​By: Adam Chorba, Forest Specialist, Bradford County Conservation District
The Black locust and Honey Locust are native, medium-sized hardwood deciduous trees with compound leaves. They are an early successional forest species, meaning that they are adapted to grow quickly in a variety of areas to aid in the natural progression of forest development. Black locust is a nitrogen-fixing legume, meaning it adds nitrogen to the soil instead of removing it and in some cases, this helps to improve soil quality. Honey locust is non-nitrogen fixing, but it develops larger and sweeter, bean like pods that are beneficial for livestock and wildlife. The wood of locust is extremely tough and rot resistant and is favored for making fence posts. They are commonly found along roadways and forest edges, often in groves. Both types of locust have a common insect that targets it that often goes unnoticed until this time of year and is often mistaken as tree blight or sudden mortality.  

​By: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth boundaries encompass at least 85,568 miles of streams and 242 major publicly accessible lakes comprising 125,119 surface water acres. Section 303 of the Federal Clean Water Act requires that states, territories, and authorized tribes, collectively referred to in the act as "states," prepare water quality standards and assess all streams and lakes. Since1972 enactment, each water body is to have calculated an upper pollution limit that maintains water quality meeting state standards for each pollutant present. Standards vary among the states depending on each state’s protected uses. In Pennsylvania, these protected uses are listed as fish consumption, recreation, public water use, and biological life.

By: Kevin Brown, Agricultural Resource Specialist 
We all know people who strive to have the best lawn in the neighborhood.  If that is you, I am going to give you all the secrets you need to get you there.  First off, have you ever thought, “what makes it the best lawn in the neighborhood”?  Is it look?  Is it because it is level and you can use it for many different things?  Is it because it allows water to infiltrate into the ground which not only replaces the groundwater that you use for drinking and bathing, but also reduces flooding downstream?  Is it the best based on functionality?  I am not talking about what you can use it for.  I am talking about how many life functions are going on in the lawn.  What?  What are you talking about?  You have lost your mind?  Stay with me a minute longer because I am first going to tell you that if you are one of the quintessential “best lawn in the neighborhood” people, you are probably doing just about everything wrong for the environment that you could do.  Ouch, that hurt.  Let me explain.

​By: Joe Quatrini, Technical Team Leader, Bradford County Conservation District
Bradford County Conservation District (BCCD) welcomes Adam Chorba as the new Forest Specialist.
With forest land being the dominant land cover of Bradford County, the need for someone to be available to assist landowners with questions on how to manage that land is critical. To fill that need, BCCD recently hired Adam Chorba. Adam is a Penn State graduate with an associate degree in wildlife technologies and a bachelor's degree in wildlife & fisheries management with successful completion of extensive forestry- related coursework. Adam is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting, fishing, and most any other outdoor recreation, but he favors waterfowl hunting most. Adam also helps manage his family's beef farm with a focus on wildlife habitat improvement. Adam's favorite part about working in this field is being able to help improve the quality of nature and to help others do the same. Adam feels “the forest is a key component of nature and an important resource that must be managed wisely because, without it, life couldn't sustain”.

​By: Brian Zeidner, Guest Columnist and Bradford County Beef Producer
I have a confession.  I dislike numbers.  But I do like information and have found that if I want to know how well my small beef farm is running, I need to measure my progress and track the results. 
Tracking the grain inputs of steers when finishing and checking the grade of the beef after butchering lets me know and measure the quality of my product.  Calculating manure application on the hay fields builds my soils and ensures I do not contribute to water quality issues with nutrient run-off.

By: Tori Bristol, Dirt Gravel & Low Volume Roads Specialist
As we all know, clean water is vital for maintaining healthy aquatic habitats. As areas start to become more developed, the impacts can be seen on the water quality of freshwater ecosystems. There are many ways to evaluate the health of our streams through chemical, physical and biological assessments. One of the easiest ways that scientists (or even you at home) can judge the health of a stream is to collect Benthic Macroinvertebrates, aka Macros.

​By: Tori Bristol, Dirt Gravel & Low Volume Roads Specialist
Stream crossing culverts and streams have been one of the major hot topics over the past decade. Here in Bradford County there are more than 1,000 road-stream intersections, or stream crossings, with many of those crossings being severely undersized. We depend on these crossings to safely pass roadways over streams or even rivers. We also depend on healthy waterways for clean water, recreation and other benefits. We are currently learning more and more about the relationships between stream crossing designs and the effect they have on the natural system. 

By: Joe Quatrini, Technical Team Leader, BCCD
Mud Creek, Fall Brook, Bull Run, the list of stream names goes on and on, but have you ever given any thought to how streams get their names?
First off, what’s the difference between a stream, creek, brook, run, or river anyway? Well, nothing really. The terms stream, creek, brook, or run generally refer to smaller free flowing bodies of water. Many people may consider a brook or run to be smaller than a stream or creek. Whereas, the term river is used for larger bodies of flowing water, however, at their headwaters (where they start) they are often small as well. For example, here in Bradford County, we are familiar with the Susquehanna River and recognize it for its size (width, depth). Near its headwaters in Cooperstown, NY though, the Susquehanna is no bigger than many of our smaller streams.

​By: Joe Quatrini, Technical Team Leader, BCCD
Last week you read about watersheds and hopefully that got you thinking about how our actions locally impact streams and other waterbodies nearby and even regionally. Today, we’ll narrow our focus a bit to discuss stream order.
Simply put, stream order categorizes streams by their size. There’s a little more to it than that, however, its relatively uncomplicated. There’s a basic numbering system: First Order, Second Order, Third Order, and so on, that describes a stream and its position relative to other streams in a watershed. A first order stream is a ‘headwater’ stream or a stream that originates from a spring, a wetland, or a pond, etc. You may have a wet spot in a field on your property and as that spot drains downhill it starts to concentrate, picks up speed, and creates a channel with a defined bed and banks. This would be a first order stream. Sometimes what might complicate this is if someone digs a ditch across their property and after some time, it appears to be a stream and may be categorized as such. This is where some landowners may encounter issues with state or federal agencies if they try to alter or maintain that ‘ditch’ once stream characteristics start to develop. If you’ve been following this column over the last couple years, you’ve read over and over that usually the best option when dealing with water is to let it spread out and not to concentrate it. This adds another dimension to that argument where your initial solution to a problem has created a new problem for you now.