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Berks County Conservancy
By Producer, Kelly Meinhart
 erks
County is an interesting variety of landscapes, cultures, and
environmental challenges. I can say that, because I had the
rare opportunity of touring much of the county during my visit
with the Berks County Conservancy.
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began our adventure in the town of Reading, which is a unique
town in its culture and its location. The Conservancy office
recently moved into the downtown area of Reading, and is now
supported by a largely Hispanic community. The Conservancy sees
this as a challenge they are ready to commit to. While it is
often the case that environmental programs are offered in rural,
non-Hispanic communities - the Conservancy is taking on the
challenge of language and cultural barriers by developing bilingual
websites, video programs, community outreach projects, and more.
Joe Hoffman of the Conservancy notes, "It's so important
to me to reach out to the community to let them know that we
care. Many folks in the Reading area sustenance fish from the
Schuylkill River without even knowing about fish advisories.
This is something that I personally feel that I need to change.
It's not only an environmental issue for the community, but
a health issue as well."
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 oe
and I have talked about the language and cultural barriers that
we face in the environmental world, and if anyone can break
that barrier - I think it will be Joe and his dedicated staff.
 ur
first visit was to a local stream whose banks had been destroyed
due to upstream agriculture. The stream has been repaired using
natural stream design methods, and you can learn more about
it by watching the video clip of Tami in this feature.
 rom
there, we traveled to the east end of the county - near Kutztown
and Amish Country. That's quite a cultural swing from the town
of Reading - and only ½ hour or so away. Now, being a
Kutztown graduate myself, I didn't mind visiting my old stomping
ground. And as a matter of fact, the first site we visited,
the Edward Burkholder Farm on the Saucony Creek, took me right
past my college house. Anyway, back to the story. The Burkholder
Farm is in the completion stages of a stream-banking fencing
project. As you can see by the photos below, the stream was
in a dreadful state before the Conservancy and Trout Unlimited
got started. I had the pleasure of meeting with Leonard Good
from the Trout Unlimited Chapter who did much of the restoration
on the stream. The group has won several awards for their work,
and it shows.
 he
result of their hard work is a stream that is protected from
the tromping of the cows living on the farm. And I can attest
that those cows were stompers. I've never been afraid of a cow
until that day. Joe, Andy and I were taking a casual tour of
the fencing along the stream, checking out the different rock
veins and vegetation plantings, when we felt a rather unpleasant,
almost threatening presence….yes, a steer was quite annoyed
that we were visiting his site without HIS permission. Let me
just say, that it was the first time I've ever seen anyone (Andy)
'shimmy' as he says, under a fence to escape the wrath of a
piqued cow! Oh, these site visits are so tame sometimes!
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 oving
on…. From there I learned that of all the restaurants in
the Berks County area, the Yellow House is the best.
It's near Kutztown, just off of route 562 and 662. After our
big 'cow adventure' we needed a little break, and the Yellow
House was a treat!
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our next visit, things were much friendlier. We met up with
Marlin Stoltzfus at his family farm in Oley. Marlin grew up
in that house, and has been there ever since. As you can imagine,
the land and the waters that run through it are precious to
him. And so it wasn't a very hard decision for him to come to
in working with the Conservancy to protect the Limekiln Creek,
which runs through his property. He admits to being a little
skeptical at first, but is very happy with the results of the
project. In total, the streambank fencing has preserved over
5,000 feet of stream on Marlin's property, with another 2,500
to be completed in upcoming months. Be sure to check out Marlin's
interview before leaving this week's program.
he
Conservancy is not only working with local and statewide organizations
to restore the waterways in Berks County, but is looking out
for the individuals living within the county as well. Besides
its stream-bank fencing programs, the Conservancy is also involved
in: A project to protect 1,000 acres of open space surrounding
Lake Ontelaunee, protecting children from illnesses related
to fish consumption, developing comprehensive watershed education
within the Reading Area School District, protection efforts
for the Tulpehocken and Wyomissing Creeks, protecting land as
open space…and there's so much more.
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| Stream restoration, stabilization, and fencing
at the Edward Burkholder Farm located along the Saucony
Creek in Berks County. The Berks County Conservancy partnered
with the Tulpehocken Chapter of Trout Unlimited to complete
this project with a 319 Grant from the PA DEP during the
summer of 2000. |
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Congratulations to the staff at the Conservancy for the efforts.
If you'd like to learn more about the Conservancy and their
programs, contact Joe, Andy, or Tami at their office at:
Berks County Conservancy
25 North 11th Street
Reading PA 19601
610-372-4992 |
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