Sewickley Creek Watershed Assn, Partners Hold Earth Day Cleanup, Beautification Events

The Sewickley Creek Watershed Association along with Boy Scout Troop 465, Youngwood Borough, Firestone Building Products, and other volunteers joined forces on April 23 to spruce up their neighborhood.  

Three miles of roadway and a mile of stream banks around Youngwood Borough and Westmoreland County Community College were cleaned.  Volunteers picked up over 80 bags of litter, 8 tires and many large trash items.  

Hats off to Scout Troop 465 from Hempfield Township who has partnered with the Association on Earth Day events since 1995!           

The Association coordinated its efforts with the Youngwood Borough Council and residents who cleaned additional streets and illegal dumps that morning.  We want to thank the Borough for hauling away all of the trash collected.  

The litter along Jacks Run, the major tributary of Sewickley Creek, had become an eyesore to residents and hundreds of daily commuters.  We hope those commuters will appreciate the volunteers’ hard work and make a conscientious effort to keep the roadways clean!

Elsewhere, the Association partnered with the City of Greensburg and Elliott Company on a beautification project at the City’s Lynch Field Sports Complex.  Volunteers painted an education kiosk, interpretive trail signs and picnic tables.  

The Association partnered with the City and Firestone for several years on streambank stabilization projects at Lynch Field.  We offer a special thanks to the employees of Elliott Company who joined us for the first time this year and did the majority of the painting.  

And we thank the volunteers who collected dozens of bags of roadway litter in Sewickley and Unity Townships.    

The Association expresses its sincere appreciation to all of the partners and volunteers, including Keep PA Beautiful and Westmoreland Cleanways who help make these Earth Day events operate more smoothly.  All activities are registered as part of the Great American Cleanup of PA.  

The Sewickley Creek Watershed Association is a nonprofit organization that helps manage the 168 square mile watershed drained by Sewickley Creek in Westmoreland County.  Their primary focus is remediation of abandoned mine discharges.  

Other projects include building riparian buffers, trail development and environmental education.  

For more information about the organization, visit the Sewickley Creek Watershed Association website.