American Lotus, Wildwood Lake Sanctuary

From Penn’s Woods, The Nature Conservancy

“Water is the driving force of all nature.” Declared five centuries ago and a world away, Leonardo DaVinci’s words depict the 83,000 miles of rivers and streams characterizing Pennsylvania.

Aware of water’s significance to the state’s human and wild residents, the Conservancy is investing resources into protecting the Commonwealth’s aquatic biodiversity.

“In a state this size, we’re faced with diverse challenges to conserving aquatic biodiversity,” shares Nels Johnson, director of conservation programs for the Pennsylvania chapter. “Most strategies will be tailored for specific locations dealing with issues including non-native species invasion, unsustainable water flows, uncontrolled nutrient runoff and in some cases, a need for more information.”

The Conservancy has a head start on filling information gaps through its involvement in establishing an information clearinghouse on Pennsylvania’s aquatic biodiversity. Coordinated in partnership with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the state’s Natural Heritage Program, and partially funded by GlaxoSmithKline, the Aquatic Classification Project will release a preliminary report later this year that locates and lists the condition of Pennsylvania’s most unique aquatic species groups, and the habitats upon which they depend.

“This effort focuses on snails, mussels, fish and insects living in Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams,” shares Betsy Nightingale, aquatic ecologist for Pennsylvania’s Natural Heritage Program. “Understanding their location and the conditions within which these key species thrive will lead to more informed land management decisions.”

One location that will benefit from the report is French Creek, which flows for 117 miles from origins in western New York, through rural northwestern Pennsylvania, until it empties into the Allegheny River.

The Conservancy has worked to influence agricultural land management practices in this watershed since 1991. Recently, a Kellogg Foundation study of the region revealed that the release of nutrients by farms was not threatening French Creek’s water quality, and described it as quite good.

Armed with this knowledge, the Conservancy—together with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and Allegheny College—has shifted its focus to inventorying and monitoring habitats that support populations of native fish and rare mussels. Once witnessed throughout the Northeast, these “biodiversity hotspots” are limited today to only the region’s healthiest ecosystems. The coalition is also examining local transportation patterns to mitigate hazardous spills that have historically harmed mussel populations nationwide. And eliminating invasive zebra mussels continues—through signage and physical removal—at limited locations within the creek and a nearby lake.

In another part of the state, the Conservancy confronts the effects of nutrient and sediment runoff on the Susquehanna River’s ecological integrity. Flowing through central Pennsylvania, the river drains an area roughly the size of South Carolina and eventually empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Numerous farms, and some of the largest contiguous blocks of mixed oak and northern hardwood forests in the eastern United States, populate the watershed.

“Working with partners and landowners to conserve and restore riparian forests—which serve as water filters for the river and its high-quality tributaries— is the primary strategy being employed throughout the Susquehanna River Basin,” states Charles DeCurtis, director of conservation science for the Pennsylvania chapter.

Further east, decades of converting land and controlling water flow to support local population growth has disturbed the Upper Delaware River’s natural rhythms. Spreading across four states and serving 17 million people, the river’s main stem continues to be the longest undammed stretch of river east of the Mississippi. However, management of reservoirs located within the river’s tributaries—together with destruction of forest cover and the spread of invasive plants—has resulted in poor water quality and temperatures and flow patterns that harm numerous aquatic species, including the federally endangered dwarf wedge mussel.

To restore balance, the Conservancy is helping the Delaware River Basin Commission to design a sustainable flow management system that would modify the frequency and duration of floods, better mimicking conditions needed for fish spawning and other natural events.

“Water really is a driving force for conservation in Pennsylvania,” adds Johnson. “In addition to protecting rivers and streams like the Upper Delaware, the Conservancy’s reach has extended to seasonal vernal pools, groundwater-influenced fens, and some of the state’s numerous lakes and ponds. There is a lot of work to be done.”

—Sara M. Kaplaniak

The Nature Conservancy, PA Chapter can be contacted at 1-800-75NATURE or by sending email to: pa_chapter@tnc.org . This article reprinted with permission.

6/17/2005