Large conservation plans prove their worth on the ground, one stream at a time. The Little Mahoning Creek Restoration project offers a clear example of how Colcom Foundation funding moves from a planning document to a working watershed.
The project grew out of the Conservation Blueprint, which the Colcom Foundation funded through a $2 million grant to Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 2006. The Blueprint draws on 25 years of Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program data to flag high-biodiversity forests, streams, and wetlands across four ecoregions. Little Mahoning Creek was one of the places where that guidance turned into action.
Working With Farmers
The Conservancy partnered with local agricultural landowners rather than working around them. Together they installed streambank stabilization structures to slow erosion. They planted riparian buffers, strips of vegetation along the banks that trap runoff before it reaches the water. They added livestock fencing to keep cattle out of the stream, where hooves can break down banks and animal waste can foul the water.
The project also removed barriers to fish passage, reopening upstream habitat that had been cut off.
Results in the Water
The completed work reduced the sediment and pollutant loads entering the creek and protected miles of stream. It also supported ongoing research into two species that depend on clean, cold water: the hellbender and the brook trout.
Hellbenders are North America’s largest salamander and breathe through their skin. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed endangered status for the eastern hellbender in December 2024, pointing to sediment and water-quality decline. Projects that keep silt out of streams address that problem directly.
Little Mahoning Creek is one of more than 10 high-impact projects the Blueprint has catalyzed since 2006. Together, those efforts have leveraged over $4.2 million in additional funding and protected more than 4,000 acres of forestland.
The approach depends on cooperation with the people who own and work the land along the creek. See related link for additional information.
Find more information about Colcom on http://conservativetransparency.org/donor/colcom-foundation/