River Currents

November 2001 - Volume 8, No. 3

A Newsletter for the Lackawanna River Watershed Community

An Evening for the Lackawanna River

15^th Anniversary Dinner & Awards Celebration

The LRCA will celebrate the beginning of our 15^th year of caring for the Lackawanna River and its watershed with a Community Conservation Awards dinner on Saturday, January 26, 2002. The evening will include a special power point slide presentation "Windows on the Watershed", a keynote speaker, and presentation of awards recognizing individuals, organizations, educators, public officials, and business interests who have developed a project, activity or program which benefits the river or watershed.

This event will be held at the After-Five Supper Club, 280 Main Avenue, Dickson City with the following schedule:

6:00PM Cocktail Hour – cash bar

7:00PM Buffet Dinner

8:00PM Awards Presentation and Keynote Speaker

The dinner menu includes: salad, chicken marsala, roast top round of beef, stuffed flounder, rice, potato, vegetable, and two types of pasta. Coffee, tea and dessert will also be served.

Tickets for the evening are $30 per person. Sponsorship opportunities are available to support the work of the LRCA. Tables of ten are available for Benefactors, along with Dinner Contributor, Sponsor, Patron and Benefactor arrangements. Recognition of Dinner Benefactors, Patrons, Sponsors and Contributors will be made in the evening’s program.

A dinner reservation may be viewed and printed out by clicking here. You may make your reservations by returning the reservation form to the LRCA. Please indicate either for General Admission or specify group level of contribution.

An Award Nomination form can also be viewed and printed, by clicking here. You can nominate an individual or group; someone you believe deserves to be recognized for accomplishments that benefit the environment or the conservation of resources in our watershed. Please call the LRCA for further information.

Thank you for your participation and we look forward to sharing this evening of celebration with you.

Public Meeting Set to Review River Plan Update

The Lackawanna River Corridor Association will hold a final public meeting to review recommendations on the New Lackawanna River Watershed Conservation Plan on Wednesday, December 5, 2001. The meeting will begin at 7:30pm in the General Purpose Room at Lackawanna College, Washington Avenue at Vine Street in Scranton.

The LRCA has been working with volunteers, municipal officials and county agencies during the past two years to complete a Conservation Re-assessment of the Lackawanna River and its watershed. This work involved reviewing the LRCA’s Citizen Master Plan for the Lackawanna River developed by the LRCA and Lackawanna County in 1990. Issues identified in the 1990 plan were assessed to determine if any progress has been made in environmental cleanup of the river, creating recreation sites and trails, involving the community with the river and improving the management and protection of river resources.

There has, in fact, been significant progress in achieving some of the recommendations from the 1990 Plan. The LRCA, Rail Trail Counsel and Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority are acquiring river corridor properties for a major Rail-to-Trails initiative to create a 40-mile Lackawanna River Heritage Trail. In other areas, Lackawanna County has developed Watershed 2000; an EPA funded program to address sewage pollution, acid mine drainage and mine reclamation issues.

A great deal of work is still needed to thoroughly and comprehensively address the conservation of our river. The new plan moves out from the river to address similar issues on all of the Lackawanna tributary streams. This watershed-wide conservation plan makes a broad series of recommendations based on our 4-key plan elements from the original plan.

The new plan makes general recommendations for new policies in the following areas:

Lackawanna River Partnerships: A new series of public private partnerships is recommended to improve the way we manage our water resources at the local government level.

Mine Reclamation: New projects for culm dump removal, stream restoration and redevelopment of strip mine sites.

Economic Development: The creation of new business parks is proposed at abandoned mine land sites.

Recreation Trails: The missing links needed to complete the 40-mile River Heritage Trail are identified as are new trails in the North Pocono area along Roaring Brook. River and stream corridor greenways and trails are recommended along downtown Scranton, Leggett’s Creek, St. Johns Creek in Old Forge and Racket Brook in Carbondale.

A County Wide Open Space Plan: is recommended to include acquisition and conservation of stream corridors, ridge tops, wetlands and watershed lands. The roles of the land trusts and conservancies such as the Lackawanna Valley Conservancy are encouraged as elements of the open space plan.

Environmental Education: Initiatives are recommended for watershed education in schools as well as adult continuing education. These recommendations include development of a Nature Center based on the Lackawanna River Watershed.

Land Use: Recommendations include updates to municipal planning and zoning to include state-of-the-art Best Management Practices for water quality and watershed resource protection.

Special Places: Historical and Cultural sites are identified for conservation with the open space plan or through river conservation programs.

The plan also suggests hundreds of individual site specific projects and programs along the river and tributaries in some of the over 30 municipalities in the watershed. The plan integrates recommendations with the Upper Lackawanna Plan being developed by the Trails Conservation Corporation, an affiliate of the Northeast Pennsylvania Rail Trail Council. These include recommendations for a re-authorization of Stillwater Dam to allow flow releases for canoe and kayak runs during spring and summer.

The public will have an opportunity to offer final comments at the December 5^th meeting. Local municipalities and DCNR are reviewing the Draft Plan. Following final review, LRCA is asking local municipalities to pass resolutions adopting the recommendations in the plan and requesting that the State add the Lackawanna to the Pennsylvania River Conservation Registry.

The inclusion of the Lackawanna River and it’s water-shed on the Registry will enable LRCA, our local governments and community partners to advance proposals for projects based on the plan for implementation funding. For further information on the plan, contact LRCA at lrca@epix.net, or call us at 570-207-7608 in our north Scranton office.

A special place in our watershed - waterfalls on Fall Brook, Fell Twp.

UN Volunteer Award

The United Nations designated 2001 as the International Year of the Volunteer. The UNA of NEPA in conjunction with Keystone College, La Plume, PA, celebrated the 56^th United Nations Day on October 24, 2001. The LRCA was awarded a special citation by the United Nations as an outstanding example of what volunteers are doing in our community. Our volunteers have achieved many accomplishments: river cleanups, river watch for water quality monitoring, landscape restoration, environmental education and service, annual Canoe-a-Thon, and the creation of a user-friendly web site www.lrca.org.

Volunteer Thanks

With Gratitude… Our sincere thanks to you, our volunteers who have helped many environmental preservation and restoration efforts along the Lackawanna River. So many have responded generously with your time, talents and hard work supporting our trail cleanups, river monitoring and special events. All of us who volunteer do so not only because it is right, but also because it feels good. After a few hours of labor, success and beautiful results leaves you with such a sense of accomplishment -- it is fun! Volunteering puts us in touch with our values and with other individuals who share them. Thanks to everyone for coming out and supporting our mission to maintain and improve the quality of our valley along the Lackawanna River.

Volunteers cleaning up along the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail in Archbald

Help Save Our State Tree...the Eastern Hemlock

The Hemlock woolly adelgid, is a small insect that feeds on stored nutrients from young twigs of hemlocks resulting in the loss of needles and new shoots, and eventually the death of the tree.

Volunteers are needed to identify locations in Lackawanna County where infestation is the greatest. We will be looking at the underside of hemlock branches for insect egg sacs, which is an indicator of the level of infestation. Data collected will be used to determine where to begin combating the problem. The LRCA/ LSEC will be the first non-profit organizations in the area to provide this work. Please contact us for additional info. – a training session is scheduled in November.

Phil Cody Benefit Concert

On October 17^th, LRCA members and friends enjoyed an evening at Tink’s with Phil Cody in Concert. The evening began with happy hour and hors d’oeuvres donated by John & Trish Heil, the proprietors of Tink’s. Guests enjoyed an evening of great music. We raised over $800 to benefit the work of the LRCA to protect and restore the Lackawanna River. Thanks everyone for your participation and making this event such a success for the LRCA.