​By: Ad Crable, Staff Writer, Chesapeake Bay Journal
The Susquehanna River has the most flood prone basin east of the Mississippi. And Binghamton, NY, located entirely in a floodplain at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers and downhill of steep, flash-flooding watersheds, might be its most pummeled victim.
But now, after the twin punches of an all-time record flood in 2006 followed by an even more devastating 500-year flood only five years later, officials have decided to quit fighting its rivers and instead rebuild to roll with the punches. 

​: THERE’S A BIG DIFFERENCE AND HERE’S WHY IT MATTERS!
By: Dan Rhodes, Education Coordinator, Bradford County Conservation District
Walk down the street and ask the first person you meet to define the terms ‘conservation’ and ‘preservation’. Repeat this test a few dozen times and you’ll most likely find that when confronted with these two very different terms and concepts, it is often difficult for people to differentiate them. Many people within the media, within government and within environmental activism groups even view the terms conservation and preservation as interchangeable in their meaning, so don’t feel bad if these terms confuse you! 

By: Joe Quatrini, Technical Team Leader, BCCD
Recently, the Bradford County Commissioners made a huge commitment to watershed rehabilitation. Using money from the Act 13 Unconventional Gas Well Fund, the Commissioners have dedicated $200,000 per year toward the restoration of streams to reduce erosion, prevent property loss, protect infrastructure, and improve flood resilience. Building off past successes of the County Stream Initiative program, the commissioners are entrusting BCCD with the administration of these new funds. The funds will be utilized in three critical stream areas: stream stabilization, emergency stream response, and to further the Bradford County stream pilot program. Currently, the Commissioners have designated $110,000 to stream stabilization, $75,000 to emergency stream response, and $15,000 to the stream pilot program. Hopefully, this funding will last for years to come and significant natural resource restoration can be accomplished.

​By: Tess Flynn-Belles, Natural Resource Specialist, Bradford County Conservation District
This past year has provided a lot of us with plenty of time to reflect on our properties and home and come up with new ways to freshen the place up. With the amount of calls that the Conservation District received about new pond construction last year, it must have been high on some of your lists! So, with that, we thought we would provide some things to consider before you start.