​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.

​By: Nathan Dewing, Agricultural Team Leader, Bradford County Conservation District
Farmers today face challenges.  Farmers of any day have.  So too will farmers of the future.  That is one reason a group like the Future Farmers of America (FFA) exists – to help get them ready.
Four Northeast Bradford High School students are now wearing blue and gold as they begin a series of leadership challenges that will shape them for life.  Joshua Keeney, Emma Neuber, Kale Winters, and Kaleb Keeney are obviously willing to grow as they don their first FFA jacket in January 2021.  Their jackets were awarded to them from the Pennsylvania FFA Alumni Association after each wrote an essay about what the FFA jacket means to them and about their plans in FFA and in agriculture.

​By: Nathan Dewing, Agricultural Team Leader, Bradford County Conservation District
Do you realize that regular, every-day, neighbors of ours are producing world-class, healthy, 100% all-natural sugar right here in our own back yard?  It’s one of those forgotten wonders.
While maple sugar harvest here pre-dates recorded history, today, Pennsylvania ranks 6th out of 25 US states in production while Bradford County is 5th among 56 Pennsylvania Counties.  Bradford County’s 53 sugar makers install an estimated 54,200 taps each year, producing 8,000 gallons of delectable, 100% all-natural maple syrup.  Many direct-market their product as maple syrup along with the other most common 100% natural-sugar forms of maple cream, maple candy, and dry maple sugar.  Maple flavored goodies beyond these are only limited by the imagination.

By: Kevin Brown, Agricultural Resource Specialist
Ok, let’s get down to the brass taxes.  What is a rain tax, where is it happening, and what can I do to help the situation without going to that extreme?  Who wants to be taxed for rain falling on their property?  “We don’t have control over that” is what they say, but we DO have control over what happens to it from there.  Can you imagine Towanda (or insert your community here) before it was Towanda?  Especially because it is built on a side hill.  One thousand years ago a 2-inch rainfall event happened, and all that rain went into the ground.  The river level was unaffected.  The rainfall gradually moved through the soil layers and the excess was released into the river days or weeks or even months later.  The result, no flooding.  Picture it during the next 2-inch rainfall that we get.  Rain hits your home, it hits the streets, it hits the schools and businesses.  In some places there are no places whatsoever for it to infiltrate into the ground.  It goes from your downspout to the curb, dumped into the street, adds to the water already running down the street, hits the storm drain and goes DIRECTLY to the river.  The result, billions of gallons of water now going down the river that never made it there before.  And it is going there like NOW.  Add that to water coming from Sayre and Waverly and Athens and Chemung and Binghamton and Owego, etc.  The town fathers didn’t think about this when they set up some of the systems, but as more and more communities grow, they are thinking about it now.  Now we have a huge problem.  We have concentrated all that water and sent it downstream (along with it- pollution, erosion, sediment, nutrients, etc.).  Again, do we care enough to try and fix it one house at a time?  Or do we institute a (wait for it…) Stormwater Fee (RAIN TAX)?  NNNOOOOOOOO!!

By: Kevin Brown, Agricultural Resource Specialist
Hopefully part 1 gave you some things to think about and maybe even got your blood boiling a little bit.  That was my intention.  I want you thinking about this and even thinking that maybe you can do something about it in your own little corner of the world.  It really doesn’t take much to make a huge difference in some cases.  Our goal, as homeowners AND business owners, should be that absolutely no rainwater leaves our properties, especially in normal rainfall events.  NONE.  I know it is easy to run inside while it is raining and just not realize, or maybe even care, where that rainwater is going.  Well we should.  Next time it rains, grab the rain suit and head outside.  Take a stroll along your property and take note of what you see.  Are you adding to the problem, or not?  Is water leaving your property, or not?  If it is, is there anything you can do about it?

​By: Kevin Brown, Agricultural Resource Specialist
Right here in Pennsylvania!  Sound crazy?  Sound like something that the government came up with just to get some more of YOUR hard-earned money?  Maybe, but it is happening.  And, as much as you may think it’s a crazy idea, it has some validity behind it.  I know I possibly could start a firestorm here but read on for where this notion is coming from and why we do need to do something about it.  There may be better ideas how to handle it, but here is the concept:

​By: Nathan Dewing, Agricultural Team Leader
Think about all the places where you like water to be.  The list might include the backyard babbling brook, the seashore, beside the Lake House, under your boat, household plumbing, and your glass complete with ice cubes.  There are also plenty of places where you don’t want it like your yard, driveway, basement, or living room.  To get it right, we must look at our soil.

By: Bryan Swistock, Senior Extension Associate: Water Resource Associate, Penn State Extension
Although last winter was one of the least snowy on record for much of Pennsylvania, recent snowstorms in parts of the state have brightened the mood of snow enthusiasts who enjoy skiing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, hunting, and ice fishing. But forests blanketed in snow should also be appreciated by those who enjoy streams in the summer and rely on groundwater wells and springs for drinking water supplies. That’s because forests and snowpack together allow for recharge of underground aquifers that consist of 80 trillion gallons of freshwater stored in the pore spaces and cracks in rock beneath the surface. These aquifers serve to maintain the flow of streams throughout the year and provide water that supports industries, businesses, agriculture, and drinking water for millions of Pennsylvania residents. In an average year, 10% to 25% of the water that flows in streams and enters groundwater wells originates from melting snow.

By: Nathan Dewing, Agricultural Team Leader
January and new patterns of growth go well together.  Our understanding of stewardship, or lack thereof will set us up for 2021 growth or shrinkage (and don’t believe you are too old to grow).
A Steward is “a person whose job is to manage the property of another person”, as defined by Webster.  Stewardship is defined as “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.”  Take stock of what you are stewarding and give yourself an evaluation.  I suggest writing them down, perhaps in order of importance.  Give yourself a grade – A, B, C, D; rate yourself 1 -10, or better yet, ask the one you are working for (the owner) how you’re doing.  Before you let yourself off the hook too quickly, consider what it is that you really own.  Here’s a hint, I believe – it’s what I brought with me when I was born and what I will take with me when I die.

By: Amy Kneller, Ag Resource Specialist
Are you interested in protecting farms, farmland, and a persons’ ability to farm?  Protecting agriculture doesn’t always require a conservation easement – it can mean simply securing the right of farmers to farm without dealing with overly burdensome regulations. That’s the role of an Agricultural Security Area (ASA), where agriculture is a primary activity in the municipality. Farmers work with municipalities to develop ASAs, which demonstrate that farming is a local priority and promote more permanent and viable farming operations.