DISTRICT EVENTS HOSTED

DISTRICT EVENTS HOSTED
	Wyoming County Conservation District held its annual seedling sale in the spring. A variety of evergreens, hardwoods, apple trees, cherry trees, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, tree shelter tubes and many wildlife habitat improvement species were offered at this sale. Several groups of students from the Tunkhannock Area High School assisted with seedling packing. One of their primary duties was the packing of 3,700 Arbor Day seedlings for area elementary school students.
2004 Seedling Sale

This year we sold over 4,550 evergreens, 300 hardwoods, 130 fruit trees, 400 berry bushes and 400 wildlife enhancement species, which will not only benefit their purchasers, but also the environment and wildlife. We would like to thank all of the volunteers and students who assisted with seedling packing. We also would like to thank the Triton Hose Company for the use of their facility.
	District Board Members – Harold Grow and Vic Cappucci packing Seedlings.

2004 Awards Banquet

The 2004 awards banquet was held on May 13, at the Triton Hose Co., Tunkhannock. This banquet marked the 55^th year of the District’s Operation. Bob Robinson, Chairman acted as Masters of Ceremony. The night’s festivities included dinner, and a skit by Gil Hersch, the "River Man". The presentation was a look at life on the Susquehanna River. It was great! This was followed by the awards presentation. Ed Zygmunt, Chesapeake Bay Technician, along with assistance from the District staff, put together a pictorial annual PowerPoint presentation showing a portion of the work the District accomplished throughout the year. All proceeds will support conservation and environmental education activities in the County.

The 2004 Award Recipients were as follows:
Conservation Farm Stewardship	Art Novak
Conservation Stewardship	Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Environmental Educator	Leila Rice
Conservation Service	Bouwe Aukema
Dirt and Gravel Roads	Lemon Township

Wyoming County Fair

The District Board of Directors, Associate Directors, Staff and NRCS Staff operate a booth at the Wyoming County Fair every year. The tent is also shared with the Bureau of Forestry. A beautiful water garden was set up, complete with a stone front and plants created by Ed and Amber Zygmunt. The District had many educational brochures and pamphlets available for the public. The Bureau of Forestry had a tree-identifying contest set up where you could win a free apple dumpling. The highlight of this year was children’s face painting. Katina Brown, Environmental Education Coordinator, and Cathy Hilscher, Watershed Specialist, along with a part-time helper, Alexandra Chamberlain, painted faces with a variety of animal stamps at the fair, free of charge.

Annual Northeast Regional

Contractors/Engineers Workshop

This Workshop is designed specifically for earthmovers of any description: Contractors, excavators, engineers, township road maintenance crews, public works departments, well drillers, loggers, surveyors, and so on. The workshop is hosted by the Conservation Districts of Wyoming, Sullivan, Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties. There are usually several corporate sponsors in addition to the PA One Call System, Inc. Other partners include the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the PA Department of Environmental Protection. Environmental subjects covered at the workshop change from year to year as many in the audience return to learn about the latest innovations in construction techniques and materials. The main message of the workshop is controlling erosion and sedimentation pollution.

Environmental Education

Environmental Education is a key component of the District’s conservation efforts. The Coordinator has established a working partnership with the Tunkhannock Area School District, Lackawanna Trail School District and Keystone College. The coordinator arranges several annual programs for Tunkhannock and Lackawanna Trail school’s classes, clubs and groups; organizes workshops and for guest speakers and instructors. In addition, community clubs and groups, local business, environmental agencies and neighboring Conservation Districts also request programs and assistance.

Annual Events

Arbor Day- Thanks to the generous support of local businesses, each student in the elementary and middle schools received a seedling, and the high schools received flowering trees. Local preschool groups also received seedlings for each child.

Conservation Field Days- This annual event is for all 5^th graders at Lackawanna Trail and Tunkhannock area schools. Eight presenters provide information on topics such as watersheds, Pennsylvania animals, reptiles and amphibians, beekeeping, forestry, and surveying, among others. This event is held each May at Rice’s Tree Farm on Mile Road in Tunkhannock. This year marked the 25th anniversary.

Envirothon- Wyoming and Lackawanna Counties annually sponsor the local Envirothon at Keystone College. High school students come for the day to compete on a variety of environmental topics. The winning team from each county receives a $5,000 scholarship from Keystone College. The overall winners receive $200 for first place, #100 for Second and $50 for Third place. The winning team, from Tunkhannock, participated at the State Envriothon this year.

1^st Place – Trailblazers	2^nd Place – Lakeland Bule	3^rd Place – Swamp Kids
John Richter (advisor), Nicolette Pocius, Amy Kelley,	Nick Chaykosky, Gary Bryla, Debbie Zabielski (advisor)	Adam Pascoe, Hannah Ward, Suchita
Christina Yesu, Cody Steele, and Jared Anna.	, Maura Armazzani, Nicole Krajewski and Dan Fish.	Varhode, Vanessa Evans, and Ashley Nelson.

Woodland Resources Adventure- This camp for kids 12-15 years of age, is held each July at Keystone College.
	Campers learn about forestry management, foresters, industry buyers and wildlife managers. The District and Endless Mountain RC&D work together to organize this camp.

Community Camps- Camp Adventure is coordinated by Penn State Extension for kids 6-13 years of age. Beginning in early July, the four-day camps were held in Falls, Noxen, Meshoppen, and ending with Mehoopany in mid-August. The children enjoyed crafts, nature projects, games and lots more. The children made and used nature projects each day, which included creating a flower press, insect bug box and insect catcher just to name a few.

Community Presentations- Many different environmental education programs were provided for a variety of groups, including Tunkhannock Manor, Hickory Dickory Dock Daycare, Scouts, Camps and the Dietrich Theater.

Classroom Presentations- The presentations took place in all the schools in the county on a variety of topics from backyard conservation to bats, wildlife, water quality, soil, etc.

Reading Program- This program has become an annual event at Hickory Dickory Dock Daycare. During the school year the coordinator read to the preschool-aged children on a weekly basis. They enjoyed listening to children’s literature and learning about environmental issues.

Agricultural Days- All fourth grade students in Wyoming County enjoyed this second annual program held at the fairgrounds. The students had a fun filled day learning the importance that agriculture has on their everday lives.

EROSION & SEDIMENT POLLUTION CONTROL PROGRAM
WATER OBSTRUCTION AND ENCROACHMENT PROGRAM

Rt. 267 in Meshoppen after Hurricane Ivan

Wyoming County has been delegated responsibility for the administration and implementation of two programs by the Department of Environmental Protection: the Erosion & Sediment Pollution Control Program (Chapter 102), and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES or Chapter 92).

Below is a list of activities that fall under the above-mentioned programs:

Types of Activity Number Issued

E & S Plan Reviews 5

NPDES General Permits 0

NPDES Individual Permits 1

ESPC Permits 0

Complaints Handling 99

Inspections-Permitted & Unpermitted 104

Public Outreach / Technical Assistance 143

* The District responds to and investigates complaints of potential unauthorized activities. If violations are found, we try to achieve voluntary compliance. This may include having the site permitted and/or restored to its original condition.

DIRT AND GRAVEL ROADS POLLUTION PREVENTION PROGRAM

The District works in cooperation with the State Conservation Commission and local municipalities under the Dirt and Gravel Roads Pollution Prevention Program. This program is designed to encourage municipalities to implement environmentally sensitive road maintenance practices on dirt and gravel roads in Wyoming County. Once a municipality has completed the required training, they are eligible to apply to the Quality Assurance Board at the Conservation District for grants to fund environmentally sensitive road maintenance projects. Below is the Dirt and Gravel Roads Pollution Prevention Program summary for 2003. Funds for this program are made available to districts through the State Conservation Commission.

The Countywide grant total was $59,952.00. There were a total of 9 projects, three of which are still in progress. Townships benefiting from these monies were Eaton, Tunkhannock, Forkston, Monroe, Windham and Nicholson. Wyoming County has spent $408,663.34 in the past 7 years, which was distributed to townships that completed 51 projects. These environmentally sensitive projects include correction to drainage, pipe installation, resurfacing of roads, stream bank stabilization, etc. with the main focus on reducing sediment pollution to the waters of the commonwealth. District staff has also served on numerous state committees to assist in further development of the program state wide.

Bochnik Lane - Monroe Township

	Before	After

Watershed Specialist

The Watershed Specialist position is funded by a Growing Greener grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The specialist focuses efforts on improving the quality of the county’s surface and ground water through the protection and enhancement of natural systems within the watershed. Job duties and responsibilities include watershed assessment, procurement of funding, technical assistance, education and outreach and the creation of work plans and strategies to restore and protect watersheds. The figures in this report show the activity that was generated for Wyoming County.

Education and Outreach:

· 2 school programs, including Resource Management Tour and Conservation Field Days, discussing the importance of your watershed and the need to control point and non-point pollution.

· Participated in the Northeast Regional Contractors Work Shop.

· Put on a presentation of the enviro-scape model at the Bowman’s Creek Watershed Association’s Annual Trout Derby showing the path water takes through a watershed and different pollutants that can be picked up through the process.

· Worked with Trehab by putting on educational activities dealing with tree identification and macro invertebrate collection for their students.

· Wrapped up the well water testing grant where over 300 residents in Wyoming County had their well water tested for free.

Technical Assistance and Training:

· Gave assistance to Bowman’s Creek, Mehoopany Creek and Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Associations with trout derbies, tree plantings, grant opportunities, and data entry for their monitoring stations.

· Helped Bowman’s Creek Watershed Association develop a mission and vision statement.

· Facilitated for Passing Go Training, which is a training designed to strengthen watershed groups.

· Attended 10 multiple-day trainings ranging in topics from Dirt and Gravel Roads to Streamside Clean-up.

Enviro-scape Model

Bowman’s Creek Trout Derby Noxen, PA