Schuylkill Action Network

Streambank Stabilization and Stream Crossings on Farms
2024-03-11 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Join this live virtual webinar offered by Penn State Extension and learn about conservation practices used to stabilize eroding streambanks, improve instream habitat, and provide suitable crossings on farms and other land uses. During Streambank Stabilization and Stream Crossings on Farms we will discuss different practices for stabilizing eroding streambanks on various land uses such as cropland, pasture, and forest. Several economical options are available, and we will explore their purpose and effect. Additionally, we will cover the available resources for financial or technical assistance associated with planning, permitting, and constructing these practices.
Who is this for?
* Farmers
* Conservation Professionals
* Agriculture Professionals
What will you learn?
* Different options to stabilize eroding streambank
* Design considerations and techniques
* Permitting requirements
* Technical assistance and financial resources available
This event is being offered at no charge to participants.
Registration is required to receive the link to access the webinar.
Registrants will also receive access to the webinar recording.
Click here to register and learn More

Perkiomen Stormwater Symposium 2024
2024-03-08 09:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York)
Join the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy and their regional partners to dive deeper into the world of stormwater! Discover the different methods local organizations are using to tackle stormwater issues. Municipalities will walk away with educational materials and volunteer opportunities for their residents. This training is also designed to be a one-stop-shop for municipal staff, covering all six MCMs!
Speakers representing the following:
The Department of Environmental Protection
The Montgomery County Planning Commission
The Montgomery County Conservation District
The Perkiomen Flood Study
Center for Watershed Protection
Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy
Have an impressive stormwater project you would like to showcase? Submit a project poster to display during event registration and the lunch hour. Don’t miss this opportunity to share your work with fellow colleagues! Check out project poster guidelines here.
Click here to learn more and register

Choose Native Workshop for Landscape Professionals - Philadelphia
2024-03-07 08:30 - 15:30 (America/New_York)
Calling all Landscape Professionals!
Professional landscapers and water gardeners are invited to register for one of three regional workshops provided by Pennsylvania Sea Grant, Penn State Extension, and regional partners focused on replacing invasive species with those native to Pennsylvania, in landscaping and water gardens. The March 2024 “Choose Native” workshops are free and continuing education credits are available. The Philadelphia event on March 7 will be hosted at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. Register by February 5th!
Landscaping and water gardening activities often lead to the unintended introduction and spread of invasive plant species to our land and waterways. Once established, invasive species can degrade natural habitats by outcompeting native species for space, light, and nutrients. Invasive species can impact the food web by altering the plant community and decreasing the diversity of plants available for food sources, habitat, and shelter.
Preventing invasive plant introductions by utilizing native alternatives in landscaping and water gardening is a viable solution. The Choose Native workshops will introduce participants to the native species options, creative ways to include native species, management strategies for existing invasive species, and creating a management plan for native species in landscapes and water gardens.
Join this workshop to
Learn about native alternatives to commonly planted invasive and ornamental species
Learn about using native plants for landscapes and aquatic spaces
Create a mock management plan for native and invasive species on your properties
Obtain continuing education credits
Attendees are eligible for:
15% discount for Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional Level 1 Course
International Society of Arboriculture Credits
PDA Certified Pesticide Applicator Recertification Credits
Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional CEUs
Sustainable Landscape Certification CEUs
Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist CEUs
Click here to learn more and register! The workshops are being offered thanks to support of funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

Draft Blue Marsh Lake Master Plan Open House
2024-02-29 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will host an open house on Feb. 29, 2024, to share details on a draft revision of the Blue Marsh Lake Master Plan. The open house will be held from 5-7 p.m. at the Berks County Agricultural Center, 1238 County Welfare Road, Leesport, PA 19533.
The public open house will cover the proposed changes to the current Blue Marsh Lake Master Plan. Team members will share instructions on how to submit comments and provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions and provide feedback. A 30-day public comment period will begin on February 29th, 2024, and end on March 30th, 2024.
More information is available on the Draft Master Plan here.

The State of Stormwater Symposium: Programs and Fees in a post-West Chester Landscape
2024-02-28 09:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York), 2024-02-28 09:00 - 11:00 UTC
Register now for The State of Stormwater Symposium: Programs and Fees in a post-West Chester Landscape- a crash course on recent developments for stormwater management programs and fees, hosted and sponsored by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council being held on Wednesday, February 28th from 9 AM – 11AM.

Attend the hybrid Symposium, from the comfort of your computer over Zoom OR join us in-person for lively presentations and panel discussions at the Lancaster County Convention Center, integrated with the Lancaster Marriot at Penn Square.
Enjoy a welcome from Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s new President, Tom Gilbert, and Executive Vice President, Patrick Starr.
Keynote speaker, E. Lee Stinnett II, Esq. of Salzmann Hughes, P.C. will cover relevant caselaw and pending cases. The validity of stormwater programs and fees have been continuously challenged by opponents of alleged “rain taxes”; even more so after the Commonwealth Court’s decision in PASSHE v. Borough of West Chester which declared fees to be taxes and exempted non-profit and government landowners under appeal. Walk away with tips on how you and your community can maintain a successful fee-based stormwater program under the current state of the law.
Following our keynote presentation, hear from a panel including Lee, Charlotte Katzenmoyer, Chief Executive Officer at Capital Region Water, and Marc Cammarata, Deputy Water Commissioner at the Philadelphia Water Department, for case studies on their stormwater fee structures, as well as their current challenges and opportunities.
Symposium moderator, Alex Chiaruttini, Esq., Pennsylvania Environmental Council Board Member, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel at The York Water Company, and former DEP Chief Counsel, will coordinate live questions and answers with the audience.
Click here for more details and to register.

Virtual DEP Update On MS4 Stormwater Program, NPDES Water Quality Permitting
2024-02-22 10:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York)
Join PA Society of Professional Engineers (PSPE) for a virtual meeting with Sean Furjanic, PE, Environmental Program Manager for the DEP Bureau of Clean Water, for an update on the Department’s activities related to the MS4 program and NPDES permitting, followed by a Q & A session with attendees.
Questions can be submitted both in advance and during the webinar. PSPE will moderate. Please note that site/project-specific questions will not be considered.
Please Register by February 21 to receive your access credentials. The session will not be recorded. Approved for 1 PDH.
Click here to learn more and register

Planning for Flood Resilience: Integrating Hazard Mitigation and Floodplain Management Planning Webinar
2024-02-21 14:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York)
Join FEMA for this webinar highlighting how local-level planning provides a framework for local governments to lessen the impacts of natural disasters, including flooding. Many local governments undertake multi-hazard mitigation planning to engage their community in understanding risks and developing mitigation actions. They can increase benefits of their planning process by designing it to also meet the floodplain management planning criteria under the Community Rating System (CRS). Integration of these processes is a win-win!
REGISTER
After registering you will get a confirmation email with information about joining the meeting. Please test your ability to connect prior to the day of the webinar.
Presenters:
Alan Lulloff, P.E., CFM – ASFPM Flood Science Center
Shubha Shrivastava, CFM – Mitigation Planner, FEMA HQ
Shanene Thomas – Mitigation Planner, FEMA Region 6
Mary-Carson Stiff – Executive Director, Wetlands Watch
Savannah Newbern, CFM – Flood Risk Project Manager, Wetlands Watch

Live Webinar: Introducing the Pennsylvania Community Conservation Partnerships Program
2024-02-20 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Join Penn State Extension and participating partners US Forest Service, State, and Private Forestry; Pennsylvania DCNR, Bureau of Forestry; and Pennsylvania TreeVitalize Program, Pennsylvania Community Trees for a webinar highlighting how the Pennsylvania Department of Natural Conservation and Recreation Community Conservation Partnership Program can help make your community forestry project a reality. This annual grant program is designed to support a variety of projects from tree inventory, planting, and maintenance to workforce development and community outreach around increasing tree canopy.
Click here to learn more and register.

SAN Pathogens and Point Source Workgroup Meeting
2024-02-20 10:00 - 11:30 (America/New_York)
Join us for our Pathogens and Point Source Workgroup meeting to connect utility and regulatory partners in the Schuylkill Watershed! If you have an agenda item to discuss, plan to attend, or would like more information, please email Meghan Rogalus, SAN Manager, at mrogalus@delawareestuary.org. If you haven’t already signed up to receive our email reminders for workgroup meetings you can do so here.
This meeting will be held virtually over Zoom.
Click here to register for the meeting.

Agriculture Workgroup Meeting Q1 2024
2024-02-14 10:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
Join us for our Agriculture Workgroup meeting to connect partners and projects in the Schuylkill Watershed! If you have an agenda item to discuss, plan to attend, or would like more information, please email Meghan Rogalus, SAN Manager, at mrogalus@delawareestuary.org. You can receive email reminders for workgroup meetings by signing up here.
This meeting will be held virtually over Zoom.
Click here to register for the meeting.

Stormwater Workgroup Meeting Q1 2024
2024-02-12 10:00 - 11:30 (America/New_York)
Join us for our first quarter virtual Stormwater Workgroup Meeting.
We look forward to a presentation by Virginia Smith of Villanova University entitled, “Needs, Challenges, and Solutions for Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Implementation”
Virginia’s presentation will discuss impacts of watershed development is reflected in the health of our streams, particularly headwater streams. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) are becoming an increasingly pervasive solution for stormwater management to mitigate these impacts. While maintenance of these can be challenging, GSI design can be leveraged to create more effective and efficient maintenance plans.
SAN Stormwater Municipal and environmental organizational partners can all benefit from the information shared in this program.
Click here to register and join us on Zoom

Webinar: Addressing Emerging Contaminants in Source Water Using BIL Grants and Forgivable Loans
2024-02-08 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York)
Join the Source Water Collaborative for this webinar is part of a new series of webinars on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, designed to help access historic levels of funding. This webinar is designed for states, water utilities, source water protection staff, state BIL funding program staff, source water collaboratives, federal agencies, and other water stakeholders.
To learn more and register, click here.

Development and Application of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) Forecasting Science
2024-01-31 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York)
Click here for more information and to register
Forecasting Freshwater Cyanobacterial HABs for Sentinel-3 Satellite Resolved U.S. Lakes and Reservoirs
Because cyanoHABs are a concern for health throughout the United States, there is a need for a large-scale prediction model. To address this need, we used a Bayesian model to estimate the probability of a cyanobacterial bloom occurring in a given week. Specifically, we used an Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) model because it provided a complex and computationally efficient forecasting model that can work with missing data and irregular lake sampling. The INLA model used cyanobacteria presence data derived from Sentinel-3 Ocean Land Color Instrument along with environmental predictor variables from 2016 to 2022 in satellite resolvable lakes across CONUS. This model was applied to forecast World Health Organization recreation Alert Level 1 exceedance >12 μg L−1 chlorophyll-a with cyanobacteria dominance for 2192 satellite-resolved lakes in the United States. The prediction results were compared to independent previous cyanobacteria presence satellite imagery to provide performance statistics.
OW’s Vision for Operationalizing Nationwide HABs Forecast
The CyAN near-real-time cyanobacterial biomass tool is a foundation of the EPA National HAB Program and is used by state, tribal, and other partners across the U.S. as a key part of their HAB monitoring programs. The expansion of this tool to provide forecasting information could be transformative for many of these partners as it may enable their monitoring teams to better anticipate blooms to provide more accurate advice to the public. This talk will discuss our plans on how the forecasting information will be operationalized and served through existing HAB data platforms.

Presenters:
Blake Schaeffer, Ph.D. (EPA Office of Research and Development)
Blake earned his Ph.D. in marine, earth and atmospheric science from North Carolina State University studying harmful algal bloom ecology. Blake is currently with the Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling in Durham, North Carolina. His research focus is on the applied use of satellite remote sensing technology to monitor water quality in coasts, estuaries, lakes, and reservoirs. His research niche is the development of applications for water quality monitoring and assessment.
Michael Paul, Ph.D. (EPA Office of Water)
Mike is an aquatic ecologist in the EPA Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology, Health and Ecological Criteria Division in Washington D.C. He has more than 30 years of experience in the research and management of aquatic ecosystems. His work has focused on the ecology of freshwater ecosystems, including 20 years of experience in water quality criteria development across the nation. He now leads the EPA National HAB Program and works on nutrient criteria and biocriteria. He received his B.A. in biology from Colgate University, an M.Sc. in zoology and a Ph.D. in ecology, both from the University of Georgia.
Moderator: Anne Rea, Ph.D. (EPA Office of Research and Development)
Anne is a Senior Science Advisor in the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment within the EPA Office of Research and Development in Durham, North Carolina. She leads the integration of cross-cutting research related to nitrogen and associated co-pollutants within EPA and with other federal, state, and NGO partners. She has worked with EPA’s former Ecosystem Services Research Program, the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, and the Office of Air’s Ecological Risk Program. Anne earned her doctorate in environmental health sciences from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.

Multi-Cultural Communications Training - E&S Workgroup and Resource Media
2024-01-30 13:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York)
Please join us for an exploration and training on new ways to steep your communications, outreach, and programming in equity and multiculturalism on January 30 at 1pm.
Register in advance: https://bit.ly/MutliComms
Authentic multicultural communications can help increase civic engagement – and community-driven solutions – in all of our work. We’ll provide an overview of core multicultural communications concepts, recommendations for how to avoid patterns of marginalization in communications design and implementation, how to shift and reframe communications to increase access and representation, and navigate cultural sensitivities to find messages, images and creative content that resonate with different communities.
Sian Wu (she/her) of Resource Media will share examples of multicultural communications initiatives and lessons learned, as well as results of recent work that engages with and caters to diverse audiences.
This training is FREE and open to all.

A Deep Dive into the Delaware River Bacteria Study (webinar)
2024-01-25 12:00 - 13:15 (America/New_York)
The Water Center is has released a new report, Delaware River Bacteria Study: An Evaluation of the Occurrence and Sources of Fecal Indicator Bacteria in the Camden-Chester-Philadelphia Region and Opportunities for Remediation.
The Delaware River Bacteria Study is an independent, science-based water quality and water policy study. It evaluates the occurrence and sources of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in the Camden-Chester-Philadelphia region of the Delaware River and opportunities for remediation.
Join the Water Center for this webinar where they will present a brief summary of the report and have a group of panelists provide their commentary on the report.
Learn more and register here
