March Monthly Meeting to Feature Upper Loyalsock Creek Abandoned Mine Treatment Study

Susquehanna Chapter TU will be holding its March 10th monthly meeting at 7 pm as a Zoom meeting (link info, below). The first order of business will be the drawing for the prizes in the raffle to raise funds for our Veterans Service Partnership. The main program will be on a current study being done on Loyalsock Creek which has suffered from past coal mining pollution and atmospheric deposition impacts in its upper watershed. Shawn Rummel of the National Trout Unlimited PA Coldwater Habitat Restoration Program and Neil Wolfe of Hedin Environmental will be reviewing findings of a recent Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) study. The TAG study has performed a rapid characterization of several existing abandoned mine discharges (AMD) treatment systems, including a snapshot of water quality and biological assessment of Loyalsock Creek in the stretch just downstream of Lopez. The potential for rehabilitation of existing AMD treatment projects to further reduce metal discharges and improve the alkalinity and quality of water in the mining discharge streams will be discussed.

Partners in the program include Loyalsock Creek Watershed Association, Lycoming College Clean Water Institute, Susquehanna University Freshwater Research Institute, EPCAMR (Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mines Reclamation), and Sullivan County Conservation District.  Our interest in looking at ways to improve the water quality and habitat of this portion of Loyalsock Creek has increased following findings of recent research by Shannon White at Penn State University which provided new insight into how the main stem of Loyalsock Creek in the vicinity of Worlds End State Park is important to brook trout populations. After spawning in the fall, significant numbers of brook trout from the smaller tributaries of the Loyalsock were found to migrate down into the main stem in the winter months where there may be more food and suitable habitat. This leads to the realization that the main stem is an important movement corridor for “wild” brook trout, and that such movement of individuals in the population may help protect and improve genetic diversity and resiliency characteristics necessary to sustain viable populations of our state fish in this beautiful and scenic watershed

Please let us know if you would like to attend this meeting an we will give you the information needed to log into Zoom