Conewago Creek (east)

Transcription

[ Running water ] [ Music ] >> The Conewago Creek watershed is a very rural watershed. So we are addressing issues that have to do with farming and the impacts of agriculture on water quality, the impacts of development and the change of farmland to developed areas. Ultimately, we want to be able to say if someone living in the watershed, whether they be a farmer, a homeowner, a business owner, says, What can I do to do my part to clean up the Conewago Creek, we want to provide them with the resources and tools to make a difference. [ Running water ] >> The health of our watersheds depends on everyone working together. The nation's rural landowners, farmers, and forest owners are often our best environmental stewards, providing clean water and wildlife habitat from the healthy, functioning watersheds on their lands. Agriculture remains a key part of the solution to watershed restoration in the Chesapeake Basin. [ Music ] >> Earth is the water planet. It's 70 percent water and access to fresh water and healthy aquatic ecosystems is one of the pressing global issues that we have on the planet. The Chesapeake Bay itself is North America's largest estuary, a watershed that's huge, and countless miles of rivers and streams and small tributaries are kind of the capillaries that extend upward in that Chesapeake Bay watershed. So that's what the Conewago Creek Initiative is, is all about, is trying to work upstream into a small watershed that's a small piece of the puzzle of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay region. >> Because of geography and access to clean water, the area has been driven by agriculture. Today, its residents work about 200 farms varying in size and specialty. With the land's predominant agricultural use comes the water quality issues that exist today. >> We are working in hundreds of watersheds across the Chesapeake Bay. Conewago Creek is one where we're putting an extraordinary amount of effort in because it's an experiment. We do not have to blanket every agricultural acre in the Chesapeake Bay Basin to get significant improvements in water quality. What we do need to do is we need to find those most vulnerable acres where we see the greatest tendency for either the leaching or runoff of nutrients and sediments, and focus our time and attention there. [ Music ] >> This farm has been in my family since 1857. As a dairy farm, we milk about 80 cows, which makes us average size for here in Lancaster County. When we were first approached about the Conewago Creek Initiative, I asked point-blank, you know, given the size of our creek, is it really worth the time and effort that they were going to place into the project? And they were quick to point out that, of all the tributaries that eventually feed into the Chesapeake Bay, 90 percent are just this size, big enough that you could jump across. And if something isn't done to mitigate the impact that agriculture and other aspects are having on the creek itself, no real progress is going to be made. >> My name's Ron Kopp, and I'm a dairy farmer here in Dauphin County. Several years ago we converted to 100 percent no till, and part of that whole process is a cover crop. If you have too much nitrogen available in a cover crop system, some of those cover crops tend to use some of that up, so the leeching of the nitrogen into the ground water is not as much of an issue. >> I've always been a little conscientious about saving water because I've always had very large gardens, and I try to save my own water in watering cans that I have around and some other -- >> Throughout the yard. >> Yeah. Some other vessels, but it's going to be much nicer to have a big barrel of water. >> I farm about 60 acres. It's a pretty small operation, but it's pretty intense, so I need to do my share to try to make it sustainable. >> I learn something different every day. When we first moved here, I believe that I, I, I didn't know what a waterway was. I didn't know what a riparian buffer was. I didn't know what any of these things were. I just know that I was living next to a creek. [ Music ] >> It's more than just, you know, getting folks out to plant trees on a Saturday at one particular site. We're trying to reach, you know, as many landowners in the watershed as we can and get them interested in doing what we call best management practices on their land that improve water quality. >> The importance when targeting watersheds is that sometimes you can get overwhelmed with the effort that's in front of us. So when you can focus on a certain area and get all the partners together, you can show people that it can be done. >> What we found, just looking out our research-- >> The Conewago Creek initiative has been really successful in reaching out to farmers, and that's a credit to some of our key partners like our county conservation districts. Every individual has an impact and can take steps on their own land to improve water quality. So, we all we all have a stake in this and we've got to really reach out to, you know, 100 percent of the population. >> We received something in the mail saying that there was going to be a rain barrel event, and I have wanted to have a barrel to water my plants with, so I showed it to Todd, and we signed up. >> For the most part, we learned how easy it is to waste water, not even thinking. >> Well, and I was not aware that the waterways that are here go all the way to the Chesapeake. That was a learning experience for me. >> Sure. And we happen to have it right behind- >> We have a creek. >> -our house here- >> A creek behind our house. >> -the one that they were talking about. So, that kind of put it all together. >> What have you seen as a success or successes that the initiative has had, some challenges we still need to, to overcome? >> The Conewago Creek project advisory team is a large group effort in which all partners bring some sort of expertise to the table, whether they are conservation practitioners, township managers, educators or volunteer coordinators, it takes a team to make a difference. >> It's made up of all kinds of partners, a number of government agencies, educational institutions, municipalities, all are part of the project advisory team and, and all looking at how to make the initiative function and be successful. >> So, is this, it's actually going to hold the watershed in here? >> Yeah, this is that condense right there by, by [inaudible]. >> South Londonderry is very interested in, in protecting and preserving the natural environment of the township. And in the Conewago Creek Watershed what we've been doing is is establishing rain gardens and we've also been working with property owners to plant native species on their property as native buffers along stream corridors and in back yards. >> There's just so much that can go on if we all work together. It's an excellent initiative to restore the water that has been declared impaired here in the Conewago Creek. >> All right, everybody say cheese! >> Cheese! [ Music ] >> Some folks at the NRCS extended us a, an opportunity to apply for a grant to have a forestry management plan completed. One of our top priorities is addressing the invasive species within the creek. We can graze our goats selectively in certain areas, and they love the evasive species. >> Aberdeen Mills contacted us to help them graze off their site here on their property. We wanted to approach this project with little to no invasive pesticides or herbicides, if at all possible. So the goats are here to graze. They're here to remove all the brush as part of that forest management plan to establish the open space so that the forestry crews can come in and do the initial planting of the trees that they want to have here on this site. >> The Conewago Creek Initiative, they wanted to see if we were interested in putting up a composting building. Some of the material I use to compost the pigs comes from the mill property down the road. And they needed a place to, to handle their bedding and so they're bringing the material up and then I use that as fuel for my compost, and then use it on my fields. >> Our cub scout group is from Pack 98 from Conewago Elementary School. Our pack started working with the stream team last year when we helped with a tree planting along 743. And now here we are today at Glen Book's farm, working in the pond. >> What might've happened during the rain to help move mud and things into this pond? >> We are doing a number of activities to assess the water quality of the pond here. >> My group has been trying to see what kind of what kind of pH it is. >> We looked at how much sediment was in the water. We measured various chemical components of the water. What was the pH? The phosphate level, the nitrogen level? And we talked about different things that would happen in that watershed that would affect those various nutrient levels in this water. So, in the future they will have an understanding how what they are doing is going to impact their local watershed. [ Music ] >> The water that comes around behind the chicken house, whenever it rains, it just goes shooting around there and it's down the creek in a flash. And it's occurred to me on a couple of the dry years that we had, to let that water soak in to the water table, so it's to my benefit to do that. >> Jeff had an existing storm water swale that was discharging into a flat level area, so we took a look at the site and, and agreed that there was an opportunity here, and we put the design together and this is what we have now, is a, is a kind of an oversized rain garden that will catch a lot of the water that comes down the swale and hold on to a small amount of it before it discharges into the stream. >> This only comes like, walk right through this area, here it's all trampled up. There is some nice creek too that runs in there. >> This farm is a good example of what can be done when we're able to work 1 on 1 with a farmer. >> Just being able to have those wood posts, that's 1 of the biggest benefits we're going to have. >> Our partners and NRCS are able to provide technical assistance, and we can provide financial assistance if that's needed also, and, and help the farmer to identify natural resource concerns, put together a conservation plan, and then implement the practices that are necessary to address those concerns. >> It'll be a great project, yeah. >> Fencing the creek off isn't a new concept here at the farm. We've been doing this for years. However, it always seemed to be that this fence was never sturdy enough, the cows were always seeming to break through the fence and getting into the creek. >> We thought that this would be a great way to maintain the creek and yet be able to utilize the pastures for the cows as well. >> One of the examples on this farm is the Riparian Forested Buffer. That's going to make a big difference on the water quality in this area because the buffer along the stream will help stabilize the bank and keep the sediment out of the stream. >> So I think the farming community here in the watershed is evolving as it, as it relates to the best management practices that, that are needed on the land. We've been doing some type of BMPs here on the farm for 30, 40 years. >> One of the biggest things they've been doing here for the last number of years is planting all their crops using a no-till system. In a no-till system instead of plowing or tilling the entire field, you only till a narrow band where you place the seeds. The rest of the field remains undisturbed. The other big thing that the, that the Kopps have done is to a plant cover crops. And one of the major keys to preventing soil erosion is to keep the soil covered over the winter. [ Music ] >> Monitoring is a really key aspect of what we're doing in the initiative because we want to be able to see the progress that's being made. We did some fish surveys from before the initiative started and one of our big projects went in, the fish populations doubled. We saw a whole increase in species. >> We benefit from the water in our watershed and we also impact the water in our watershed, and we're learning how to protect and care for that natural resource. >> One of the biggest lessons we've learned is don't make it mandatory, make it voluntary. Try to get out and meet the people and work with them, because if you make it their idea, they'll embrace it. We start out slowly, educating a few people, and it just grows from there, to the point now where we have several hundred acres in our, in our natural areas projects. >> Thanks for coming. >> My daughter-in-law, she works for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the thing that she said that made the most impact on my perspective, I said, this is such a little tiny little trickle of water, it can't be that important. And she pointed out that you can't go to the main stem of the Susquehanna and fix the problem. You've got to back up to all of these little tributaries that go into it and fix the problem there, and then the problem with the main stem will be fixed. >> It's an unending collection, and some of them can really tell us how healthy this water is. >> We have a unique opportunity here in this watershed to show the rest of Pennsylvania or this part of the country that, you know, we can still live and work and farm this land productively, and still have a viable, healthy watershed. And that's hopefully is what's going to come out of this whole initiative. >> It really is a lifetime's worth of work to restore a watershed. What the residents of the watershed are doing is they're investing in the in the future, so that there will be a healthier watershed for the next generation. >> For more information on the Conewago Creek Initiative, visit Conewagoinitiative.net. [ Running water ]