On Saturday evening [September 19] around 100 partners and sponsors of EPCAMR attended a very well attended celebration of our organization’s 30th Anniversary.
A small, but mighty Staff, under the leadership and direction of the founding Executive Director, Bobby Hughes, a newly formed Development Committee chaired by our Vice President and Treasurer, Cristy Sweeney, and our current President, Dr. Joe Simons III, pulled off a tremendous celebration and diverse gathering of Coalition partners at the Banquet to reflect back on three decades of work and existence and to look forward to a new frontier for the next 30 years.
See a small photo gallery coverage by the Citizens’ Voice and Hazleton Standard Speaker.
Want to see photos from our slideshow and more taken at the dinner? Click the link to our shared folder here.
The event was held at Sand Springs Resort, who did a magnificent job of setting up the venue. The food was excellent.
The beer selection on tap was great, which included EPCAMR’s very own beer label, thanks to a partnership between Coal Creative and Groove Brewing in Scranton, called a Coal Dust Blonde Summer Stout. It tasted delicious.
Shout out to Gerard Durling from Coal Creative and Ed Genovese-Brew Master from Groove Brewing for making it happen.
Our sponsors really came through for us. Click Here for the entire list and the banquet program.
We had some great acoustic dinner music provided by JD Ashford, from JD Ashford Arts, who doubled as a photographer for us for the evening, and is the grandson of John “Chief” Sedeski, who has since passed on, but was an integral member of the Stanley Cooper Chapter of Trout Unlimited that historically had a fish hatchery in the Bowman’s Creek watershed.
It is one of the watersheds that had been impacted by legacy acid deposition from coal fired plants in Western PA and the Ohio River Valley.
JD, Bobby, and Dr. Joe Simons III, are all still members of the Chapter and recalls working closely with John nearly 30 years ago on monitoring in the watershed.
Today, a Bowman’s Creek revival is happening and we are all working in partnership on continued monitoring and completion of a Coldwater Conservation Heritage Plan for the watershed that was initially assessed by EPCAMR back in 1998, when the now dissolved Bowman’s Creek Watershed Association was formed to address issues in the watershed.
The effort is being led by Angie Tuttle, an active volunteer with EPCAMR, who wears many hats in the watershed and is an outstanding conservationist with roots in the Noxen area of Wyoming County.
The Luzerne Conservation District, Wyoming County Conservation District, PA Game Commission NE Region, private landowners from the former South Mountain Land Association, municipalities in the watershed, and other partners are all in it together.
Bobby gave the Opening Remark and Speech to give an Overview of the Past 30 years on where we’ve come from and how we got there and where EPCAMR is going.
Before his talk, he asked everyone to bow their heads in a moment of silence for our EPCAMR Board Members that had passed away.
Our oldest former Board Member attended, Paul Lohin, from the Schuylkill Headwaters Association, at the age of 92.
It was a heartfelt speech that showed his passion and dedication to the organization and the region as a regional and sometimes national leader for the Coalition.
He credited his Staff and the Board for a lot of the behind the scenes work. His reflective and chronological highlights of the last 30 years speech can be found at Bobby’s Opening Remarks Speech.
Dr. Joe Simons, III, President of EPCAMR gave his remarks on the importance of EPCAMR’s work in the region. [We’ll be adding his speech soon.]
Dr. Simons, then presented our Keynote Speaker, Dave Hess, former Secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection, and owner of PA Environmental News LLC, with the inaugural “2026 Elevating the Environmental Award” for his decades of support of EPCAMR in the media and on the PA Environmental Digest.
He talked about the awakening that we are in right now and that EPCAMR is needed now more than ever.
Cristy Sweeney, our Development Committee Chair, and Vice-President/Treasurer, from ARIPPA, provided some words as well and let everyone know where EPCAMR is heading and that we are looking to start an Endowment and looking for donor support and donations.
She recognized all of our Dinner Sponsors. Networking then happened and we took a group photo, however, closing remarks were left alone, since many had to get on the road giving how dark it was getting later in the evening.
However, it was a great evening and a very successful one built on Partnerships, Place, and Pride.
Shawnese Taylor, EPCAMR GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist created some beautiful centerpieces with cut flowers, little orbeez, water, and cleaned anthracite coal pieces suspended in recycled glass vases.
Diane Grant Czajkowski, Equine & Canine Artist & Photographer displayed several pieces of iron oxide art and created a commemorative 4″ x 6″ card of iron oxide art for our 30th Anniversary entitled, “Partnerships, Places, & Pride” EPCAMR 30th Anniversary Celebration (1996-2026). They were sold for $10 with 50% of the proceeds going to the artist and the other 50% to EPCAMR.
We will be putting the limited printed cards on our online store soon!
Joshua Coleman, from Kings Raising Queens LLC, posted a very nice reflective recap of his impression of the evening that can be found on his social media page.
Bobby also gave an initial recap of how grateful he is to be the Executive Director and what it meant to him to watch the evening unfold on his social media page.
Two of Bobby and Mike’s earliest mentors and past Presidents, Ed Wytovich and Bernie McGurl, were in attendance to share in the festivities and walk down memory lane.
Bobby’s wife, Tara put together a little video clip of some candid photos from the event to music while his youngest son Ethan, who always helps his Dad with cleanups, was styling and profiling at the event.
Another Board Member of ours, Dr. Andrea Nerozzi, created a wonderful 8″ x 8″ square piece of art with iron oxide incorporated into a stream scene of a native brook trout rising for a fly on the water.
Click Here for more memories and lots more photos from this special event.
Visit the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation website to learn more about their initiatives, programs, upcoming events and how you can get involved.
Formed in 1995 by concerned conservation districts, EPCAMR represents a coalition of watershed organizations and reclamation partners.
Members range from individuals to the active anthracite mining industry and co-generation power plants, to non-profit organizations, 16 county conservation districts, and other organizations in the anthracite and bituminous coal region of eastern Pennsylvania that are involved with abandoned mine reclamation issues.
Counties covered by EPCAMR in Northeastern and North Central PA include: Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Dauphin, Lackawanna, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne, and Wyoming. As of the last census (2020), the population we serve equates to approximately 1.7 million people.
Visit the Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation website to learn more about their initiatives, programs, upcoming events and how you can get involved.
Formed in 1982, WPCAMR works with watershed volunteers, technical remediation experts, and government agencies to reclaim lands and streams polluted by historic coal mining in Western Pennsylvania.
A coalition of 24 county conservation districts, WPCAMR's efforts expand into areas where reclamation is limited, showing local communities that their dead streams can be clean and giving people hope where little existed in the past.
WPCAMR also works diligently with industry, high schools, and universities and endorses state-of-the-art technologies in conjunction with local grassroots efforts. After all, mine drainage solutions provide an educational experience for all involved.
Related Articles This Week:
-- Eastern PA Coalition For Abandoned Mine Reclamation Celebrates 30 Years Of Hope, Hard Work Reclaiming Legacy Abandoned Mine Lands, Mine Water Pollution Across NE PA [PaEN]
-- Pennsylvanians Are Finding Their Voices Again On Environmental, Energy Issues They Care About [PaEN]
-- Inside Climate News - Jon Hurdle: Pennsylvania’s A.I. Data Center Boom Is Repeating Old Patterns Of Exploitation
-- We’ve Heard This Before: ‘We’re Providing Jobs - Stopping Pollution Threatens Jobs’ - A Brief Review Of Pennsylvania’s Conservation History [PaEN]
[Posted: September 23, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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