​It is hard for Tom Benfer to travel the rural roads of Montour and surrounding counties and not come across a spot where he and the Chillisquaque-Limestone Watershed Association has completed a project and made a vital impact over the past quarter-century.

“I drive around and I’ll say, look, we did that project and cleaned up trash at that site or helped do all those streambank plantings and this is where we got people to commit to keeping things 35 feet away from the creek,” he said. “I can go over to Beaver Run up on the Montour Ridge where you can’t even see the projects from the road – you have to walk back to them.”

Benfer can rattle off countless stories about trash pickups over steep banks of Route 45 and efforts to plant trees and establish wetlands along stretches of the Chillisquaque Creek near Route 254 like they happened yesterday.

Unfortunately, he and his group are no longer able to do this work – the watershed association that started in 1999 with a $5,000 grant and a commitment from Benfer to clean up the extended watershed was forced to shut down in 2024 due to lack of active membership.

​Riverkeeper note: The following column was written by Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky. You can contact him directly via email. 

Bobwhite quail, after impact from a traumatic event, will call each other together into a tight grouping called a covey to regroup and fend off additional danger as a group. 

It was a phenomenon that always fascinated me growing up on a small game farm in central Pennsylvania. After the hunt when the quail that weren’t harvested that day were scattered, as evening approached, I’d hear an orchestrated symphony of “bob … bob-white” calls across my parent’s farm fields.

The birds used that call to gather before nightfall. They’d huddle together to share warmth and watch for predators.
I appreciate that instinct, and find myself bob-white quailing when tragedy strikes … when life throws a gut punch that leaves me or someone else in the immediate family reeling and we need to circle the wagons, pull away from the Matrix-like distractions of the external world around us and focus within.

My family had – and continue to navigate – one of those moments this holiday season. We unexpectedly lost my wife’s sister shortly after Thanksgiving and since then have been picking up the pieces, trying to figure out next steps for her two sons and how we all are going to manage the changes both immediate and long-term. 

​Our Middle Susquehanna Naturalist Calendar again offers a year's worth of nature-related dates, facts and other information to help better connect you to our natural resources. This includes expected sunrise and sunsets, moon phases, certain meteor showers, when various species are expected to be more active, wildflowers blooming, etc.

Included are ways for you to make and submit reports about your observations that can be used for citizen science, tips for nature journaling and information about the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association and Vernal School Environmental Education Partnership.

​The 20-mile-long Chillisquaque Creek may not be the largest Pennsylvania River of the Year finalist, but the tributary of the Susquehanna's West Branch is definitely symbolic of the greater river basin’s history, issues and potential to overcome those challenges with creative collaborative solutions, according to Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky.

“Many times, you look at the bigger Susquehanna River and can quickly get overwhelmed with the scale and scope of everything that needs to be done. However, when you focus on a snapshot like the Chillisquaque Creek and the key partners and resources available in this area, then recognition of something like River of the Year truly can make a difference,” he said. “We can showcase some incredible work that already has been done, shine a light on some of the bigger issues and how to maybe look at them a little differently and breathe life and key awareness into the groups and individuals that deserve a jolt of fresh air.”

The creek joins the Conestoga River and Lower Schuylkill River as the three finalists for the 2026 Pennsylvania River of the Year award. Voting is open through Jan. 16, 2026, with the winning waterway receiving specialized awareness and funding for a sojourn and other key projects and events.

​Sean Reese, Program Scientist of the Watershed Sciences and Engineering Program at Bucknell University's Center for Sustainability and the Environment has lived in the greater Chillisquaque Creek watershed community for many years.

​Recently proposed changes to the national Endangered Species Act could have devastating consequences to some of the most vulnerable species by weighing their value – and that of their habitat – against “economic impacts,” “national security” and other ambiguous and hard-to-scientifically quantify variables, according to various local environmental experts.

The Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Nov. 19, 2025, four specific rules that would alter how the Endangered Species Act is implemented in an effort “to strengthen American energy independence, improve regulatory predictability and ensure federal actions align with the best reading of the law” according to a press release from the federal agency.

Public comment is encouraged on these proposed changes through Dec. 22, 2025, by going to each of the following four links:

• Endangered and Threatened Species: Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat
  
• Endangered and Threatened Species: Interagency Cooperation
  
• Endangered and Threatened Species: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants
  
• Endangered and Threatened Species: Critical Habitat​

“The proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act could have devastating consequences for listed species by weakening federal protections,” said Amber Wiewel, of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and Pennsylvania’s Bird Atlas Coordinator. “These changes will create loopholes that industry groups would use to their advantage to prioritize development and other economic factors at the expense of some of our most vulnerable plants and animals.”

Montour County solicitor Mike Dennehy responded via email on Nov. 24, 2025, to the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association's letter submitted at the Nov. 18, 2025, Montour County Commissioner meeting, concerning details for a rezoning hearing for Talen Energy, which requested parcels of land currently zoned agricultural and semi-public be rezoned industrial.

The hearing "is a legislative hearing, not a quasi-judicial hearing," he shared. An agenda will be shared on the county's website well in advance of the hearing, which was scheduled for Dec. 17, 2025, but will now be postponed until late January 2026 after county commissioners unanimously voted on Nov. 25, 2025, to move it after a request earlier that morning from Talen Energy's attorney, Erich Shock. A reason for postponing the hearing was not provided.
​
According to Dennehy, when the hearing does happen, there will be a record made of it, and the comments and recommendations received from the Anthony Township Supervisors and the Montour County Planning Commission will be placed into the record at the hearing.

The Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association submitted a public request for better clarification on the definition for the Dec. 17 public hearing/meeting of Talen Energy and the Montour County commissioners in relation to a rezoning request impacting upwards of 1,300 acres from agricultural to industrial use.

​The request came via a letter handed to each of the commissioners during their monthly meeting on Nov. 18, 2025, with a short verbal explanation of what was in the letter, that it would be asking for a true definition of whether this would be a public meeting, a quasi-judicial hearing or some other sort of gathering and how that was defined under the state's Municipalities Planning Code (MPC).

That definition would then, per the MPC, dictate how people can participate in the meeting so that their voices are heard and properly added to the record. It was explained that in the letter, additional concern was shared about the concept of pre-submitted written comments and questions and that the MPC doesn't define these under things like quasi-judicial hearings and there was concern those voices would not be included. 

​Eureka Resources started removing wastewater from its Second Street, Williamsport, site on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, according to Dustan Karschner, Environmental Protection Specialist with the Department of Environmental Protection.

According to his inspection report, Karschner had stopped in for a follow-up inspection of the site to find out that three truck loads of fracking waste water were departing that morning for disposal with a total of up to six truckloads per day planned to be removed moving forward, transporting the wastewater to Kleese Disposal in Ohio, which is a permitted disposal site.