A3O-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, November 4, 2000
Conference
MICHELLE RANCK
Fanning Staff
VALLEY FORGE (Chester
Co.) This week the State Con
servation Commission and the
Pennsylvania Association of
Conservation Districts Inc.
(PACD) conducted a joint con
ference to bring together experts,
convene committees, disseminate
information and reports, and
give out awards for outstanding
efforts in conservation for the
past year.
Hosted by Bucks, Chester,
Delaware, and Montgomery con
servation districts, the 53rd joint
annual conference convened at
the Hilton Valley Forge.
The event featured workshops
and sessions which addressed is
sues such as PennDOT’s erosion
and sediment control program,
planning tools for storm water
management, geographic inform
ation system (GIS), stream corri
dor restoration, watershed im
provement projects, funding
opportunities, and an update on
education and youth develop
ments.
A report from the PACD
Rural and Urban Land Use
Committee provided an overview
of the various programs under
PACD. Berks County Conserva
tion District Director Lyn Moser
gave an update on “Transfer of
Development Rights” (TDR)
which saved a farm from devel
opment in Washington Town
ship, Berks County.
Although 13 TDRs were al
ready enacted on farms that were
sold, the township decided not to
enforce their own ordinances,
said Moser.
“We sued twice, but decided it
was a disheartening way to man
age, so we came up with the idea
of partnerships,” said Moser.
“It’s a good program if you have
the support of the supervisors.”
After developing partnerships,
however, with the Berks County
Community Foundation and the
Berks County Preservation
Board, local developers, and
local environmental groups, a
farm with an approved develop
ment plan was actually saved
from development.
“We were able to show the de
veloper that he can cash out with
groups throwing money into the
pot and by showing him the ad
vantage of capital gains,” said
Moser.
“We want to show people that
you don’t have to give up,” she
said. The farm will continue to
stay in agricultural use.
Another topic, the Clean Ways
program, is an active, growing
conservation organization.
Under Clean Ways, local busi
The conservation efforts of Lancaster County Con
servation District were recognized with the Goodyear
Award. From left Steve Martin, representing Goodyear
Tire and Rubber, Robert Wagner, chairman, Lancaster
Conservation District, and Franklin Long, PACD presi
dent.
Honors Protection, Conservation Partnerships
nesses donate trucks, landfills
donate free dumping, and local
volunteers are mobilized to clean
up trash. Thirteen Pennsylvania
counties host the program begun
in 1989. To date, 110 illegal
dump sites, 100 littered roads,
three trails, one park, and one
waterway have been “adopted”
through Pennsylvania Clean-
Ways.
The organization also pub
lishes a newsletter highlighting
cleanup and recycling activities.
A booklet, videos, an education
activity book for schoolchildren
and a display board are available
The Ron and Kathy Kline of Y-Run Farms, Bradford
County, accept the Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Clean
Water Farm Award.
for public education through
Pennsylvania Clean Ways.
Meeting attendees agreed that
the involvement, education, and
grass-roots voice of “local peo
ple” are essential to conservation
efforts.
Following Perry County’s
lead, Lebanon County Conserva
tion District has gotten good
feedback on the six signs on
farms preserved by the Agricul
ture Land Preservation Board
and administered by the conser
vation district.
In Westmoreland County, the
conservation district helped arm
100 people with information on
the cost of development. Because
of this citizen participation, a re
zoning law detrimental to agri
culture was stopped.
During the meeting, Cumber
land County’s open space preser
vation plan and Sen. Jim Ger
lach’s Senate Bill 300, a proposed
amendment to the Pennsylvania
Municipalities Planning Code to
encourage preservation, re
vitalize urban centers, and facili
tate the viability of ag operations
were briefly discussed.
Meeting participants also de
cided that conservation districts
have a responsibility to educate
the public about ag security
areas.
“Once a farm is preserved,
that’s just the beginning. The
real meat-and-potatoes comes in
monitoring the legal transactions
that follow. It’s a very bureaucra
cy-intensive program,” said
meeting facilitator Chuck Wertz.
Also at the conference, several
presenters highlighted education
efforts, which include the new
package, “Sustaining Penn’s
Woods.” The program comple
ments the national “Project
Learning Tree” program. A CD
ROM, classroom activities, and
video educate students about for
est and land use practices.
Theresa Alberici, Pennsylvania
Game Commission, believes that
environmental topics have an
important place in the classroom.
“These are things that affect
us all the time. If you live in a
watershed and drink water, you
have a relationship to the water
shed,” said Alberici. “This dis
putes the idea that you have to
live in the forest to study the en
vironment.”
Allan Wood, NRCS state of
fice, informed conference partici
pants about corridor restoration
measures. Branch packing, dead
or live stakes, brush layering,
and biotextiles provide stability
needed to keep a steam bed in
place in conservation efforts.
The focus is now on natural
stream design, said Wood, and
“using rock in strategic places to
center water back into the stream
to help the stream make it
through the meanders.”
Instead of locking a stream in
place by simply shoring up the
existing bends of a water body,
efforts include using old photo
graphs and records to re-create a
stream and protect the banks.
Sue Snyder recently began working for Clean Ways,
a group organized to remove trash, facilitate recycling,
and educate the public. Begun in 1989, the group mobi
lizes local citizens and business to protect, restore, and
maintain the outdoors. “When you get the volunteers in
volved, they have a sense of stewardship and ownership
and keep an eye on it,” said Snyder.
Root wads have become an op
tion to eliminate undercut banks
and reestablish a creek bank “the
way nature would have it,” said
Wood. The bottom 15-17 feet of
a tree is taken and placed in a
stream bank with ballast on top
for security.
According to Wood, no single
answer will preserve every creek
bank. Instead a combination of
different techniques should be
used to preserve a bank.
For instance, instead of com
pletely avoiding using excavation
in a steam, Wood believes that by
getting an excavator in and out
of the stream, the sediment dam
age is far less detrimental than a
year of allowing the bank to con
tinuing to fall in. “All disciplines
should be involved,” said Wood.
During the awards luncheon,
individuals, businesses, and con
servation districts were honored
for outstanding conservation ef
forts.
The Goodyear Award recog
nized the partnership efforts be
tween a conservation district and
landowners for conservation of
natural resources. This year’s
winner, the Lancaster County
Conservation District, has grown
to 19 people since its beginning
in 1950. The district hosts nine
active and 12 associate board
members. The agriculture divi
sion has helped to add terracing,
stream bank fencing, waterways,
and tracts of permanent vegeta-
4 It’s just good solid fanning practices. 9
Ron Kline
Winner of Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Clean
Water Farm Award
tion across the Pennsylvania
landscape.
In addition, the team has
added 54 manure storage facili
tates and $4.5 million in assist
ance to landowners from Chesa
peake Bay programs. This past
year the district hired its first wa
tershed coordinator, besides
holding a conservation expo for
public education, sending out the
“Conservation Crier” newsletter,
and hosting 77 teams in the En
virothon in 1999. The district has
also conducted a conservation
school for 21 years.
The Conservation Farmer of
the Year must not only establish
but also maintain a conservation
plan. Leonard and Bonnie Jo
Greek, along with daughters
Stormi and Stevie Anna of Ridge
Hill Farm, Red Lion, took home
the honor this year.
A 400-acre dairy and crop
farm, Ridge Hill features contour
strips of com and hay, divisions
to slow runoff, runways to filter
runoff and slow erosion, and fa
cilities to collect and spread
dairy manure under a voluntary
management plan.
Numerous awards honored a
volunteer, conservation organiza
tion, educator, legislator, county
commissioner, and efforts made
by organizations for sedimenta
tion and pollution control, forest
resource management, and
urban conservation efforts.
The special conservation serv
ice award went to Abner J.
Housenecht, Lancaster County.
Housenecht, said to be on of the
founding fathers of conservation,
has put his touch on the land
scape of Lancaster during his
years in the USDA Soil Conser
vation Service, where he laid out
conservation programs on dozens
of county farms, which included
miles of waterways, terracing,
and contours.
“The 40-plus years that I
worked with farmers to establish
conservation practices were very
rewarding,” said Housenecht. He
compared himself to Johnny Ap
pleseed, spreading conservation
seeds across the land.
“It was not hard to sow to the
people in Lancaster County.
They normally came to us,” said
Housenecht.
The Pennsylvania Chesapeake
Bay Clean Water Farm Awards,
sponsored by the Chesapeake
Bay Education Office, went to
Jack and Donna Coleman, Cher-
ry Crest dairy farm, Lancaster
County; Robert Heid, Cambria
County; and Ron and sons Gary
and Glenn Kline and families, Y-
Run Bradford County.
The Colemans, Strasburg, are
perhaps best known for the
“Amazing Maize Maze” which
draws thousands of visitors to
their farm each year. Besides
taking the opportunity to teach
the public about farming, the
Colemans also have 3,200 feet of
terraces in place on the farm, be
sides an environmentally-friend
ly manure-handling system.
Their farm consists of 70 milk
ing cows, 250,000 broilers raised
per year, and 175 acres of crop
land. They began dairy farming
in Lancaster County in 1987 and
have had their farm manage
ment plan in place since 1988.
In 1990, the Colemans install
ed a liquid waste storage unit
that holds 550,000 gallons of
(Turn to Pago A 36)