The Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association is excited to share new opportunities via the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM) out of Dickinson College and the Columbia County Conservation District to revitalize Columbia County's Stream Team efforts in key regional waterways.

​The Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association will hold a new Waterway Exploration Training (WET) educational experience from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursday, July 21, 2022, at the Montour Preserve near Washingtonville.

The program, designed for young people ages 8-12 and their families, will include a three-station rotation focused on introducing them to freshwater organisms, streams and watersheds, including how pollution can impact our ecosystem and how they can make positive changes at home. ​ 

More than 60 people participated in the first Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Floating Classroom of the 2022 summer season on June 28 aboard the Hiawatha Paddleboat in Williamsport, with a focus on aquatic mammals.

After a June 10 blog post by the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association with underwater video by Michael Kinney showing a complete debris blockage of a fish passageway alongside the Williamsport Dam on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, DCNR's Tiadaghton office has since cleaned the passageway twice and has shared a more aggressive maintenance plan moving forward.

Sixty-three young people, ages 8 to 15, representing more than 10 counties across the Middle Susquehanna watershed participated in one of six HERYN (Helping Engage Our River's Youth with Nature) program days held from June 20-25, 2022, at the Central PA Wesleyan Campground near New Columbia.

Riverkeeper's note: This column was provided by association intern Peyton Curley. You can contact her at curley@susqu.edu

On Saturday, June 4 the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association attended the Susquehanna Greenway Expo. This expo had over 50 vendors set up in Shikellamy State Park that were all outdoors and environmentally themed. 

Our booth was at one of the entrances to the event, so we were able to get a lot of foot traffic. We had a poster board with all the information about the MSRKA, as well as some items we were selling. ​

Like a growing number of people, angler Mark Yeagle is concerned about debris that continually is blocking fish passage along a ladder structure at the Williamsport dam on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

“For the past three years, I have been contacting both the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) and the Department of Conservation and Natura Resources (DCNR) asking them to clean the ladder out so that our fish can move freely throughout our river system and increase the quality of fishing upstream,” he said. “It’s very sad to see the fish ladder packed with hundreds of game fish and carp stuck inside concrete cells continuously trying to jump and squeeze up what small amount of water manages to actually enter the ladder.”

Andrew Stuhl, department chair for Bucknell University's Environmental Studies and Sciences, has invested quite a bit of time studying the long-ranging impacts of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Agnes as we near the storm's 50th anniversary of devastating flooding within central Pennsylvania.

In the following special episode of the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Podcast, we chat with Andrew about a wide number of ripple effects caused by Agnes -- many of which we can still feel today.​

Riverkeeper's note: This column was provided by association intern Peyton Curley. You can contact her at curley@susqu.edu

This past school year, I did a lot of collecting and identifying macroinvertebrates. Macroinvertebrates are little critters that live in ponds and streams. Just pick up any rock in a flowing stream and many different species of macroinvertebrates can be found underneath, as long as the water is clean. ​

On May 24, a tanker truck carrying gas well pad brine crashed near Salladasburg along Larry's Creek, killing the driver.

According to news reports from the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, the tank remained intact but the collision punctured a hole in it, allowing the brine to drain into Larrys Creek.

Alerted to the situation by a concerned citizen, the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association reached out to the regional office of the Department of Environmental Protection to determine the potential impact on the aquatic ecosystem. Community Relations Director Megan Lehman provided the following update: