Maria Gereda, Kingston, from the Wyoming Valley Schools, and Dennis Dukinas, Dallas from the Back Mountain Schools, both natives of Luzerne County, will be hosted and supervised by EPCAMR until the end of December 2025 to work with us to provide volunteer services to add some capacity to the organization starting yesterday.
Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director exclaimed, “We are thrilled to have both of these environmental and conservation professionals join us for the 20 plus weeks through the end of the year to assist us with a number of direct service projects that we currently have underway with a limited staff, who have the passion and commitment to follow through on a number of our awarded grants and professional services throughout the EPCAMR Region.”
Bobby went on to say, “I can’t say enough about Conservation Legacy, OSMRE, and especially AmeriCorps (State and National) and AmeriCorps VISTA and their support for our work.
“April Elkins Badtke has been a long-time friend and colleague for over 2 decades when the original Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team was formed to provide similar support to non-profit environmental organizations that were and are still working in coal country up and down the Appalachian Mountain Range.
“She is a consummate professional at Conservation Legacy who never has had a problem responding to my emails or messages at all hours of the night or on weekends and listening to my concerns about AmeriCorps and the funding cuts that we had to endure several months ago.
“We currently have Morgan Romanowski, Scott Township, Lackawanna County working with us through the end of September 2025 to finish up her year term as an AmeriCorps (State and National) volunteer fellow GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist and Mark Jones, who initially was an Energy Community Assistance Program (ECAP) Community Development Coordinator volunteer with AmeriCorps VISTA, who had to placed into Conservation Legacy’s AmeriCorps VISTA Program.
“He will be volunteering with us until the end of December 2025.”
Maria will continue her work with EPCAMR as a GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist through the Stewards Individual Placement Program.
In her new role, she will help promote food security by encouraging the creation of community gardens in coalfield communities and working with local organizations to plant, maintain, and harvest them as one project that EPCAMR has already started on with the distribution of biodegradable Waterboxxes from Groasis that we have been giving away for free to groups that are interested.
Community gardens were very common in what were called “patches” in the coal towns around the Anthracite and Bituminous regions.
She will also support affordable housing development by advocating for new housing developments to consider being built on reclaimed abandoned mine lands.
She will also continue to engage and assist with environmental education experiences for students in school districts throughout the region that are under the poverty level.
Click Here for the EPCAMR announcement.
Visit the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation website for more information on upcoming events, programs and initiatives.
(Photos: Dennis and Maria are kicking for macroinvertebrates on Little Shickshinny Creek in Shickshinny Borough.)
[Posted: July 30, 2025] PA Environment Digest
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