Conservation Districts Discuss the Importance of Stormwater Management

This week, the winter meeting of the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts (PACD) is taking place in State College. Looking at the agenda, it’s great to see that the Department of Environmental Protection’s stormwater program and potential changes to it is one of the agenda items.

Stormwater is really everyone’s concern, because we all do things that can positively or negatively impact it. As a homeowner, if you put fertilizer or herbicides on your lawn, those chemicals can be washed away by the rain and end up in our streams and rivers. As a farmer, the way your till your field or whether or not you fence your cows away from streams can have a tremendous impact on nutrients and sediment getting into our waterways. As a municipal manager, the laws you put in place will determine what kinds of land uses go where in your community. It all adds up.

The state’s conservation districts help to educate farmers, homeowners, municipal officials, and others about how their actions impact the environment, and how they can be better stewards of the Commonwealth’s land and water. They are one of the first lines of defense.

LandStudies has worked with conservation districts in the past, and we look forward to the opportunity to do more stormwater-related outreach with them in the future. All citizens of Pennsylvania need to recognize their role in stormwater management and do their part to protect our valuable water resources. To learn more about LandStudies’ stormwater management-related projects, go to https://landstudies.com/portfolio-2/stormwater-management-bmps.