PA Environment Digest Blog: October 2024

Thursday, October 31, 2024

DCNR: Last Fall Foliage Report: Still Plenty Of Fall Color In Pennsylvania’s Southern Tier This Coming Week

On October 31, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources issued its last Fall Foliage Report saying the prolonged dryness, cold nights, and some windy days have taken many of the leaves that remained on Pennsylvania’s trees.

Despite these factors, there is still plenty of fall color in the Commonwealth’s southern tier, especially in oak, beech, and hickory forests.

The report also includes fall foliage information for six regions around the state.

Weekly Fall Foliage Reports will be issued on Thursdays at DCNR’s PA Fall Foliage Reports webpage.

Viewfinders For Colorblind

Special viewfinders have been installed at 10 State Parks to allow the colorblind to see Fall Foliage colors for the first time.

The colorblindness viewfinders were placed at these State Parks--

-- Bald Eagle State Park, Centre County

-- Black Moshannon State Park, Centre County

-- Colton Point State Park, Tioga County

-- Cook Forest State Park, Clarion County

-- Hyner View State Park, Clinton County

-- Kettle Creek State Park, Clinton County

-- Leonard Harrison State Park, Tioga County

-- Little Pine State Park, Lycoming County

-- Sinnemahoning State Park, Cameron and Potter counties

-- Tiadaghton State Forest, Lycoming County

Click Here to learn more.

Information for Visitors

Click Here for prime locations for viewing Fall Foliage on an interactive map.

Click Here for a Northern Driving Tour. Click Here for a Southern Driving Tour.

Go to the VisitPA.com website to arrange for your Great American Getaway in PA.

Visit Explore PA Trails and Get Outdoors PA for recreation areas near you.

Visit the PA Parks & Forests Foundation’s Events webpage and DCNR’s Calendar of Events for activities happening near you.

For more information on state parks and forests and recreation in Pennsylvania, visit DCNR’s website, Visit the Good Natured DCNR Blog, Click Here for upcoming events, Click Here to hook up with DCNR on other social media-- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

-- Pennsylvania Office Of Outdoor Recreation Rolls Out ‘Elevate’ Initiative To Engage Outdoor Businesses; Outdoor Businesses Questionnaire [PaEN]

-- DCNR’s Erie Bluffs State Park Inducted Into National Old-Growth Forest Network [PaEN]

-- DCNR, Trust For Public Land Celebate $2.6 Million In Federal Grants For Local Parks In Reading, Scranton

-- PA Forestry Assn. 138th Annual Symposium - What Makes A Healthy Forest; Awards Program Nov. 16 In State College [PaEN]

NewsClips:

-- Erie Times: Erie Bluffs State Park Joins Old-Growth Forest Network, What It Means For The Park

-- WNEP: Wildfire Concerns Across Northeastern, Central Pennsylvania

-- PennLive: This October Will Be One Of The Driest Ever Recorded In Central PA

-- TribLive: Hampton Girls Excel At Riding Waves, Even On Allegheny River

-- Inquirer - Frank Kummer: 100 Philly Parks Need Your Help With Fall Cleanup

-- WPost: On A Hurricane-Ravaged Appalachian Trail, Vast Damage And Uncertainty

[Posted: October 31, 2024] PA Environment Digest

Dirty Work: Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership Adding 130,000 New Trees During Fall Planting Season In Pennsylvania

On October 31, the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership said it is at it again, doing the dirty work of adding 130,000 new trees for Pennsylvania during the fall planting season.

“We were able to distribute the trees across 30 different locations throughout Pennsylvania, to over 100 of our partners,” said Marley McKind, Manager of the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). The Partnership is coordinated by CBF and has grown to over 300 partners.

Roughly 28,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams are damaged by polluted runoff and the legacy of coal mining. Trees, especially when planted as riparian buffers, are the most cost-effective tools for cleaning and protecting waterways.

Trees filter and absorb polluted runoff, stabilize streambanks, and improve soil quality. They also help address climate change by cooling the air and sequestering carbon.

“Seeing the level of enthusiasm and passion for planting trees from our partners, communities and individual landowners throughout the Keystone State is what makes this work worth doing,” McKind added.

Katie Ruth, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light, said PA-IPL received requests from its volunteers for about 35,000 K10 trees for the fall season and has 33 volunteer-led distribution sites across the Commonwealth.

“The majority of our distribution locations are within the Chesapeake Bay watershed,” Ruth said. “We have committed network partnerships in 20 Pennsylvania counties and have reached program participants in an additional 35 counties. This represents 85 percent coverage of the state’s 67 counties.”

Grants for a tree planting coordinated by award-winning volunteers and another grant for tree survival are also supporting the Partnership.

A $4,000 grant from The GIANT Company and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful will provide new trees that will be planted at McCaskey High School in the City of Lancaster on Nov. 9.

The effort will be led by Mira Lloyd Dock Partnership Diversity Award recipients Marlisa Yoder-Bontrager, and twin sisters Keisha and Tarsha Scovens. [Read more here.]

The Dock Award is presented by the K10 for conservation and environmental justice work in under-represented communities.

A $75,000 tree survival grant to the K10 by the Foxwynd Foundation of Chester County, will help newly planted trees along Pennsylvania streams live longer, grow stronger, and have a better chance to clean and protect local waters.

Maintenance in riparian buffers, supported by the Foxwynd grant may include straightening, removing or replacing tree shelters after storms, and checking for competing vegetation inside shelters.

Other work could include removing bird nets from shelters with trees growing out the top, applying herbicides, and mowing around trees.

As new trees go into the ground this fall, the Partnership is looking ahead to 2025.

“As we look forward to next year, we’re excited to continue fostering connections, streamlining tree distributions, and getting more trees in the ground,” Marley McKind added. “As we like to say, it all adds up to clean water!”

Visit the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership to learn how you can help clean water grow on trees.

For more on Chesapeake Bay-related issues in Pennsylvania, visit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA webpage. Click Here to sign up for Pennsylvania updates (bottom of left column). Click Here to support their work.

CBF has over 275,000 members in Bay Watershed.

Visit DEP’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed webpage to learn more about cleaning up rivers and streams in Pennsylvania's portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Click Here to sign up for regular updates on Pennsylvania’s progress.

How Clean Is Your Stream?

The draft 2024 report has an interactive report viewer that allows you to zoom in to your own address to see if the streams near you are impaired and why.

Click Here to check out your streams. Click Here for a tutorial on using the viewer.

(Photo: More than two dozen volunteers sorted and distributed over 12,000 trees and shrubs in Manheim, Lancaster County in October, as the fall season for the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership kicked into high gear.)

CBF: New Chesapeake Bay Assessment Reveals Concerns, New Restoration Data Tool Offers Hope

Despite a slight improvement from previous years, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said more than two-thirds of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers and streams did not meet clean water standards between 2020 and 2022, according to an assessment by the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program released October 31.

However, a new Bay restoration tool offers hope for the future. The report highlighted data from the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load Indicator.

This indicator combines modeling with monitoring data from streams and rivers across the Bay watershed.

The monitoring results provide direct connections to real world outcomes of restoration work, such as performance of practices to reduce pollution to the Bay, as well as the effects of climate change and other factors.

The new assessment reveals that while some of the Bay’s rivers and streams show improving conditions in the last decade, more than half are becoming more polluted or show no change.

Though there has been important progress, states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed will not meet pollution-reduction commitments by a 2025 deadline.

At this crossroads, leaders from across the region are expected to chart a course for the next chapter of Chesapeake Bay cleanup at the Chesapeake Executive Council meeting on Dec. 10 in Annapolis, Maryland.

Key steps needed at the meeting include attendance in person by each of the Executive Council members, including governors of the six Bay states, and other state, federal, and local leaders.

Leaders must also commit to updating the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement by the end of 2025 to address new challenges and incorporate the latest science. They should include updated goals and outcomes that are measurable with clear deadlines.

Alison Prost, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Vice President for Environmental Protection and Restoration, issued the following statement:

“This assessment makes clear that far too much pollution is still reaching the Chesapeake Bay. The good news is, advances in science and monitoring can guide Bay cleanup efforts and help understand their effectiveness.

“The new Bay indicator will be valuable for Bay restoration in the future and should serve as a tool to evaluate our progress through real-world outcomes. This is key to ensuring true recovery of the Bay.

“The next step is strong, decisive action from the region’s leaders at the Chesapeake Executive Council meeting in December. There they need to pledge to update the Chesapeake Bay Agreement by the end of 2025, incorporating new deadlines to reduce pollution as quickly as possible while also including lessons learned.

“It is time for our leaders to recommit to a healthier Chesapeake Bay and better quality of life for the nearly 19 million people in the Bay watershed.”

Also visit the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership to learn how you can help clean water grow on trees.

CBF has over 275,000 members in Bay Watershed.

How Clean Is Your Stream?

The draft 2024 report has an interactive report viewer that allows you to zoom in to your own address to see if the streams near you are impaired and why.

Click Here to check out your streams. Click Here for a tutorial on using the viewer.

(Photo: Riparian forest buffer on the farm of Brian Eckman in Peach Bottom, York County, courtesy Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.)