The Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association will hold its annual Quiz & Cuisine trivia night event on Friday, April 19, 2024, at the Montour Preserve from 6-8:30 p.m. 

This year's gathering will again feature an evening of random environmentally focus trivia with prizes throughout the evening and a meal provided by Graceful Catering (out of Middleburg).  

New this year at the event will be live music provided by Jack Servello and lyricist Bill Dann, the team behind popular Songs of the Susquehanna selections "Gentle Giant of the Susquehanna," "The Fish Fight Harder in the Susquehanna" and "Ole Susquehanna Sam." 

This is the first in what will be a series of stories called Headwater Heroes by Northern Tier Regional Director Emily Shosh showcasing numerous people who have been working hard behind the scenes to improve stream health in the vital yet fragile headwaters region of our watershed. You can contact Emily about this series at [email protected]

Our watershed has seen a multitude of challenges and triumphs, but one worrisome, nagging issue of the last few years is engaging and maintaining volunteers. Especially in smaller rural areas where the need for conservation work is ever-present but a large, resource-rich and environmentally engaged population may not be, this issue seems daunting to say the least.

Potter County is one of those rural headwater regions. 

Specific to the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, Potter County is home to the Kettle Creek, Sinnemahoning Creek, Cowanesque River, and West Branch Pine Creek sub basins. Potter County is also the home of Dr. Peter Ryan, who moved to Coudersport in 1976. Following his upbringing in the suburbs of New York City, the rolling hills and streams of "God's Country" quickly became his oasis and the origin of his lifelong love for fly fishing. ​

In the midst of mailings and Raise the Region social media posts, a cell phone call came in on the Riverkeeper line with an ongoing major pollution case in the northern section of our vast 11,00o square-mile watershed. 

It isn't a new issue, or unfortunately a small one. Sadly, it is a massively large, ongoing topic that we have been researching that is connected to numerous resources. In fact, there are many big topics right now on the front burner, things that are both time-sensitive and far-reaching. 

Lacking sleep and in desperate need of both vitamin D and a break, I decided it was time to leave the laptop for a few minutes and check on the small vernal pools on the outskirts of Sunbury that we have been monitoring the past couple years. 

Riverkeeper note: This story was written by Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky. He can be contacted directly at [email protected]

​Several years ago, Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper West Branch Regional Director Andrew Bechdel noticed signs around Spring Creek about the New Zealand mud snail, and the information piqued his curiosity.

“As an amateur naturalist and volunteer, I’ve worked with aquatic invasive species, such as water chestnut, and much of the rhetoric surrounding invasive species is similar – the lack of natural competitors, the quick reproduction, the ability to out-compete the native species around it,” he said. “However, I came across the name of Dr. (Edward) Levri in a Trout Unlimited Spring Creek chapter meeting and began learning more about him and the New Zealand mud snail and I soon realized what an incredible species it is.”

Levri did his graduate work at a PhD program at Indiana University-Bloomington, ultimately studying the mud snails in their native New Zealand habitat before taking a position as professor of biology at Penn State.