sites of scenic, cultural and historic significance in Pittsburgh.

The Commissioners also approved a grant to Pennsylvania Trout, Inc. in the amount of $10,000 per fiscal year for the next three fiscal years totaling $30,000, for the purposes of expanding the national Trout in the Classroom program in Pennsylvania. TIC provides students with the opportunity to raise trout from eggs (or fry) to fingerlings and then release their fish in approved trout waters. Teachers use this experience to teach students about trout biology, ecology and water quality, and fish management.

More details of Commission actions are available online.

Pictured in the photograph are: Commission Executive Director Doug Austen (left) and President William Sabatose (far right) with Greiner Awards winners (from left) Robert Mader, John Pavlock, Laurie Shepler, Mark Hartle and William Crisp.

4/25/2008