LRCA Conservation Corps
Who we are looking for
Volunteers are needed to help spread the word about the Mission of the Lackawanna River Conservation Association, “to promote the conservation and protection of the Lackawanna River and its Watershed Resources and to involve the community in activities that are beneficial to our river and its watershed”.
Upcoming events
Background and Purpose
- The Lackawanna River watershed covers 350 square miles in parts of 4 NEPA counties: Wayne, Susquehanna, Lackawanna and Luzerne.
- Over 250,000 people live and work in the Watershed.
- There are 41 municipalities and 13 school districts wholly or partly within the watershed.
- Twelve (12) Public Sewer Authorities operating fourteen (14) sewer treatment plants.
- Six (6) Public water supply treatment plants with over twenty (20) active and reserve water supply reservoirs
- Thousands of miles of local, state and federal roads.
- Approximately 20 thousand acres of abandoned mine lands.
- Over Seventy (70) square miles of our watershed is developed with impervious surfaces, roads, parking lots, and building footprints.
- Over 450,000 acres of natural lands are critical for preservation and conservation.
- Only 80 thousand acres are actually protected as state forests, game-lands, state and county parks, watershed preserves and privately conserved lands.
Our Goals
· Recruit and involve existing and new members with the LRCA to advance the LRCA’s Mission for proactive citizen involvement with watershed conservation and stewardship activities in every part of our beautiful Lackawanna River Watershed.
· Collaborate with local community organizations, local governments, businesses, and property owners to promote water resource stewardship activities and conservation practices.
· Work with members and stakeholders in each watershed District to identify local goals and opportunities to address specific watershed needs at the local level with linkages to the whole watershed.
· Identify opportunities to develop voluntary conservation easements with private property owners and seek out opportunities to acquire watershed resource lands for conservation, greenways and trails through the Lackawanna Valley Conservancy or other appropriate agency.
· Promote the adoption of low impact development and green infrastructure practices by municipalities, businesses, developers and homeowners. Create a trained group of corps volunteers to proactively participate in the planning, subdivision and land development process in each district municipality.
· Support the development and operation of forward looking stormwater management authorities to better manage our water-related infrastructure, our creeks and river.
· Collaborate with public water utilities and first responders to promote effective source water protection capacities in all Lackawanna Watershed districts.
· Train and mobilize citizen environmental monitors to conduct monitoring on a range of environmental factors in collaboration with LRCA research and monitoring programs.
· Establish local conservation corps stewardship teams to conduct hands on work such as trail building, streambank restoration projects, tree planting, trash and litter pickup and seasonal maintenance at LVC owned conservation preserves.
· Encourage an ethic of water resource conservation with the next generation of informed and proactive conservation leaders across the Lackawanna Watershed.
LRCA Conservation Corps Districts
1. The North Pocono Watershed District:
3. The Scranton Dunmore Metropolitan Watershed District:
2. The Lower Lackawanna Watershed District:
· The North Pocono Watershed District is located east of the Moosic Mountain range. It contains critically important source water protection areas for the Scranton /Wilkes-Barre water supply. The LRCA supports the protection of extensive tracts of forested wetlands and conservation lands along the Moosic Mountains and surrounding the reservoirs along the headwaters of Spring Brook, Roaring Brook and Stafford Meadow Brook.
· There are important opportunities to develop greenways and trails to provide recreation for local residents and visitors to Northeast Pennsylvania.
· The Lackawanna Valley Conservancy is available to work with property owners to create conservation easements or to hold title in property for long term recreation and conservation management in collaboration with other agencies.
· The Conservation Corps can help promote better water shed steward practices that encourage better development along appropriate areas of commercial zones along major state highways.
2. The Lower Lackawanna Watershed District:
3. The Scranton Dunmore Metropolitan Watershed District:
2. The Lower Lackawanna Watershed District:
· Includes Taylor, Old Forge, Moosic, Avoca, Dupont, Duryea and parts of Hughestown, the City of Pittston and Pittston Township.
· Natural features include Coxton Point where the Lackawanna River confluences with the North Branch of the Susquehanna River between Duryea and the City of Pittston. Also adjacent to the confluence at Coxton Point is a large Mountain ridge known as Campbell’s Ledge which features a dramatic rock escarpment where the mountain drops off to the floor of the valley. This feature forms the northern portal of the Wyoming water gap where the Susquehanna river enters the Lackawanna /Wyoming Valley. Campbell’s Ledge is also the southern end of the West Mountain range.
· Man Made features in the Lower Lackawanna area are dominated by the orange staining of the Riverbed form Iron Oxide deposits that precipitate out of the 80 million gallons of mine water that flow into the Lackawanna from the Old Forge borehole and Duryea Breach, Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) outfalls. Also notable features around the Confluence are extensive flooded sand and gravel quarry pits. Known as the Duryea Swamps they form extensive manmade aquatic habitat features.
3. The Scranton Dunmore Metropolitan Watershed District:
3. The Scranton Dunmore Metropolitan Watershed District:
3. The Scranton Dunmore Metropolitan Watershed District:
· Scranton and Dunmore are part of the most intensely urbanized parts of the Lackawanna Watershed. Major issues are Stormwater Management and Flood Control; Completion of a $140 million dollar program to reduce and eliminate Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO’s); Completion of the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail and Greenway; Strategic acquisition of River Corridor Properties and More open space acquisition and watershed protection; Expansion of Keystone Landfill.
· Major Natural features include portions of the Moosic and West Mountain ranges, Cobbs Gap and Leggetts Gap; The Nay Aug Gorge and Roaring Brook Falls; and the Dunmore Heath Bald on Moosic Mountain.
· Major cultural features include the downtown Scranton Business and Cultural district, the Everhart Museum, Steamtown National Historic Site the Catlin House and other architecturally significant homes and buildings;
4. The Mid Valley/Valley View Watershed District:
4. The Mid Valley/Valley View Watershed District:
3. The Scranton Dunmore Metropolitan Watershed District:
· This area includes the Boroughs of Dickson City, Throop, Olyphant, Blakely, Jessup and Archbald.
· After the Scranton metro area it is the most urbanized area of the Watershed. Man Made features include the shopping and industrial areas along the Scranton Carbondale and Casey Highways that now include several gas turbine electric cogeneration plants and the built out residential and commercial areas of the Mid Valley towns. Other notable Man Made features include extensive areas of abandoned mine lands with culm dumps and strip mined areas.
· Important natural features include the ridgetops of the Moosic and West Mountains. These ridgetops host globally rare pitch pine /scrub oak dwarf tree forest communities and Appalachian heath bald communities. The ridgetops have been prioritized for conservation in the Lackawanna/Luzerne Bi County conservation Plan. Other notable natural features include the Glacial Pot Hole in Archbald and the Class “A” wild trout fishery in the Lackawanna River.
5. The Abingtons Watershed District:
4. The Mid Valley/Valley View Watershed District:
6. The Carbondale/ Lakeland Watershed District:
· This district includes portions of South Abington, Newton, Ransom and Scott Townships and Clarks Summit and Clarks Green Boroughs that lie along and to the west of the West Mountain Range.
· Man Made features include roadway, commercial and residential areas in the central portion of South Abington and Clarks Summit/Clarks Green. The area has transitioned from agricultural uses to suburban and commercial uses over the past 50 years.
· Important natural features include the West Mountain Ridge lines, the Summit of Bald Mountain and “The Notch” also known as Leggett’s Gap, a narrow rocky water gap where Leggetts Creek cuts through the west Mountain towards the Lackawanna Valley. Numerous wetlands and water supply reservoirs serve as sources for Leggetts Creek. In the northern end of this district Heart Lake is the source of Rush Brook, which flows through Rushbrook Gap towards the Lackawanna Valley at Jermyn.
6. The Carbondale/ Lakeland Watershed District:
4. The Mid Valley/Valley View Watershed District:
6. The Carbondale/ Lakeland Watershed District:
· This area includes the City of Carbondale, The Boroughs of Jermyn and Mayfield, Carbondale and Fell Townships and portions of Greenfield Township to the west and Canaan Township to the east.
· Man Made features include: The historic fabric of the downtown commercial areas and residential neighborhoods in Carbondale City and the Boroughs of Jermyn and Mayfield. These communities are surrounded by several thousand acres of reclaimed and un-reclaimed abandoned mine lands; remnants of the D&H Gravity Railroad and related rail and mining industry sites with important cultural values.
· Natural features include: Salem Mountain along the ridgeline of the Moosic Range to the east of Carbondale; Scenic waterfalls at Fall Brook and at Panther Bluff Creek; The Class “A” wild Trout Fishery along the Lackawanna River.
7. The Forest City Headwaters District:
7. The Forest City Headwaters District:
7. The Forest City Headwaters District:
· This area includes portions of Clinton, Mount Pleasant and Preston Townships in Wayne County; Vandling Borough in Lackawanna County; Forest City and Uniondale Boroughs and Clifford, Herrick, Ararat and a very small portion of Thompson Townships in Susquehanna County. This 70 plus square mile district holds the source waters for the East and West Branches of the Lackawanna River.
· Manmade features include the Stillwater Dam operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers at the confluence of the east and west branches of the river immediately south of Uniondale. The Salem Mountain Wind Farm, a 53 unit wind turbine electric generating facility along the summit of Moosic Mountain from just east of Carbondale to the ridgeline east of Forest City.
· Natural features include: the Stillwater Gap a water gap where the Moosic and West Mountains diverge to form the east and west flanks of the Lackawanna Valley and where the Lackawanna River flows off the Allegheny Plateau into the Lackawanna/ Wyoming Valley Syncline; Mount Ararat, at 2656 feet above sea level, the second highest point (after nearby Elk Mountain at 2680 feet) between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers in Pennsylvania and the eighth highest elevation in Pennsylvania.