Montour Trail-Letter

Volume 11, Issue 3

May/June, 2000

In 1997 the Montour Run Watershed Planning Project was launched by the Montour Valley Alliance, a coalition of Airport-Area community organizations seeking to balance needed economic development with the protection of resources considered important by the residents. The Project's end product, a report titled the "River Conservation and Land Use Plan for the Montour Run Watershed," was completed last spring

Successful completion of the Plan and endorsement by several of the municipalities in the Watershed have resulted in the listing of Montour Run and all tributary streams on the Pennsylvania Rivers Conservation Registry. Through Registry listing, resource protection and enhancement projects recommended in the Plan have become eligible for implementation, development, or acquisition grant funding under DCNR's Pennsylvania Rivers Conservation Program.

Carrying out the Plan's recommendations will be the main focus of the Montour Run Watershed Association, a new non-profit organization now being incorporated to formalize and continue the work of the Alliance. However, the Watershed Association will only be able to initiate a number of these recommended actions. There will be a need for all interested individuals, agencies, and organizations to get involved in these resource protection efforts for the Watershed as well. Airport-Area newspapers will carry future announcements of Watershed Association meetings.

The Montour Run Watershed Plan was recently recognized as the best study of its kind in a statewide competition conducted by the Consulting Engineers Council of Pennsylvania. CEC/PA announced selection of lead consultant KCI Technologies and the Montour Valley Alliance as joint recipients of its Year 2000 Honor Award for Studies, Research, and Consulting Services. This award was received for the Alliance at the CEC/PA Banquet on February 3 by Janet Thorne, Executive Director of the Hollow Oak Land Trust and Manager of the Montour Run Watershed Planning Project.

You may obtain a copy of the recently published executive summary of the Plan by calling the HOLT office at (412) 264-5354.