Kevin Brown, BCCD, Ag Resource Specialist 
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.  This particular one is for giving thanks, and we should do so, for so many things.  I know it is easy to get all wrapped up in the negativity that goes on in the world today.  When we turn on the news we hear about all the things that are “coming at us” in the future and they are all negative- global warming, winter storms, prices of everything, world events, and the list goes on.  I think it is good to also reflect on what we have, and what we have gained in the last couple hundred years.  We have really come a long way, but we get so entangled in the negativity coming at us that we forget.  Or, maybe some readers aren’t even old enough to remember.
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We got through The Great Depression; a couple of world wars (We thank ALL Vets for their service.  Without them we would not have all that we have.  THANK YOU!); some smaller, but no less important, wars; the Industrial Revolution, and the list goes on.

Dan Rhodes, Education Coordinator, BCCD
Over the past year, while doing educational programming around Bradford County and even up into southern NY for a special assignment, I’ve been running into Susquehanna River fishing enthusiasts all over the place asking me the same question; ‘‘I’ve been fishing this river for 40 years and never seen or caught an American eel…until now! Why eels…why now?”. Multiple anglers would go on to explain that while fishing usually at night for catfish or other sportfish over the past few months, they would very surprisingly reel in large 2’-3’ American eels. “Where are they coming from and what has changed?” they would always ask. 

Miranda Neville, Agricultural Resource Specialist, BCCD
 
It’s human nature to be weary of the unknown. Any time there is new buzzword in the media, the world seems to split on either side. The buzzword(s) this round: ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence. I’ll be honest, I’m on the more skeptical side. As for most livestock farmers, the only A.I. we typically deal with often results in a beautiful new baby calf.
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We’ve become a world of “work smarter, not harder.” That mindset has come about mainly out of necessity because the need for labor and lack of laborers is a recurrent problem. Farm labor used to be as simple as hiring the local high school kid to milk cows, stack square bales, or tend to the livestock, but not anymore. As a replacement for lack of able bodies, many farmers have turned to utilizing innovative technology. Milking robots, automatic feeders, robotic alley scrapers, and feed pushers are all examples of technology that can be programmed to make farmers’ lives easier (in theory). What if those “robots” developed their own way of thinking and responding to situations. That sounds like the making for a pretty intense sci-fi movie…one that we might not be too far from. With automation and a faced paced world, artificial intelligence (I’ll use Chat GPT as an example) is making a huge impact, but at what cost?

Republish from PennState 9/29/2025
Andy Yencha, PennState Extension - Extension Educator, Renewable Natural Resources
 
Stormwater can cause water pollution because it often contains harmful materials picked up when it washed across the land.
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What are Stormwater Pollutants?
Stormwater harms local creeks, rivers, and lakes in two major ways. It causes physical damage like flooding, streambank erosion, and loss of fish habitat when too much water drains into a creek or river too quickly, and it causes water pollution because stormwater often contains harmful materials picked up when it washed across the land. These pollutants can be grouped into five broad categories.

Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
This is one of the hot topics right now- inflation is going wild.  Well, it seems like it is for some things, but not for farmers.  Prices for their products have NOT kept up with the times.  We, in the agricultural world, know that; but I am assuming that most people outside of that field probably don’t.  Prices fluctuate wildly in the ag world.  When I was working my last job, there were times that the price of milk, paid to farmer, was the same price they were getting back in the 80’s.  On average, over a couple years, it may not look quite that bad but imagine if your income for the next 4 months was going to be the same as the average wage for your position in, say, 1985.  Can you imagine?  How do you possibly make that work?  Even if it averaged in the next 2 years what you make now, or a little lower, can you imagine making 2025 wages one month, and then 1975 wages the next?  

Miranda Neville, Agricultural Resource Specialist, BCCD 
Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a station at Green Career Day, sponsored by the Bradford County Conservation District, as a BCCD Agriculture Team member but also as a dairy farmer. I remember career days in elementary school (in my very small hometown). We usually had veterinarians, postal workers, bankers, police officers, but even as a “farm-oriented kid” I don’t ever remember seeing a farmer. The number of farms has declined drastically even in the last decade. That means that the number of ‘farm kids’ who are already built with the dream to take over the family farm has also decreased. Reaching more youth to teach them about farming and agriculture is key in creating the next wave of farm kids. So, how do we ensure the future of agriculture, if the younger generations don’t realize the potential it has?

Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
As you get older, and as things continue to change now more than ever, it strikes me every day about how much one person’s passion (and maybe even agenda) goes so much against another tried and true way of doing things.  As we push more and more to do “x”, we could be going completely against something very important on the other end of the spectrum.  I often think about, “when do those worlds collide?” and “what does it look like when they do?”  Maybe giving some examples will make this easier to understand.  I will try to tread lightly.  Every new “thing” could be guilty.  I once heard a person on TV say that, on electric cars, the pollution potential remains the same in a lot of these cases (fossil fuels vs. rare earth metals and batteries to dispose of), we are just trading one kind of pollution for another.  Is that accurate?  I don’t know.  I do know that the new ways of doing things are usually not quite as rosy as what they want you to believe.  I can use this with most anything.  Solar, wind, organic, even complete protectionism (like in a forest or something that DOES need to be managed, not just protected forever).  Again, will these two worlds collide?  And if so, when?

Lacy Powers, Conservation Technician, BCCD
Here at the Bradford County Conservation District, we are dedicated to helping conserve, protect, and restore our natural resources.  What are our natural resources exactly? Well, there is the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil we use to build on and grow our crops in. While the District’s agriculture and technical teams deal in conserving the resources differently, one thing you will notice is the shared focus on protecting our soils from erosion.  As a matter of fact, that is the whole reason conservation districts were created to begin with.  

Lynse West, Repsol, External Relations & Communications 
In celebration of Repsol’s International Volunteer Week, the company came together with the Bradford County Conservation District (BCCD) for a meaningful and impactful tree planting initiative that brought Repsol’s values of community, sustainability, and stewardship to life.
Volunteers from across departments in Repsol joined forces with BCCD staff to plant over 300 native trees in key areas of impact across the county. These efforts were part of Repsol’s broader conservation strategy aimed at improving water quality, restoring wildlife habitats, and enhancing the natural beauty of our local environment.

Lacy Powers, Conservation Technician, BCCD
In the 1930s a devastating disaster known as the “Dust Bowl” took place in the Great Plains of the United States. This was due to poor farming practices that had historically stripped the land of topsoil and a severe drought that caused an erosion catastrophe. These issues became so bad that soil was in the air they breathed, water they drank, and hardly any was left on the ground for viable crops to grow. Thousands of acres of farmland were depleted from erosion, destroying livelihoods and adversely impacting people’s quality of life. Let’s break down the ramifications of the Dust Bowl so we can truly appreciate just how large an issue erosion and sedimentation can be to our environment and our economy.