Pennsylvania River Town Outreach Corps

Early in the month I attended the PA Spring Into Savings Energy Seminar, which included a series of presentations and vendor exhibits from companies involved in incentive programs to help people think more wisely about their energy use. Even though I was clearly the youngest one there, and pretty much the only female, the event proved to be beneficial for our upcoming Sustainable Business Network project that I am helping to coordinate. I was given some good resources and information to compile for businesses in our River Towns to start thinking more about how they consume energy and the appeal that a “green” business may have on tourists in the area.
The Mon River Sojourn was a huge success this month. We had over 50 people in attendance and out paddling on the Monongahela River. All of the RTOC members were ‘safety’ boaters; we were helping to make sure everyone was together and accounted for. People on shore were curious as to why there were so many kayaks and canoes on the water. This was a site not seen often if at all. It was nice to know that we helped to put the sojourn together that made everyone’s heads turn that we passed by. There was a lot of positive feedback from the group that came along for the trip that day. A picture of me was even put in the local paper afterwards (shown below).
The Oyster Race took place in Pittsburgh this year, benefiting the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, so obviously we went to participate. After designing our matching “RTOC 4 Lyfe!” t-shirts, we headed to Pittsburgh with our bikes to race around the city completing tasks that really put your endurance to the test. Before the first course was complete, we had unfortunately already lost two bikes (Jeff’s chain and Jenna’s gears decided to bail on us). It was a lot of fun and a great team-building event. The bonus was that we got to help out our partners while they cheered us on every time we came back to base to reload.
In continuation of planning for River Fest in California, all of the Corps members went to Wyatt Park for a day in order to help open up view corridors to the river. Wyatt Park is situated right on the river, but it is hard to tell due to invasive trees and other plant life growing all over the fencing and hillside separating the two. We went in with gloves, hedge trimmers and handsaws to take them down. There was quite a bit of trash buried in with the mix as well. Some community members came by to see what we were up to and the borough came to help in cleaning up with a truck and a wood chipper; it was very helpful and nice to see the community supporting the work we were doing. There is still quite a bit more work to do in the park, but it is well on its way to being a nice place for people to sit and enjoy the river during River Fest later this summer.
In my free time I have been vigorously tending to my garden in our backyard. My squash is basically taking over the whole thing, as well as the tomato plants; I feel bad for my lettuce and onions. We had two new people move into the house this month as part of the Trail Town crew. The girls are great roommates and it’s been fun getting to know them. Sam, Ryan and myself took a mini trip to Presque Isle. It rained quite a bit but our camping spot was situated nicely under some trees so it was still a lot of fun. We got to swim for a bit in Lake Erie and bike around the island, which was pretty neat! My month concluded with Ryan and I going to see Modest Mouse in Pittsburgh at an outdoor venue. More fun times to come soon!

This month has been very busy for me, but not just because of work. We had our second Regional Action Town Meeting at the beginning of the month. We spent the beginning of that day cleaning up Central Park in Brownsville. We picked up trash, mowed the grass, cut back overgrowth, and removed invasive species and Poison Ivy. There was only a short amount of time between that work and our meeting, which focused on recapping town projects and providing resources for small businesses.
Later that week we had the Mon River Sojourn, an eight mile paddling trip from Rice’s Landing, up Ten Mile Creek, that ended in Fredericktown. I was sweep for the trip, so I got to stay in the back and take it slow, making sure no one got left behind or lost. It was a great sunny day to be on the water.
The following day I went to the Carnegie Library Summer Reading Extravaganza in Pittsburgh to promote the SCA and the River Town Outreach Corps. It was a fun day in the shade, talking to people about our program and promoting our towns, and outdoor recreation. I got to meet and talk to a lot of people about what we do, that I would have never met without the event.
RTOC as a whole did the Oyster Race in Pittsburgh. A long hot day for running and biking, we didn’t do too bad. We had 2 out of 5 bikes break, which left all of the biking legs to Sam, Marah, and Ryan. But they were champs, and at the end of the day we all celebrated the fun we had.
We did a clean-up in California, where we removed a lot of overgrowth and invasives to clear a view corridor to the river from the park and the road. It was impressive how much we were able to clear in one a few hours time. When we were done you were actually able to see that there was a river there.
I had family and friends visit at the end of this month. I got to spend a week being tour guide. We spent a lot of time at Ohiopyle swimming and eating. My Aunt and Uncle went fly fishing in Confluence, we floated down the Youghiogheny River, attended the Lavender Festival, visited the Flight 93 Memorial, and even played trivia and sang karaoke at a local bar. It was a long and exciting week that made me appreciate all that is available to do in this part of Pennsylvania.
As the summer gets hotter I find myself wanting to spend more and more time on and in the water. Taking advantage of biking the trail and finding places to go down and get in the Yough is essential, just like trips to Ohiopyle, and Ligonier Beach. Though I can’t deny that I’m excited for a trip back home to NJ in July and a visit to the beach and my own hometown river waters.

At the very start of the month was the Pike Run Community Night in California. Geology students from California University had been conducting stream studies throughout the semester and presented on their findings on the quality of the water in comparison to the surrounding landscape. When school begins again, we will be coordinating a stream clean up of Pike Run (a tributary of the Monogahela) with the Geology club to maintain the quality of the stream.
We took a hike on the Warrior Trail for work one day to familiarize ourselves with this great amenity to the region. In hopes to further promote the trail and see what trail work we could do in the near future, we were able to complete 3 miles of the historic route. Unfortunately for us, we came to a barbed wire fence that prevented us from traveling further. Apparently landowners are having concerns of hikers on their farms and the trail has been rerouted. After providing feedback to the Warrior Trail Association, they were grateful for our suggestions and are looking forward to the corps helping on trail improvements soon.
The Fayette County Children’s Water Day Festival has been an event that the Corps members here in Connellsville have been doing for several years now. In an effort to educate middle school aged children on water filtration and the water cycle, we created a display and poster to make the kids excited about water quality. Needless to say, the task was a lot more difficult than I thought. There were several other organizations there; most had live animals such as owls and hawks, snakes, and other waterfowl. If I were a kid, I’d go for the animals too. We managed to reach over 100 kids at our table though and it was a lot of fun!
The California Action Team has determined that they would like to have a big community fundraiser in the form of River Fest this summer. All proceeds will go to park improvements and constructing a trail in their town to make it more attractive to visitors as well as residents. I will be helping to secure live music, street vendors, fireworks, and a whole mess of other fun activities. So far I have made connections with so many people in the town that are excited about the event and are very supportive of the River Town Program, I am really looking forward to helping out the community and helping to plan River Fest.

Now that our corps site is up a running, its time for a recap of all of the great work RTOC has done so far this year:

The last few months have been incredibly busy. In mid February the River Town Outreach Corps for 2012 moved to Connellsville to start working. We began with weeks of training in Pittsburgh with Green Cities and the Trail Town Outreach Corps. Everything ranging from basic orientation to volunteer management, publicity and graphic design, to sustainable redevelopment, neighborhood redevelopment, orientation with our partners, to visiting all of the towns we will be working in. We also had the opportunity to volunteer and participate in Greensboro’s Chili Cook-off which raised money for the town while supplying a variety of different delicious chilis.

At the beginning of March we attended the first Regional Action Town Meeting and were able to hear people from all of our towns talk about things that they had done and wanted to accomplish. After this meeting our towns and regional projects were assigned and work began. We attended a few of the Point Marion Public Art workshops as a group. We started attending meetings in all of our towns. The Sustainability Fair was promoted and executed. The fair was open to anyone who wanted to learn more about sustainable energy and practices to save money in their home or business. We started and in some cases finished researching and creating flyers, guides, and other materials. We even had more training in Pittsburgh and at our office in Connellsville.

April has been the busiest month by far. Jenna and Jeff attended the WVU Landscape Architecture presentation of entrance way improvements for Point Marion. Samantha and Jenna attended a Fight Blight Workshop in Pittsburgh that focused on the legal process of fighting blighted property owners and actions a town’s leaders can take. Samantha, Marah, and Ryan volunteered to host a table at H2O Know, an Izaak Walton League event where they also had the opportunity to listen to some of the presenters and learn more about what is going on in local tributaries to the Monongahela River. Everyone attended the Brownsville street clean up and we had a good time that day seeing who could find the most interesting pieces of trash while we worked. Samantha, Marah, and Ryan attended the first paddling trip from Brownsville to California. Everyone spent a day in Fredericktown working to plant trees in their park and do other park improvements. Earth Day was particularly successful because we had events in almost all of our towns, so we split the day up and everyone went somewhere different. Samantha went to Rice’s Landing’s Hammer In event where she volunteered to help with the event and also set up a table to distribute information about our program. Ryan went to Fredericktown and worked with the local Boy Scout Troop to clean-up the town. Marah went to California to volunteer and set up a table during their Fishing Festival. Jenna went to Greensboro for their street clean-up and also spent some time cleaning up the river banks that are accessible to the public. After Earth Day events Jenna left with Jeff for Asheville, NC where they attended the River Management Symposium and were scheduled to give a presentation on the work the River Town Program has been doing over the last year and plan to do over the next year. They also attended other presentations given by people from RiverLink, a local non-profit, the American Canoe Association, American Rivers, the National Park Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other local, state, and federal agencies. During that same week Marah helped California plan for their Charette Day, which her and Ryan participated in. They also participated in the Brownsville Town Assessment. Brownsville is a new town added to our program this year, so Ryan and Marah were able to go out with a group of local residents, members of the River Town Program, and Brownsville Area Revitalization Corporation (BARC). They walked around taking notes on how the town might be viewed by a visitor and looked for things that someone who is visiting might need.

Now as we look on to May we continue to work on planning for the Point Marion Memorial Day Parade, Paddling trips in all of our towns, more clean-up events throughout the summer, the concert series in Rice’s Landing, the Children’s Water Fair, as well as many other projects.