Alan Gregory’s Conservation News

Even if one could convince  a local reporter and his/her editor to pursue the story, it’s doubtful that any coverage would occur. After all, what happened last week with the local highway project is more important. And so are the latest complaints from the local political candidate. Hah, hah, hah.

I first visted the Valmont Industrial Park cranberry bog nearly 10 years ago. Took Ann Rhoads of Pennsylvania’s famous Morris Arboretum there. The Cranberry mat was just one of the big finds. There were also state-listed orchids and and a rare little butterfly closely tied to native cranberry plants. Ah, but almost nightly since then, the local all-terrain vehicle crowd has made a playground out of this natural, botanical hotspot.,

 “One night of destructive fun is all it takes to alter the course of nature in this otherwise peaceful place.  Local wildlife watchers say it is  the most egregious act of nature destruction” they’ve ever seen by off-road vehicles.

That’s bad press for a movement whose members claim to be responsible users of the land. Vehicles and their riders have trashed natural streams feeding the bog mat, rerouting the creek and damaging the little rivulets that give the bog its life-sustaininng water. Because of their power and speed, off-road vehicles can be wildly destructive to natural areas if their owners ride off-trail. Dirt bikers and ATV riders say routinely say they prefer to ride off established trails. Off-road use has been risin steadily across Luzerne County and natural areas take the hit. The evidence is everywhere in the county: rutted public roads, the spread of noxious weeds and alien plants, and the safety of children and of other trail users compromised.

I’ve been adding native plants to our nodest yard for more than a decade. I started with easy ones, like eastern white pine and paw paw. Why natives? Native plants provide natural and sustainable beauty and a welcoming habitat for birds, butterflies and other insects, ensuring a future filled with a healthy diversity of plants and wildlife. Well tes. And it is a big deal, you see, especially since narly all the rest of his wittle borough (burro?) has ben turned over to Japanese this and that and Norway maples and other nonnative plants. Throw in the ravages of suburban sprawl and one can quickly see what’s happening, to especially to the natives.

 In southern Luzerne County, Pa., the presently two-lane Route 93 will soon be a three-lane superhighway. Wildlife alreayd finds life within a mile of this highway to be rough going. Squirrels, woodchucks, raccoons, white-tailed der, American robins, grackels, wild turkey and all manner of smaller terrestrial critters are hammered on this highway and few motorists seem to realize the toll, much less their role in it.Ensuring high quality wildlife and fish passage options – both underpasses and overpasses - is not part of the plan, of course. Nearly all of Pennsylvania is roaded beyond belief and even the average state park here is a trap for wildlife.

Bad ideas, it eems, sometimes migrate to Wilkes-Barre to find a new life (or life of their own). So it is with the idea to dam the Susquehana River at the Luzerne County seat of government. Read why this is a supid idea right here: http://www.rayproffitt.org/wbdam.htm

Back in the late 60s, when I was still a year or so off from high school graduaion day, my brother and I moved irrigation pipe in a potatoe field. Every day we’d pile on his motorcycle and ride out to our employer’s spread near the Fort Hall Indian Rservaion (southeastern Idaho). It wasn’t easy work but after a few hours’ time, I had the routine down pretty good, learning in quick fashion how best to balance the pipe (with attached sprinkler head) on my arms next to my waste. Today, I can’t even remember how much we earned for this daily chore, but it was great fun and done at very little envionmental cost (a wittle bit of gas to fuel the motorbike) and all manual work upon arrival at the job site. Today, big farmers growng sugar beets or potatoes or other crops in Idaho and other dry-pone states depend not on teenagers to move their irrigaion equipment but on gaoline-powered lince machines. I wonder wat kind of cutbacks, if any, will take place as fuel prices continue their upward climbs. I still see folks who live a quarter-mile or so aay from me driving their vehikles to the church a 10rh of  mile away. An absolute waste, to be sure.

Backpacking List:   Not in any particular order, not all may be necessary.

TP

First Aid kit

Tooth brush & paste

Light nylon rope (for clothes line, etc.)

Flashlight

Extra batteries?

Tent & poles

Map

Water filter

Rain gear (Waterproof Gore-Tex jacket and pants)

Matches (or cig lighter)

Stove & fuel

Water bottle (with potable water inside)

Sleeping bag (for the season!)

Pad

Cup

Spoon

Pans

Soap

Pack

Mittens or gloves

Hat (shade & cold weather)

Sunglasses

Knife

Chap stick

Bandana

Mirror?

Watch

Wash cloth

Towel

Tape & blister pad

Sunscreen

Bug repellent

Boots

Socks (two or three pair)

Fleece jacket

Capilene tops & bottoms (Patagonia Polyester) light weight

Hiking shorts

Nylon tights

Car clothes

My adds below (I just reviewed a similar list)

Sunscreen (a tube/bottle not yet even close to its expiration date)

Compass

Hiking pole(s)

Trowel

Camp shoes

Hedlamp

Trashy novel (or collection of Ed Abbey essays) to read in twilight

Food

How best to launch a stream restoration and cleanup effort?in this case the goal was to restore and renew the health of Nescopeck Creek and its many tributaries. The Nescopeck’s watershed encompasses most of the southern one-third of Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The Nescopeck, in turn, is a tributary of the Susquehanna River. Much of the watershed’s upper, or eastern, end is protected within Nescopeck State Park and adjacent State Game Lands 187.

But its watershed and aquatic resources are dying. The reasons are much the same as those affecting streams in other rapidly urbanizing areas of the Northeast and Middle Atlantic regions: sprawl, nonpoint source pollution. But the lower reaches of the Nescopeck also are heavily polluted by acid mine drainage, or AMD.

Much, but by no means all, of the AMD pollution enters the watershed through the Jeddo Mine Tunnel, a massive underground system that drains nearly 38 miles of abandoned underground anthracite coal mines, many of them directly under the city of Hazleton. The Jeddo Tunnel sends an average of 50,000 gallons per minute of AMD in Little Nescopeck Creek, immediately killing the stream and its remnant population of eastern brook trout.

You can view a short film (45 seconds) at this Web site. And you can read a history of the tunnel and its designer, John Markle, right here.

Strategies for dealing with the AMD are many and include a hydroelectricity facility and passive wetland treatment systems.

You can read an overview of the Little Nescopeck Creek watershed management plan, prepared by the Wildlands Conservancy, of Emmaus, Pa., right here.

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For 7 years, Alan Gregory was a reporter, columnist and outdoors page editor for the Standard-Speaker, the daily newspaper in Hazleton, Pa.

He served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve for 27 years, first as a staff writer for the Tailspinner, the base newspaper at Lackland AFB, Texas. After completing Officer Training School thre  in 1979, he went on to Headquarters Air Force Reserve at Robins AFB, Ga., where he was a deputy media relations and community relations officer. He completed the former Air Force Short Course in Communications in 1982 at the University of Oklahoma and went on to Tinker AFB, Okla., where he was deputy Public Affairs officer for the 552^nd Airborne Warning and Control Wing, later 28^th Air Division, for three years. From there, he served as Chief of Public Affairs for the 8^th Tactical Fighter Wing (the Wolf Pack) at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, and Chief of Public Affairs for the 380^th Bombardment Wing (Medium) at Plattsburgh AFB, N.Y.

He transitioned to the Air Force Reserve in 1989, serving initially as a media relations officer at Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Offutt AFB, Neb., and as individual mobilization augmentee (IMA) for the Public Affairs office of the 416^th Bombardment Wing (Heavy) at Griffiss AFB, N.Y. He later moved to Air Combat Command headquarters at Langley AFB, Va., where he was IMA to the deputy director of Public Affairs for the command.

His journalism career spans 34 years and includes stints as a reporter and news editor on weekly newspapers in Idaho.

His military awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and the Air Force Achievement Medal. He was a first-place individual winner in the 1986 Pacific Air Forces newspaper contest and the “Wolf Pack Warrior” earned a first-place award that same year under his supervision and guidance.  He is a two-time first-place winner in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publisher Association’s Keystone Awards competition and is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and the Pennsylania Outdoor Writers Association and a former member of The Newspaper Guild.

Gregory holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Idaho State University and has completed graduate studies at the University of Oklahoma and the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. In 1998, he was named volunteer of the year in the science category by the Pennsylvania Chapter, The Nature Conservancy.

He left active duty at the end of 1988 to accompany his wife, who had joined the faculty at Penn State Hazleton as an associate professor of psychology. She now serves as the campus’s director of academic affairs.

He has been active in conservation for many years, doing volunteer work at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania, for the Adirondack Mountain Club in New York and the North Branch Land Trust, also in Pennsylvania. He founded the Council Cup Hawk Watch in Luzerne County in 1991 and was a regional editor for several years of the North Amercan Butterfly Association’s summer butterfly count program.

It has been a weird winter – for me, not the weather. A 2007 accident (e a bicyclist, me, vs.  a moving vehicle set ne up for a traumatic brain injury, lots of pills, plenty of doctors’ offices and hospital visits and a daily regimen of pills. Geez. In any case, I am walking lots (usually with Kestrel, our sheltie, at my side) and getting back on one of my three bicycles. Walking is great exercise, yet few neighbors walk beyond heir driveway and the morning newspaper. Walk a quarter-mile to the Catholic Church up the street? Are you kidding? An don’t even mention the post office (another Quarter-mile from were I sit. Gasoline could cost $5 a gallon and few folks around these sticks would hesitate a second before motoring again.  

Thank you one and all for your kind and thoughtful notes of encouragement. I have indeed impoved a great deal and have returned to walking Kestrel, our Shetland sheepdog. My best to everyone.