The Aultman Watershed Association for Restoring the Environment (AWARE) was started in February 2000 by concerned citizens from Indiana County who felt compelled to clean up the Aultmans Run Watershed. This area, nearly 30 square miles in total, empties into the Conemaugh River behind the Army Corps of Engineers dam, and it has abundant potential […]
Ahead of the Curve: An Example of Foresight During the Early Years of Growing Greener
Three years before Governor Rendell signed Executive Order 2004-1, which created the Pennsylvania Invasive Species Council, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recognized the devastating impacts of invasive plants in riparian areas. In 2001, DEP awarded Natural Biodiversity, then termed the Invasive Species Control Program, an Environmental Stewardship Fund grant to inspect invasive plants within […]
Treating AMD from Bridgeville Mine
Thanks to the Allegheny Land Trust and Environmental Stewardship Fund funding, discharge from abandoned mine drainage (AMD) from Bridgeville Mine, which closed in the early 1950s, can now be treated. The project restored the health of the water and created a pedestrian area for residents to learn about the areas natural resources. The treatment center […]
Protecting Rock Point
In 2007, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) awarded the Wild Waterways Conservancy (WWC) a Growing Greener II grant to use towards acquiring 86 acres of land at the confluence of Connoquenessing Creek and the Beaver River in Lawrence and Beaver counties. Other partners— including Lawrence County, Wild Waterways Conservancy, and the […]
Watershed Groups in Rural Pennsylvania Have Gone Mainstream
According to a research team at Penn State University, local watershed organizations are influencing community dynamics—and the nature of environmental stewardship—in rural Pennsylvania. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania commissioned the study of rural watershed organizations, which drew on 27 in-depth interviews and questionnaires completed by 172 watershed organizations across the state. “We got into this […]
