Latest / Clean Water Conversations / Episode 2 with Lamonte Garber

Transcript

Episode 2 with Lamonte Garber · Clean Water Conversations

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone and welcome to Clean Water Conversations, the podcast where we have casual discussions about creating clean and clear waterways right here in Langster County.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Ken.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm Alison.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Allison, the train keeps it rolling.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: Here we are.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're back again.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we've had we had a lot of really good feedback about our first two episodes.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: I love all the questions.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: And people say, Wow, you have a podcast.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great thing.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you what, if you if you folks you can contribute to our podcast, if you have feedback, suggestions, questions, what have you, hit us up at infolangstercleanwaterpartners.com.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh maybe if maybe if we get enough feedback, we can, you know, have that have that little mailbag section and you know kind of uh address your questions or what or what have you uh yeah on on the podcast.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that you know fun things to talk about.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the questions that we got is why are we doing a podcast?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, the short answer, of course, it's it's all about storytelling.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's a lot of successes that are happening in Lancaster County and being able to tell those stories with the different voices, highlighting the different kinds of partner organizations, emphasizing the importance of so many values, perspectives, backgrounds, priorities.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: Those are the stories that really come to life with our partners and the projects that they're doing.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: So the podcast is one way for us to make sure that those voices get out to a new audience.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: So we're glad you're all here and eager to hear more.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: And in large part, I think it's a it's a celebration of the successes of the work that are being done.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and Lancaster's work, it we're focused on Lancaster's waterways, but how that impacts a bigger community, a bigger watershed is a really, a really cool piece of what's happening in Lancaster.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: And a podcast is a way to do that too.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: The the splash is much bigger.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot more fun, I think, in in many ways.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it's it's cool to hear the the um it's hearing right from the story makers, is the little note I wrote down there.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and um and in the course of doing that, uh, if you've if if you haven't listened to our show before, that we have a rule against unexplained acronyms because the conservation world uses a lot of acronyms.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And not everybody explains that I but not everybody understands those.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm one of them.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we make them into words themselves.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that is that is very true.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: That is very true.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a rule uh in effect for the show, and it's if one of our guests or even one of us uses We're guilty too.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we are.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uses an acronym and doesn't explain what those letters mean, then we'll hear this.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'll stop everything and ask them to explain what those letters mean.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: We need context.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and our guest this week was very, very good.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Not yeah, not buzzed, yeah.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: So this week we're really excited to be able to bring a rock star in the conservation world, Lamont Garber with Stroud Water Research Center is here.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: And we're excited to share his stories with you today.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: Here we go.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we are sitting here chatting with Lamont Garber from Stroud Water Research Center.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being on the show.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, Lamont.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Great to be here.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the invitation.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now we always start off these conversations with an icebreaker.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: So your icebreaker question is if you could choose any two famous people, living or dead, to have dinner with, who would they be and why?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would have to say that the first person sitting at that table would would be Ruth Patrick.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: She's no longer with us, but and I never got to meet her.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I so wish I would have.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: She uh she founded Stroud in 1967.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ruth Patrick was a limnologist, a botanist, limnology is the study of fresh water.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And she was a botanist, she studied diatoms, uh, which are really interesting algae that live throughout our streams and in our oceans.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ruth was a force of nature.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: She was a scientist who published more than 200 studies.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: She started research institutions in a number of places uh at the Academy of Natural Sciences, but also the Stroudwater Research Center in Avondale, Pennsylvania in 1967.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And she uh was a scientist at the top of her game at a time when there were very few uh women in science.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and not only did she make her way as a scientist, she she dominated the field of ecology for a number of years.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: She was she was called the den mother of ecology.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would want her at the table.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: The other person, which uh totally different field, I just I like jazz.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And there is um a musician.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Her name is Alison Miller.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I like her already.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you would love this person.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: She is also a force of nature in her own way.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: She's a percussionist.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, let's face it, there aren't a lot of women in jazz, uh, particularly as instrumentalists.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Alison, I just found out a friend of mine shared a podcast with me interviewing Alison Miller because one of her recent projects was called Rivers in Our Veins.
• 6:13
  unknown: Oh.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was immediately interested, like, hmm, is this woman just talking about rivers kind of symbolically, metaphorically?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, turns out she was all about watershed protection.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had to listen to this album of hers.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I go on Spotify, and don't you know the album cover is a picture of Pennsylvania with the Susquanta River and the Delaware River right in the middle.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: The two watersheds we work most uh intensively on.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Stroud is, you know, globally active, but our backyard is the Delaware Bay and its watershed and the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this jazz musician who's assembled all these amazing musicians and she features the Susquehan and the Delaware.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then just to hear her talk about why she's into rivers uh was so inspiring.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So to have, and I'm gonna get to see her and play in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: Oh we're gonna send you with an invitation to say, would you like to come perform at the time?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: While you're at it, you can be on the podcast too.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I wouldn't even need to say anything.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just to have Ruth and Alison there, I think they'd just explode and they'd love each other.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's sounds amazing.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's a fantastic answer.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um now if uh there's probably not a whole lot of people in the conservation world that don't know you, but uh explain what what you do at at Stroud and um and then after that, how did you get interested in the conversation conversation conservation world?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: I can speak.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I work at the Stroud Water Research Center in their restoration department, watershed restoration.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh my main uh work objective is to take the science, the the stream and river scientific studies and findings that happen at Stroud and at other institutions that study watersheds and streams and get them out to the landscape where they can do good.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I work with a lot of farmers, but other community members, uh, primarily in southeastern Pennsylvania, on water-friendly landscape management.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's like the broadest description possible of the amazing work that you do and landowner relationships you've built.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that is kind.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, it is a bit of uh a challenge to try to boil it down for people when they ask what I do, because it is a a bit of a um a w a broad topic.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: So what's your intro at a holiday party when people say what you do?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So the good thing is that now that I work at Stroud, I can more clearly just focus on waters and watershed protection, streams and rivers.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: In the past, I I had to talk about manure management more than what a typical cocktail party might provide a good platform for.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been able to drop out the manure and now focus more on water.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And make sure people can dinner dinner time talk.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or the host will try to shift the conversation away pretty rapidly from Garver at the end of the table.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: So uh your astronaut now, uh, where were you before?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I worked uh for quite a few years at Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Pennsylvania office of Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're based in Annapolis, but they have a Pennsylvania office in Harrisburg.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Susquehanna River is an enormous uh supplier of fresh water to the Chesapeake Bay, and so um we worked, we worked with landowners in that central Pennsylvania part of the world on the Susquehanna.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I moved from Chesapeake Bay Foundation uh over to Stroud in 2014, but do very similar work.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: Happy anniversary.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 10 years as of this month.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Ten years flies by.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Listeners, don't blink.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Your life is passing you by.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Try to do as much as you can with it.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Lamar Count things in water years.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um now you're now you're with Stroud.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: Stroud does uh focuses on water.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that you do to try and clean up the water is a lot of riparian buffer work.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Which which I find a fascinating topic.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um first off, can you explain what a riparian buffer is and why is it beneficial to the water?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people get stumble on that term riparian.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a familiar term to a lot of people, so we often say streamside because riparian refers to that area of land right adjacent to a stream or a river.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Another way of thinking about it is the floodplain, the near stream or near river floodplain.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so a riparian forested buffer is a band of trees that we plant, native trees and shrubs that we plant uh along the banks and out 35, 50, 100 feet from the edge of that stream or river, ideally on both sides.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: What we're trying to create is a targeted uh small but critical forest that's winding along a waterway as it moves down the valley to provide a protective life support system for that waterway.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it it uh people could think about it as just a narrow band of forest that is providing some protection to the to the stream from all the human activities that might be happening on the land that aren't so good for a stream or a river, if that makes sense.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: It does, it does.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it keeps people out of that area.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: It creates space from human activity, including agriculture, buildings, pavement.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: It creates some space between the waterway and all of us, right?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: But then it's it's filling that space with an incredibly uh powerful uh restorative uh land cover that every stream in Pennsylvania needs.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: You brought some props.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Did you want to address them?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So Ken, can you tell me what these two things are?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: The one on the right is a uh Swiss Army knife.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the one on the left uh looks like a light.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like a little flashlight.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little it's a little light that I clip on my on my clothes when I go running at dark they're dark.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: How are these two things different?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So again, it's a Swiss Army knife and it's a little flashing running light.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they're different in their function.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Talk more about that.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the Swiss Army knife.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you you wouldn't be able to screw in a screw with the light, but the Swiss Army knife has a screwdriver head there.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um but also a knife, also a can opener, also a small scissors, right?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the light, it has a single function, a really important function.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps my life depends on that function, right?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: But it only does one thing.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: The reason I brought these is that um these forests that we're planting along streams are are unique in terms of water quality practices in that they have so many benefits.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they truly are a multifunctional tool versus a single use tool.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so many benefits.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: We all know that it's important to plant trees all over the place in our cities, in on our farms, uh on abandoned strip mines.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Trees have so many benefits for the climate, for wildlife, for the soil.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: It just goes on and on.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you take that tree and you plant it beside a stream, it's like those benefits just get multiplied, you know, threefold.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're cooling the water down with the with the shade of the stream, you're dropping leaves in the in the creek that the critters eat.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: You transform the stream, the physical stream bed of the stream to be more structurally sound.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it I I like to, when people ask me about why Stroud Water Research Center spends so much time and energy planting trees along streams, and we do a lot of other practices too.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a single bullet solution, but it is hard for us to come up with a with a better use of our time and money than getting forests re-established along our waterways.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I carry a Swiss Army knife around.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's it to me, it symbolizes just how multifunctional these trees and shrubs are.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: That is an amazing illustration.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: That is fantastic.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's the storytelling aspect of it, and that's a great way to tell it.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll we'll have a picture of the Swiss Army knife and the and your jogging light in the episode notes.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: So be on the lookout for that as well.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: And Lamotte I've heard you and landowners talk about the importance of that space, but also as a space that maybe they didn't realize or remember could be used by them by the wildlife.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they talk about hunting, they talk about putting a picnic table there so that they can access it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: So what's the what is the kind of happy medium of that?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because we really are not trying to create a space that pushes people away from their stream or river, right?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: We want them to get even more connected to this waterway that might be flowing through their yard or their pasture or their city.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and in in many ways, we hope, with like that picnic table, perhaps a trail, or simply creating a beautiful, small but powerfully beneficial forest that's actually inviting for humans, right?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is going to help the fish.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe the anglers are gonna be happier.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: The kids are gonna be able to catch turtles and frogs again and hopefully swim, right?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: If it's safe.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that not only is the water cleaner for downstream communities that are receiving that water as it flows down the valley, but we're also creating resources that the people who actually live on that property can maybe enjoy it in new ways for the first time.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: As one of those many ways that people use that space.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: And you talked about maybe a new way is that an old way of foraging.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: I'm thinking of like multifunctional buffers.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: And how how prevalent are those?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: How much do people look at that space as an economic opportunity or as a way to maybe it is important to their family legacy that their kids can safely harvest from their own land again?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: What how do those conversations go?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's so these trees and shrubs that we plant, and they're all native to Pennsylvania, but many of them are fruit and nutberry, not all of them, but um, in some cases, as those plants grow, they will provide some things that people can eat.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Elderberry to make jam, service berries, which I think are just as delicious as blueberries, right?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hazelnuts, walnuts.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was just talking to a guy yesterday who taps his black walnut trees to make syrup.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, wow.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Just like maple syrup, just stronger flavored.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, there's there are products that can come out of these woods if people are interested in that.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, just last year, for the first time, we planted three different sets of these buffers that are really best understood as agroforestry installations, because these farmers specifically want to harvest hazelnuts, chestnuts, willow to feed their livestock.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So they're actually buffers um that are going to be integrated into the farming operation.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's at one end of the spectrum.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: We we then have sort of that wild but fun um mess of different kinds of edibles that someone might just want to have take their kid or their or their family members down and just forage, as you said, right?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um but there's also people that really are interested in hunting and they want to bring wildlife onto their property for that.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: There are, I work with some Amish farmers that are beekeepers.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: They want that buffer for the pollinator value.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and then there's other people that just love trees.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: They just want to look at trees growing down in their meadow and know that they're they're taking this very important step that's going to improve their stream.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's great.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: We come back to a meadow again.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you love a good meadow.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: So keeping with our theme of buffers here, you have really led a collaborative effort for a pretty massive buffer at Overlook Park.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: Can you give us some of the history and why it brings you such joy?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: So um the buffer work that Stroud is doing and a bunch of other partners in Lancaster County.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of partners with that project.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And there's there's there's different organizations that are planting these trees just like we are, because it is such an important practice.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we meet, uh, Allison, you pulled us together several years ago, uh coalescing into the buffer action team, Langster Buffer Action Team, just so we can coordinate, work together, not duplicate, and just get as many of these trees planted as we can.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, remember some of those first conversations were mainly about how to not pull volunteers from the same watershed on the same day.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: Because there's so many people that's interested and there's so much such demand.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's great to have that continue.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we're doing all these great projects, but because probably 80 to 90 percent of these tree plantings are happening on farms on the back 40 that no one really sees.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Nature loves it because these biodiversity hotspots are getting planted in areas that really need more trees and shrubs, right?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: But no one sees them in the general public.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so we started talking as a group about how could we Get more of these buffers out in front of people so that they're understanding this revolution that is happening on the landscape.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, How about Overlook Park?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's this little park in the middle of Langster County in Manheim Township.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And another one of our colleagues, Ryan Davis, thought, okay, he reached out to the township.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: They said, sure, we've got eight acres that you can have along this little stream in Overlook Park.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we were off to the races.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we uh the first three acres were planted by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, with all of us volunteers helping.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: We took over the the second half of the project, another five acres of planting, and it has turned into a community gathering place.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: It really has.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Churches are involved.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Alliance's riparian rangers program are involved to help us with the maintenance.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And one other thing that we're doing there that is so much fun is that it's giving us space to really stretch out and fill that wetland area around that stream with as many different species of trees and shrubs and wildflowers that we can because we know that it's going to be a place that people can come and get up close and personal, and we want to show them the absolute best of the best.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's Overlook Park.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh please come out and visit.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's on Granite Run Drive off Rootville Pike.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great spot.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: And you can walk from the library, you can include your happy hour while you're there at Stoner Grill.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's always a good reason to get volunteers.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, we can have a picnic.
• 23:39
  unknown: Good.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now I was kind of curious because I'm this precedes me in the conservation world.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: What was there before?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Way back before the park had had sort of annexed that area into the original footprint of the park, it had been a tree nursery.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this is interesting because that nursery, like many nurseries across North America, planted a lot of calorie pear.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Calorie pear is that fruiting pear that so many people have planted in their suburbs and cities because they like that flush of white flowers in the spring.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: We now know that the calorie pear, not only is it a terrible pear because it's weak-jointed and it it loses limbs in the city.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's the it's not ideal.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: But from an ecological standpoint, it is a very invasive tree.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can drive down highways between here and Maryland, and the median is filled with calorie pair, not because they were planted, because they just moved in.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one thing if it's in a high highway median.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite another if that tree is moving into our natural forests and displacing native understory plants.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so, all that's to say, to get back to your question, Allison, um there was a nursery there.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: The nursery is gone, but a lot of those remnants, some of those invasive plants that we now know we really shouldn't be planting, they are there on site.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And what that means is not only do we need to plant there at that site, but we've also got to work at re trying to manage the invasive plants that are there.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's it's something that we're dealing with across Pennsylvania because we are ground zero for invasive species.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's just part of what we need to do on these sites.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's a whole nother topic that we can get into if we have time.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that I'll just call out another partner that's right there is the Mannheim Township Historical Society.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: And so just Ben Weber and his work within the municipal person from the municipal perspective and the historical society's passion about Mannheim Township.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: I just love seeing all those kind of conversations.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: We have to come together there.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: It is amazing to me that and and we kind of touched on it a little bit here, is the number of organizations that are working together for the same, the same cause.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're all working together to clean up the waterways.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, that I think that's part of why we're doing this podcast is to tell those stories and to and to you know share the success of all of the things that are being done to try and meet these goals for clean water.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: Lamont, thanks for making that overlook park and the collaborative approach kind of the focus of the governing.com article recently.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: So a national audience is needs to and is hearing about the really cool work that you're doing.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you've been very involved there too.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is a collaborative effort.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Going off on a little bit of a different tangent, um, you were listed in 2023 as a good-natured Pennsylvanian.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell me about that?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's so appropriate.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well uh Yeah, that was an honor to receive that and so kind of DCNR, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well done.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Dodge the bullet, yes.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Acronym WATCH.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: And they uh they are a great partner and funder of our forestry work.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I think they're also on the lookout for people that are just working on this mission in different ways.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if perhaps one thing stood out related to my work is that I really enjoy that intersection of stream and watershed science and restoration, and the people that are both the managers of land, but also hopefully the beneficiaries of cleaner water.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy working with people, and I particularly enjoy the process of going into a watershed, and a watershed, again, is that is that area of land that drains into a particular waterway, right?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that watershed might be a tiny little stream that flows through a neighborhood.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I just find it challenging and just endlessly interesting to be working in a neighborhood watershed like that, which means farmers, homeowners, some business people, and introduce this idea to them that the stream, while there's there's larger forces at at work that are out of their control that are affecting that stream, so much of the quality of that little creek is in their hands, right?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we as experts, and I can bring a lot of of ideas and scientific findings that that we've work been working on at Stroudwater Research Center.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can bring that kind of professional advice to the table.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: But we need people from every walk of life to actually embrace this mission and make it their own.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Take it away from the experts and own it and get excited about it because ultimately it is their little immediate resource that is going to be better in the future.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I just love that process of trying to move this out of the hands of the experts, the technicians like myself, and and kind of embed it into the community so that it's theirs.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that perhaps that came out in ways that led to this recognition.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_03: What a great way to describe it.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have tips and tricks for being able to connect with or start those conversations with agency level partners or and funders and regulators and then homeowners and farmers.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um we I just last week spent uh a day out with one of our funders showing her our work.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I really tried to get her face to face with the farmers themselves, right?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that she's not hearing from us.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: She she hears from us in our proposals and our reports.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: What does it sound like when this watershed work is actually translated through a an Amish dairy farmer with 45 cows, who is very has to be profit-driven, who has a longer to-do list than I would ever have.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's an endless amount of work that is on his on his plate, and yet he has the time to to work on this conservation and water quality stuff in the midst of his active farming operation.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's just a good example of that that funder and that farmer either at there at either end of the spectrum, you know, bringing them together, and and usually really cool things happen when that when when people get together like that, and then I can just step back and see how see how the conversation goes.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and pardon the the the little clicking and popping there.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: You can tell that Lamont is getting passionate about what he's talking about because he talks with his hands and and uh Right.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that would happen sooner or later.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: But it shows your passion.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the thing.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting on my hands now.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting on my hands.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: Never, Lamont.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: We need you, we need you actively working.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: Stay passionate, my friend.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Stay passionate.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now we have this 2025 deadline coming up.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think is the biggest opportunity that Lancaster has in front of us with those deadlines on the horizon?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Biggest opportunity in the short term is money, in my estimation.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of it suddenly available to us to use for really good stuff.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's quite a challenge to find the landowners and their properties that are ready to do the work so that we can actually put this money that's coming from the federal government, from the state government, to really good use quickly.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I would say um the biggest barrier there is something that's true in many parts of this country, but it's especially challenging here, and that is the the shortage of technical people who know how to build stuff, particularly on farms, who know how to design and engineer these practices that do so much for the water.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a shortage of them.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's a bottleneck.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we I think Allison and I and others are working to figure out how we can best open up this process so that this money can actually get out on the ground and get a lot of good stuff done in this short time frame where you have.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't know how long this money will be here for our use at this level.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: We we have never had this opportunity before in the 35 odd years I've been working on this issue.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that was one of my questions was you've been through a lot of these versions and kind of ups and downs of resources and changes in policy, and you've lived through a lot of different initiatives.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: So what's different this time around?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: I think you've you've shared comments about Lancaster's Lancaster specific approach, I guess.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so knowing 20 that 2025 deadline and this new version, new ish that we have here in Lancaster, what what's different?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: What's the For me?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: What is different is the focus you have brought to the table, Alison and Lancaster Clean Water Partners, uh that that lines up exactly with what I experienced working, have experienced working at Stroud.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that is that we need to clean up these big bodies of water that are downstream of us, and in our case it's the Chesapeake Bay, but the same is true for the Delaware Bay, for the Gulf of Mexico, you name it.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: We we clean up these big, important waterways that grab a lot of the attention by working all the way up in the headwaters of our streams.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's where the most cost-effective and beneficial work happens.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so that the the benefits are starting at the very tops of the watersheds and accruing downstream.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So another way of saying this is that we have to we have to walk and chew gum at the same time, in that the Chesapeake Bay needs help and Lancaster County is ground zero for the needed improvements to clean up Chesapeake Bay, but we have to do things in ways that are just as beneficial for our immediate streams and rivers up here, so that we're cleaning up our local waterways while while helping the Chesapeake Bay.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it seems like a no-brainer, but um, I think you have helped bring that into focus.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: The scientists at Stroud Water Research Center have been have been asking for this kind of focus for decades.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's it's really happening now.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's a I think that's a result of all the voices that came together to say, yes, we're focused on Lancaster's waters, and it will literally trickle downstream to improve the Chesapeake.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: But I think that those local voices, when we had an invitation to write the countywide action plan, making a focus or making it a priority to simply say, we're going to start in the headwaters first.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_03: Some of that was because it's a better investment because if there's a storm that comes through, you're not washing out something you just put in.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: But starting at the headwaters, you described it as it seems like such a simple thing, but I think that has held true for so much of the decision making then.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_03: And that then impacts the funders, that impacts where we go first for some of the conservation work.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_03: So that I give all the credit to the partners who helped write that document and the many voices that were in it.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you very much for bringing the science and bringing the the reality of the need for that too.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: I want to go back to something you said.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um you said that the Lancaster County is is ground zero.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I tell friends of mine who are really not in this world but are interested in it.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think the conservation world, meaning Yeah, and the water world.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Who who live here.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I tell them I don't know of a more important place in this country to be working on water than in Lancaster County.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is that the Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a national focus of the Clean Water Act, the Federal Clean Water Act's ability to actually clean up our waterways, right?
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's a huge laboratory for what we're trying to do.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Langster County, because of the number of farms, because of the number of people we have here, we just generate a lot more pollution down to the Chesapeake Bay than anywhere else in Pennsylvania.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're really pushing up against some of the constraints of the Clean Water Act and the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Can we use these tools?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can we use these regulations?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can we use the funding in ways that truly meet the expectation of the Clean Water Act that was passed back in 1972 with the mission of getting all of this nation's surface waters fishable, swimmable, and drinkable.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're a laboratory for trying to do that in a place where our waterways are stressed beyond most other geographies in this country.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I feel like this place is the most important anywhere in the country to be working on water.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we have come to the time in our show where we like to play a little game.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that little game is conservation lightning round trivia.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: You ready for this?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm suddenly sweating.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Is that is that being ready?
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: That appears to be a normal thing, a normal reaction.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: So uh basically, I will put 30 seconds on the clock, answer as many of them as you can.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: This we for this episode, we are taking that rule against unexplained acronyms, which you did very well on.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we're taking it to the next level.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: So here's the game.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you the acronym, you tell me what it stands for.
• 39:50
  unknown: Okay.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put 30 seconds on the clock, and here we go.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: First one, BMP.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: Best management practice.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: EPA, environmental protection agency.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, LFT, Langster Farmland Trust.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: That is correct.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: MS4.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Municipal Separated Storm Sewer System.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: How about CAP?
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: County Action Plan.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now we just ran out of time.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: You've gotten them all so far.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we are gonna continue through them because they're interesting.
• 40:32
  unknown: Okay.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: Countywide action, yeah.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: Countywide Action Plan.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give that to I'm gonna give that to you.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give that to you.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: How about ACAP?
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Agriculture Conservation Assistance Program?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yes!
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Very nice.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: How about NIFWIF?
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: I love the way you said it as a word.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_03: You didn't give the acronym.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, well, you know, it's it's the word in another one.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: We all use an acronym.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll also do that with WIP.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Watershed implementation plan.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: How about WWI?
• 41:14
  unknown: W.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: World Water Institute?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe somewhere, but it's World War I.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: I never said there were gonna be conservation related.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you let me down that nosing path and you just let me walk off the cliff.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna remember that.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_03: There's one more in that category.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: How about this last one?
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: T M N T.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: T M N T.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_03: Stick with the same category of non-conservation.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: Wait, no, I know.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Too much nonsense.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't know.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: I need help.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: Although appropriate teenage mutant ninja turtles.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Ouch!
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was specifically designed to elicit that reaction.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that is our show, and I want to thank Lamont Garber for coming and talking with us, especially about some of the projects that you guys are doing, and especially Overlook Park, which is a great example of uh the conservation work that is being done to clean up the waters here and subsequently in the Chesapeake Bay.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for all that you do and for uh spending your time with us this morning.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_03: And Lamont has been talking about how the planting season is already starting.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: So he's off and running for the for the 2024 year, it sounds like we're getting started with uh fencing out fencing to remove cattle from a stream uh starting Monday.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Lamotte.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: We will be back in a couple of weeks.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, take care.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_03: Bye-bye.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: Cleanwater Conversations is brought to you by Lancaster Clean Water Partners.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you have comments or suggestions on show topics, please contact us at infol at Lancaster Cleanwater Partners.com.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.