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Bay Journal: Op-Ed: Flood Of 10 Million Trees Could Help Offset Impact Of Future PA Deluges
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By: Harry Campbell, Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA

Veteran newspaper photographer John Pavoncello has been eye-to-eye with all kinds of human drama.

In the short time his drone imaging business has been up and running, Pavoncello has gone above and beyond to record traumas faced by fire and law enforcement first responders.

But it was the sight of nature’s powerful force that he called “crazy.”

Pavoncello was contracted by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to fly his camera over a portion of the lower Susquehanna River after a week of relentless rainstorms in late July.

Pavoncello has seen the river at its beautiful best in spring, and bulging with damaging ice flows in winter. But never like this. The Susquehanna was an angry, swollen, chocolate-colored torrent.

“You just don’t get the perspective standing along the bank,” Pavoncello said, thinking back on the magnitude of roiling, brown water.

This aerial perspective of the deluge of runoff illustrates powerfully the urgency that more solutions must be found on the ground.

It just so happens that one of the most ambitious and challenging efforts to reduce the pollutant payload that flows into the Susquehanna and other Commonwealth waterways is taking root.

The Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership is a collaborative effort, coordinated by the CBF, to add 10 million trees to Pennsylvania’s landscape before the end of 2025.

Trees alongside streams and streets are among the most cost-effective tools for cleaning and protecting waterways. The canopy and deep roots allow rain to soak into the soil, stabilizing streambanks, improving soil quality and keeping streams cool for fish like brook trout.

The partnership, launched in April, has galvanized national, regional, state and local agencies, conservation organizations, watershed groups, conservancies, outdoors enthusiasts, businesses and individuals.

In the partnership’s first month, about 1,500 volunteers and the CBF’s restoration specialists planted 31,000 trees at more than 50 locations.

The Arbor Day Foundation, along with Pennsylvania Departments of Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, and Environmental Protection, are among the partners.

The Commonwealth is significantly behind in meeting its pollution-reduction commitments and the Keystone 10 Million Tree Partnership can jump-start efforts to close the gap.

Roughly 19,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams are impaired by polluted runoff and the legacy of coal mining.

The Commonwealth’s Clean Water Blueprint calls for about 95,000 acres of forested buffers to be planted in Pennsylvania’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Adding 10 million new trees alongside streams, streets and other priority landscapes would accelerate the Keystone State toward its clean water goals, achieving as much as two-thirds of the 95,000-acre goal.

Special emphasis has been placed on planting trees in the Southcentral Pennsylvania counties of Lancaster, York, Adams, Cumberland and Franklin. All are thriving agricultural regions, which contribute the greatest amount of pollutants that flow into the Bay.

Response to the spring season of tree plantings has been encouraging. Additional groups in and out of Pennsylvania’s portion of the Bay watershed have been asking to join the partnership.

That’s good, as planting 10 million trees by the end of 2025 will take many hands.

Between planting seasons, summer months were for maintaining trees already planted.

Partners in Pequea Park, Lancaster County were successful, losing just three of 200 larger trees planted.

Conodoguinet Creek Watershed volunteers maintained their plantings by carrying water to seedlings during a heat wave.

The effort’s partners will add more trees from September through November.

In 2019, the partnership hopes to nearly double its impact. That means that 50 planting partners will engage at 100 planting sites, 3,000 volunteers will be mobilized and 50,000 trees will go into the ground next spring.

Benefits from the trickle-down effect of so many plantings extend beyond the cleaner water that flows from them.

The need for so many trees, tubes, stakes and other supplies has also provided an economic boost to nurseries and other companies that can supply them.

As for the mighty, muddy Susquehanna, there may not be enough trees to withstand such an unusual force of nature as seen through John Pavoncello’s lens.

But the lasting images should be a reminder that consequences downstream could be less “crazy” if more trees are working upstream.

To learn more about this tree-planting initiative, visit the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership website.

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.

For information on local and state efforts to meet Chesapeake Bay-related pollution reduction obligations, visit DEP’s PA Chesapeake Bay Plan webpage.

Harry Campbell is Executive Director of the PA Office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and can be contacted by sending email to: hcampbell@cbf.org.

NewsClips:

Op-Ed: Flood Of 10 Million Trees Could Help Offset Impact Of Future PA Deluges

Transportation Officials Scrambling For Ways To Handle Damage From Record Rainfall 

Why Flooding Was So Bad Near The Susquehanna River In York

No FEMA, No Flood Insurance, York County Veteran Among Those Will Big Bills To Rebuild

Corps Of Engineers Monitor High Water At Sayers Dam

Blair Area Counties Cleaning Up After Recent Heavy Rains

Blair County Volunteers Heading Out To Help Storm Victims

Erie Volunteers Put Faith In Action On Mission Trip To Puerto Rico

Flooding, Pollution, Sewage Overruns Region’s Broken Waterways

Rains Close PA Game Land Roads

Western PA Has Learned From Storms, Hurricanes

Rainfall Amounts Already Surpassed Yearly Average In Northeast

Outside Flood Prep Assistance Needed Due To Luzerne County Staff Cuts

Luzerne Flood Protection Authority To Seek Private Assistance For Emergencies

Repairs Underway On Wilkes-Barre River Common Fishing Pier

Florence Likely To Expose Gaps In Flood Insurance

Only 10% Have Flood Insurance On Hard-Hit Carolina Coast

Hurricanes

Florence Moved On, But High Waters May Send Torrent Of Pollution To Chesapeake Bay

Florence Likely To Expose Gaps In Flood Insurance

Only 10% Have Flood Insurance On Hard-Hit Carolina Coast

Red Lion Storm Chasers Escape From Flooding In NC

Trump Tells N.C. Man During Florence Tour: At Least You Got A Nice Boat Out Of The Deal

Climate Change Skeptics In Path Of Hurricane Florence: It’s Hyped Up

Editorial: Flood Of Truth From Florence On Saving Coal, Nuclear Plants

Editorial: Hurricane Florence Spared Philly Region, But What About The Next Storm?

FEMA Chief Says Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Losses All Over The Place

Erie Volunteers Put Faith In Action On Mission Trip To Puerto Rico

Pitt Plans To Send Help To Hurricane Victims In North Carolina

1 Year After Hurricane, Puerto Ricans Find Hope In Lehigh Valley

One Year After Hurricane Maria, Philly A Model For Recovery

Editorial: President’s Untrue And Inexplicable Assertions On Puerto Rico

Green Infrastructure Related Stories:

New Statewide Partnership Launches Major Effort To Plant 10 Million Trees To Cleanup Pennsylvania’s Streams, Rivers

Renew The State's Commitment To Keeping Pennsylvania Clean, Green And Growing

Meeting The Challenge Of Keeping Pennsylvania Clean, Green And Growing

Agriculture, Forestry Workgroups Present Key Recommendations To Meet PA’s Chesapeake Bay Pollution Reduction Obligations

LancasterOnline: Lancaster Farmland Provides $676M In Annual Environmental Benefits

Estimated $939.2 Million Return On Investment In Protecting, Restoring Dauphin County’s Natural Resources

Carbon County Has $800 Million Return On Investment From Natural Resources

Emma Creek Restoration Project Reduced Flood Damage, Sediment & Nutrient Pollution In Huntingdon County

Another Green Infrastructure Project Reduces Flooding In Manheim, Lancaster County

Green Infrastructure Offers Triple Benefits, Cost Effective Solutions To Stormwater Pollution, Reducing Flood Damage

Op-Ed: Of Pennsylvania Floods And Our Future

Related Stories This Week:

CFA Funds 359 Projects To Improve Water Infrastructure & Recreation, Restore Watersheds

House Committee Meets Sept. 24 To Consider Bill Creating Keystone Tree Fund

NRCS-PA Now Accepting Applications For Financial, Technical Farm, Forest Conservation Assistance

NRCS-PA Accepting Applications For Emergency Watershed Protection Assistance In PA; DEP To Pay 25% Local Share

Stroud Water Research Center Premiere Of Lay Of The Land: Healthy Soils, Healthy Waters Film Oct. 11, Lancaster

How You Can Help

Want To Find A Watershed Group Near You? Try The PA Land Trust Assn. Watershed Association Finder

Take Action

How Good Is The Water Quality In Streams In Your Community?  Take A Look, Then Act

(Reprinted from the Chesapeake Bay Journal.)

[Posted: Sept. 18, 2018]


9/24/2018

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