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2014 Acadian Program in Regional
Conservation and Stewardship
Under the direction of Dr. Mel Zimmerman
Trent Lee, Emily Vebrosky (Lycoming College)
and Haley Giannone (Bloomsburg University)
INTRODUCTION
PENNSYLVANIA TEAM
Mission statement: “Large landscape conservation training and service for the next
generation of public, private and non-profit conservation leaders.”
Issues in regional conservation
The Acadian Program of 2014 consisted of teams from Pennsylvania, Belize, Vietnam,
Chile, and Argentina; each team brought their own experiences in dealing with
regional conservation from their respected homelands. These teams delivered
extensive presentations on their own conservation issues that consisted of pollution
to the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay, ecosystem disruption in Tierra Del
Fuego, forestry difficulties in Quảng Bình Province, and the unsanitary landfills and
endangered species of Belize.
• Agricultural Run-off
Coordinators: Jim Levitt- Director of the Program on Conservation Innovation at
Harvard University, also joined the Lincoln Land Institute in Boston as a fellow.
• Wastewater Treatment Plants
• Abandoned Mine Drainage
• Major Hydroelectric Dams
• High Nutrient Algal Blooms
• Smallmouth Bass Populations
• Marcellus Shale
“BAY TO BAXTER INITIATIVE.”
• Connecting a corridor of land from Penobscot Bay to Baxter State Park
• Introducing landowners to conservation tools such as easements and Maine
Futures Community Mapper
• Educate the public on the importance of environmental conservation, as well as
providing unique economic incentives for Maine landowners
• Ultimately provide a large area of protected land that offers refuge for various
animals that inhabit Maine, as well as sustaining the natural resources that they
so dependently rely on
Rob Lilieholm- serves as the chair in Forest Policy at the University of Maine, works
particularly with modeling of alternative future development situations.
PRESENTATION
Nutrient Trading Cycle
• TMDL: total maximum daily load
• Pennsylvania is the only state to begin
awarding nutrient reduction credits
based on non-point source pollution
• Beneficial to farmers, wastewater
treatment facilities, and community
residents
CLEAN WATER INSTITUTE
VEAZIE DAM PRE AND POST
REMOVAL
• Hydroelectric dam on the Penobscot River
Lycoming College Clean Water Institute (current projects)
• Disrupted fish migration, and changed the river’s ecosystem in that location
• Participants of the Unassessed Waters Initiative, identifying wild trout populations
based on surveys using electrofishing backpacks. Lycoming College CWI completed
380 stream assessments as of 2014
• Breached and knocked down in 2013
• 11 species of native fish have been recorded further upstream
“The Big Picture”
• Chesapeake Watershed
• Largest estuary in the United States
• Bay holds more than 18 trillion gallons
of water
• Produces 500 millions lbs. of seafood
per year
• Supports approximately 2,700 species
of flora and fauna.
• Farm study in Elimsport, PA. Comparing previous and current water qualities of
several streams prior to, and after implementing BMP’s (best management
practices)
• Rose Valley Lake monitoring
• Population study of Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis)
• Species diversity has increased