Land trusts bring a community together for clean water in Lancaster, Pa.
June 3-11 is Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week, an opportunity to learn how we can play a part in preserving its future.
Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week began in 2016 as a way to celebrate the beauty, history and importance of the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed covers some 64,000 square miles, includes more than 11,500 miles of shoreline and 150 major rivers and streams, and more than 18 million people live within its boundaries. And the bay itself is the largest estuary — a partially enclosed body of water where fresh water from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean — in the entire United States.
The bay and its watershed provide countless benefits, from plant and wildlife habitat (including the iconic Maryland blue crab) to clean water for local communities, but the threats facing the Chesapeake Bay are also plenty. Direct threats like development, air pollution, chemical contaminants and agricultural runoff have combined with broader issues like climate change to place the health of the bay and its watershed at risk. Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week is an opportunity to learn how we can play a part in preserving its future.
Land trusts can play a crucial role in keeping watersheds healthy and clean, and the Land Trust Alliance is proud to support such organizations through the Chesapeake Bay Land and Water Initiative. For the accredited Lancaster Conservancy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, protecting or bringing back to health the 1,400 miles of streams and rivers in Lancaster County will benefit county residents through clean drinking water and continued economic and agricultural growth, as well as the broader Chesapeake Bay Watershed through which they flow.
The conservancy sits on the board of directors that oversees the Lancaster Clean Water Partners and the Lancaster Clean Water Fund — the LCWP has a goal to reach clean and clear water within the county by 2040.
Since 2019, the Lancaster Clean Water Fund has provided more than $6 million in financial support to 29 nonprofits and municipalities working on things like stream restoration, agricultural practices, education and stormwater management projects. The conservancy also started Lancaster Water Week as a way to bring the community together for clean water. With the support of numerous other organizations also working on water quality improvement, Water Week results in dozens of events that allow residents to paddle, explore and protect the county’s waterways.
“As residents of Lancaster County, we are blessed with incredible natural resources, but we must fight to protect them for ourselves and future generations. Our streams and rivers help define our landscape and are a key component of our community’s long-term sustainability,” said Lancaster Conservancy’s incoming president and CEO, Fritz Schroeder. “Water Week celebrates this resource and the many partners that are working toward clean water in our community, while providing solutions for everyone who wants to get involved.”
At a weeklong public art display in the heart of the City of Lancaster, the conservancy and the Keystone 10 million Trees Partnership gave away free native trees and shrubs to help residents create critical natural habitats on their own properties — helping to filter stormwater pollution before it reaches the county’s streams. These backyard native plant habitats are a way for residents to build on the watershed benefits being provided by the more than 10,000 acres of natural land the conservancy has helped protect since its founding in 1969.
Fellow Lancaster land trust, the accredited Lancaster Farmland Trust, who’s president and CEO is the current chair of the Lancaster Clean Water Partners board of directors, has taken a different approach to protecting water, working with farmers to develop strategies that will improve the impact they have on local water quality as well as the Chesapeake Bay through practices like manure storage units, grass waterways, streambank fencing and livestock crossings in waterways.
For example, the land trust worked with the 96-acre Stoltzfus Farm to improve several conservation practices leading to reductions in nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment in runoff. They also provided storm water controls and inlet protection to better control erosion. And on the 70-acre Fisher Farm and dairy operation, funding was provided for the construction of a roofed manure stacking structure, repair of degraded stream crossings and runoff controls.
“It is encouraging to see the engagement and willingness of farmers to implement conservation practices to mitigate the impact of agriculture on water quality,” said Jeff Swinehart, president and CEO of Lancaster Farmland Trust. “It is imperative we continue to see this level of action by Lancaster’s farming community because 80% of the pollutant reductions in the county are expected to come from our farms. If we fail to meet those objectives, the county will fail in its efforts for water quality improvement, and conversely, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will also fail in meeting its goals for the Bay. Farm families are willing to make the change, we need to ensure the technical and financial resources are available to meet their needs. The Stoltzfus and Fisher farms are great examples of the role a land trust can play in this effort — as a resource and partner for our farmers. Now, we need to repeat this a few thousand times over.”
For more information on the Chesapeake Bay, check out the Chesapeake Bay Program, a partnership between state and federal agencies, academic institutions, nonprofits (including the Land Trust Alliance) and others working to protect the bay and its watershed. And you can find out more about the Chesapeake Bay Land and Water Initiative here on our website. And maybe most importantly, you can find a land trust near you by checking out our Find a Land Trust tool.