Upcoming and Recent USC Projects

Southern Tier Central Regional Planning and Development Board- has been awarded funds and a 2 year contract to develop a Susquehanna Chemung Action Plan: An Ecosystem Based Management Plan for the Susquehanna and Chemung Basins of New York. This grant includes funds for monitoring and data collection.

The USC voted to join Chesapeake Bay Coalition and to participate in the Choose Clean Water Campaign. Choose Clean Water, a campaign for the Chesapeake and all of its waters, will seek federal leadership to improve water quality in the hundreds of streams and rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Coalition and the members of its non-profit organizations will work with both the federal government and local communities of the 53 members of Congress that represent the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA) was started by 2 teachers to provide a program to students teaching hands on analysis of streams. The program focuses on middle school students monitoring chemistry, biology, and flow components of streams within walking distance of schools. The program spreads interest and capabilities of water quality monitoring. IWLA would like to expand programmatically and geographically to partner with the Upper Susquehanna Coalition and start monitoring before, during, and after a restoration effort in USC projects.

These strategies will include model codes for local planning agencies that include wetland protection and regulation measures that include a mitigation component and outreach to municipalities. USC will develop a catalogue of 25 potential wetland restoration sites that could be used for banking and also 20 "educational sites" for training municipal officials on how wetlands degrade. All aspects of this project will be a subject for college coursework or studies at either SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry or Binghamton University, as well as support NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's Susquehanna/Chemung Action Plan and the NY Strategy to meet Chesapeake Bay nutrient and sediment loads.

The USC received a Green Innovation Grant from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (NYSEFC) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The grant is for $736,000 and titled ‘Wetland Restoration in the NY Susquehanna River Basin' and will create 200 acres of wetlands by January 1, 2012.
|

Stream Program Projects

21 members of the Upper Susquehanna Coalition and partners attended a three day training geared towards developing Coalition member capacity in addressing watershed and stream resource management issues.  The first day of training provided methodology for developing watershed background reports and assessment methodologies to provide tools in determining how best to approach watershed problems and issues.  Additionally, participants were exposed to morphological features of different stream types to help determine the relative and comparative "health or stability" of the stream.  The second day of the training focused on field data collection and work up to verify those "morphological" features and how they relate to visual inspections.  The third day was spent introducing evaluation and predictive tools and utilizing them in the field.

The three day training is the first in a series of training events sponsored by the USC to create a group of individuals that can assist communities in better addressing stream channel and watershed management challenges in the region.