​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.