Riverkeeper's note: This column was provided by association intern Peyton Curley. You can contact her at [email protected]

As a high school student, I worried about not knowing what I wanted to do in the future. All my other classmates knew exactly what they wanted to major in, but nothing really stuck out to me. 

That is, until I took an environmental science class. I knew after taking this class that this is what I wanted to do. I loved learning about the earth and how everything was related to something else. I became passionate about advocating for the earth, because if humans continue down the path we’re currently on, the beautiful interconnectedness of the biosphere will be destroyed. ​

​While the Catawissa Creek may not have won the 2022 River of the Year contest earlier this year, partners who helped drive the vote for the only finalist in the eastern half of the state have decided to proceed with the celebration anyway.
​
“The process kind of sparked something within the creek’s watershed group (the Catawissa Creek Restoration Association) and the Columbia County Conservation District,” said district watershed specialist and educator Abby Sieg. “We didn’t need the recognition to celebrate this creek and raise awareness for the issues it faces, so we decided to proceed with the festival.”

(Thirty-five young people and their families participated in the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association's July 21, 2022, Waterway Exploration Training (WET) at the Montour Preserve near Washingtonville.

Participants were divided into groups and rotated each hour through three stations: A guided hike along the preserve's Goose Woods Trail with Montour Area Recreation Commission Assistant Director and Naturalist Jon Beam, an Enviroscape presentation about watersheds and pollution with Susquehanna University intern Peyton Curley and Trent Fessler and a stream health review studying macroinvertebrates in the Chillisquaque Creek along Goose Woods Trail with Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky, board member Doug Fessler and PA Master Naturalist volunteer Roberta Coulter.

Nearly 60 people participated in the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association's July 19 Floating Classroom aboard the Hiawatha Paddleboat in Williamsport, learning about the impacts of microplastics in our watershed and the science of fish anatomy.

​Armed with a $5,000 startup grant from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Services and a small group of volunteers, the Chillisquaque Limestone Watershed Association formed in Montour County and began meetings in early 2000 with a lengthy list of issues to address.

“The biggest concerns in our district are agricultural like streambank erosion and manure storage along with litter and trash dumps,” said Tom Benfer, the association’s president since its inception. “I said we should start work on Limestone Run first because I figured we could make improvements rapidly. Well, ‘rapidly’ took 20 years.”

The association’s efforts on Limestone Run, however, have exceeded even Benfer’s optimistic expectations.

The most recent Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association Floating Classroom session aboard the Hiawatha Paddleboat in Williamsport (held on Tuesday, July 12) delved into the rich history of coal mining throughout our region with renowned educator, historian and musician Van Wagner offering a multi-faceted session about what it was like as a coal miner in central and northeast Pennsylvania

Meanwhile, Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation Executive Director Bobby Hughes talked with participants about current efforts to remediate thousands of miles of streams impaired by acid mine drainage from a network of coal mines that were left behind by the industry.

Riverkeeper's note: This column was provided by association intern Peyton Curley. You can contact her at [email protected]

This summer, I got to be a team leader for the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association’s second annual Helping Engage our River’s Youth with Nature (HERYN) program. Ever since I began my summer internship at the MSRKA, I have been helping with preparations for the program. 

I really enjoyed the experience. Environmental education is a career path I have been thinking about pursuing recently, so this program was a great way for me to explore if this is the right choice for me in the future. 

HERYN is fishing and kayaking based for children ages 10-13. I had some experience kayaking, which I did every day at a summer camp I went to when I was younger. However, I had never fished before. On the first day of HERYN, I listened to the instructors Walt and Mike as they did the demonstration for the kids. I learned how to tie a Palomar knot, and how to cast my line. Then, later alongside my group, I got to catch my first fish. ​

​​With each step he backpedaled from the edge of the pool at the Central PA Wesleyan Campground near New Columbia, 13-year-old Mason’s eyes swelled with a new stream of additional tears.

“I – I can’t do this,” he stuttered before breaking down into a much more noticeable series of sobs.
​
It was Mason’s turn to practice some new skills taught at his Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association’s HERYN (Helping Engage our River’s Youth with Nature) kayaking and fishing program day. This included properly boarding a kayak located at the edge of the crystal-clear pool, paddling around for a few minutes to get a feel for the process, purposely flipping the kayak in the shallow end of the pool, testing how a life jacket feels and then getting back into the kayak from the water.