Watershed Conservation Plan - Destination Erie

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Table 10.1. Proposed Action Plan Objectives for the Pennsylvania Lake Erie Rivers Conservation Plan Objective 1 Objective 2 Objective 3 Objective 4 Objective 5 Objective 6 Objective 7 Objective 8 Objective 9 Objective 10 Share the findings and recommendations of this plan with leaders of watershed organizations and other environmental organizations within the Pennsylvania Lake Erie watershed, and enlist their assistance carrying out plan objectives. Provide a series of educational workshops for municipal officials and landowners regarding water issues associated with ongoing climate change and the importance of protecting forests and headwater streams. Promote the formation of local stakeholder groups of groundwater users seeking to develop source water protection plans. Encourage the promulgation of local ordinances to establish buffer protection (from development) of riparian areas, especially alongside small streams. Initiate a land trust easement/property receivership program to protect privately-owned core forests, especially those containing riparian areas or significant stands of native conifers. Initiate a land trust easement/property receivership program to protect privately-owned properties containing significant examples of the watershed's diverse types of forests, wetlands, and stream-associated features. Initiate a program to restore non-forested riparian areas to a forested condition. Initiate a program to restore impaired hydrological features necessary to improve water quality in sub-watersheds containing "non-attainment" streams segments. Develop a plan for establishing a natural heritage site network that will provide educational and tourism opportunities focusing on the many significant forest, stream, and wetland resources found throughout the watershed. Develop a plan for establishing a historical water resource heritage site network that will provide educational and tourism opportunities focusing on the historical importance of water for transportation, industry/energy production, and fisheries. 10.3 Justification for Proposed Focus of Protection Efforts After considering the natural resources available and water-related problems identified in previous chapters of this plan, it is clear that the highest priority should be given to pre-emptive protective and/or restorative measures (see Objectives 4–7, Table 10.1) throughout the Pennsylvania Lake Erie watershed, to avoid future water quality and supply problems like those recently documented for Walnut Creek (PADEP 2007a). A second equally important priority is to safeguard the watershed's cold water fisheries from predicted adverse effects of ongoing climate warming. Fortunately, both of these issues can be efficiently addressed by focusing protection and restoration efforts on the same two resources—our watershed's forests and headwaters streams. Numerous publications by scientists and forest/water management organizations have touted the fundamental importance of forests for maintaining healthy water supplies (Cohen 1997a; Ernst et al. 2004; Palone and Todd 1997; Sweeney et al. 2004; Sweeney 1992; USEPA 1995; USDA-FS 2004) and advocate the use of best management practices to safeguard water quality. Maintaining generous undisturbed forested buffers around headwater streams and restoring disturbed riparian areas to a forested state have shown to be the most effective methods of keeping streams healthy and protecting water quality (Andrews 2006; Cohen 1997b; Meyer et al. 2007; PADEP 2007b; Palone and Todd 1997; Sweeney et al. 2004; USEPA 1995; Wilkersen et al. 2006). PADEP's recent (2007a) report on water quality degradation in the Walnut Creek subwatershed noted stream channel modifications and stream encroachments (cumulatively totaling 25,000 feet) as well as loss of riparian buffer zones as contributing to "water pollution ….and loss of habitat for fish, plants, and terrestrial species." PADEP (2007a) included protection of riparian buffer zones, conservation 162
easements for riparian areas, and promoting urban/suburban reforestation in its long list of recommendations for managing the water quality problems in the Walnut Creek subwatershed. Preserving forested riparian buffers and maintaining forested land use are also thought to be the best "insurance" against the adverse effects of climate warming on cold water fisheries, since the summer shading by trees in riparian areas (especially in headwaters) has been proven to keep stream water temperatures in the range needed to support trout (Pollock and Kennard 1998; Sweeney 1992; Wilkerson et al. 2006). This strategy is well suited to the situation of the steelhead fishery in the Pennsylvania Lake Erie watershed (see chapter 6, section 6.1). Forest lands in private ownership near urban centers are recognized as being particularly vulnerable to development pressure, and should be given the highest priority in conservation and land use planning (USDA- FS 2004, 2005). Most of the watershed appears to be vulnerable to sprawl, since expansion of infrastructure (e.g., public water and sewers) is projected by the Erie County Comprehensive Plan to occur from nearly all the watershed's scattered boroughs and Erie's metropolitan center (Graney, Grossman, Colosimo and Associates, Inc. 2003). A USDAFS (2005) study included the Pennsylvania Lake Erie watershed in areas nationwide where 5–20% of privately owned forests are expected to be converted to housing over the next 25 years. These concerns would seem to provide ample justification for the protection strategy proposed in the next section of the plan. 10.4 Forest, Riparian Area, and Headwaters Protection and Restoration Plan 10.4.1 Watershed Zones and Management Areas In order to facilitate assignment of proposed actions to protect the resources most critical to safeguarding our streams and groundwater supplies, the Pennsylvania Lake Erie watershed was divided into the 18 distinct management areas (MAs) shown in Figure 10.1. The management areas are intended to serve as geographic templates for specific project planning by diverse stakeholders, with the assumption that the projects developed by multiple organizations and political units will better serve the interests of the public at large, and should be more attractive to funding organizations. Each management area falls into one of three habitat/resource zones. Zone 1 areas contain lands directly drained by mostly headwater streams, and would include many important groundwater recharge areas. Areas classified in Zone 1 collectively include the largest part of the watershed (Table 10.2). The primary protection objective for Zone 1 is to use all available methods to keep forested areas forested, for the reasons explained above (see section 10.3). Although this zone already contains the highest percentage of land area covered by forests, many of those forested tracts are fragmented by roads and intervening segments of open agricultural land. The highest priorities for Zone 1 areas will be to protect all of the current forests and restore non-forested riparian areas to a forested condition, which will enhance groundwater recharge, maintain cool summer water temperatures, reduce forest fragmentation, and protect wildlife habitat. Zone 2 areas contain upper main stem portions of the larger streams of the watershed and distinctive valley features associated with escarpments and gorges. Many of these areas are situated in the vicinity of the lake-ridge and intermediate in position between higher elevation headwater areas (Zone 1) and the lower elevation lake plain (Zone 3). Zone 2 areas contain many of the watershed's important cold water fishery resources (see chapter 6) and sites having scenic and historical importance (see chapters 4 and 5). Land acquisition and protection actions (e.g., conservation easements) that increase public access to these areas could enhance recreational tourism opportunities in the watershed. Other high-priority actions for Zone 2 would include protection of existing forests (especially those associated with headwater tributaries connected directly to main stem reaches) and restoring non-forested riparian areas to a forested condition. Zone 3 areas encompass the lake plain, which contains most of the intensively developed (agricultural and urban) portions of the watershed. Since much of the eastern two-thirds of the lake plain has been deforested, any and all remaining forests in the central and eastern lake plain areas (MAs 3A and 3B) should be given very high priority for protection, since they represent unique forest types distinct from those already protected in Management Area 3C. As in Zones 1 and 2, high priority should also be given to protecting and restoring riparian forests of small streams, including those associated with coastal bluffs and ravines within Zone 3 (see chapter 5, section 5.4). Like Zone 2, large stream reaches within Zone 3 also contain fishery resources and sites having scenic and cultural/historical importance; therefore, land acquisition and protection 163
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Pennsylvania Rivers Conservation Pr
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land to development. Strong communi
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Human resources available to facili
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other communities, organizations, a
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TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures .
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8.3 Sustainable Development and Gov
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Figure 5.14. Average summer phospho
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Figure 10.3. Management Areas propo
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PLAN AUTHORSHIP
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working with interested teacher and
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Figure 1.3. Perceived importance of
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1.3 Watershed Plan Focus The primar
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Figure 2.2. Detail of the south-cen
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Figure 2.4. Physiographic provinces
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westward. Although the paucity of f
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via the Erigan River, a major river
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Warren and Whittlesey can be found
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evised paleoenvironmental picture,
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characteristic ground stone tools,
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phase represent the most common Lat
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including flexed and extended inhum
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with the appearance of European tra
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The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania wa
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of $800 for the purchase of The Tri
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In addition to these townships, the
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Pittsburgh Railroad had reached New
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Figure 3.3. Density of registered a
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the Whittlesey and Warren III stran
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Table 3.3. Properties in the Study
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Table 3.3—continued Name Address
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Table 3.3—continued Name Address
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"Little Ice Age"), and the validity
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"massasaugies" (Eastern Massasauga
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eport (Col. John Fleeharty) lamente
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flowing streams. The starting point
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elow the park." Apparently the pump
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A submerged arching sand feature is
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of the lake plain and upland areas
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characteristics, and are important
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Lake section (see Figure 2.4). Nota
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Figure 5.2. Flow time series for Tw
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Figure 5.4. Flow time series for Co
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Figure 5.8. Flow per square mile pe
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area that have thicker glacial depo
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Table 5.4. Protected Water Uses for
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Stream Zone County 3—East Branch
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5.10.2 Permitted Discharges The two
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Figure 5.14. Average summer phospho
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Figure 5.15. Graphical analyses of
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Figure 5.17. Average summer nitrate
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Figure 5.19. Mercury concentrations
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Figure 5.20. Map showing locations
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Figure 5.22. Number of stream miles
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91 Figure 5.24. Results of Campbell
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Table 5.6. Range in Number of E. co
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Figure 5.26. Maximum E. coli counts
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The recent investigation completed
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Figure 5.30. Sources of known nondo
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6 NATURAL RESOURCES 6.1 Animal Life
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Rank Status Taxon Common Name Globa
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Table 6.2. Pennsylvania Vertebrate
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Table 6.3. Noted Occurrence of Spaw
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Figure 6.4. Water quality designati
Page 131 and 132: Figure 6.6. Fishing hours spent on
Page 133 and 134: Figure 6.7. Comparative analysis of
Page 135 and 136: Figure 6.9. Percentage breakdown of
Page 137 and 138: A small number of the birds listed
Page 139 and 140: phytoplankton by Dreissena allows l
Page 141 and 142: populations increase. Corbicula flu
Page 143 and 144: Rank Status Taxon Common name Globa
Page 145 and 146: Rank Status Taxon Common name Globa
Page 147 and 148: Two other forest wetland plant comm
Page 149 and 150: 6.2.4 Emergent Wetlands Over half o
Page 151 and 152: alleghaniensis), sugar maple, red m
Page 153 and 154: Table 6.6.Percentage Composition of
Page 155 and 156: Figure 6.18. Detail of the largest
Page 157 and 158: Figure 7.1. Responses made by study
Page 159 and 160: Figure 7.3. Spatial distribution of
Page 161 and 162: Presque Isle State Park is connecte
Page 163 and 164: Table 7.2. Number of Recreational O
Page 165 and 166: lakefront recreational properties,
Page 167 and 168: Map Id Subwatershed Comment 51 41.5
Page 169 and 170: Bayfront Center for Maritime Studie
Page 171 and 172: Other watershed associations or wat
Page 173 and 174: Figure 8.1. Child poverty rates in
Page 175 and 176: comprehensive vision or plan, have
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Page 179 and 180: 5. In order to sustain maximum biod
Page 181: 10 PRIORITIES AND STRATEGIES FOR AC
Page 185 and 186: Table 10.2 Management Areas Defined
Page 187 and 188: Figure 10.2. Example of how GIS can
Page 189 and 190: Figure 10.4. Example of how GIS can
Page 191 and 192: Watershed Portion MAs Main Subwater
Page 193 and 194: Restoration actions Management Area
Page 195 and 196: 11 REFERENCES CITED Abrams, M. D. 2
Page 197 and 198: Broyles, B. J. 1971 Second Prelimin
Page 199 and 200: Cooper, N. L., J. R. Bidwell, and D
Page 201 and 202: Dzurko, Robert 1972 Conneaut Creek
Page 203 and 204: Goodyear, A. C. 1999 The Early Holo
Page 205 and 206: Jasim, S. Y., A. Irabelli, L. Schwe
Page 207 and 208: Leighton, R. 2006 Pennsylvania Fish
Page 209 and 210: Michaels, A. 2005 Pennsylvania Has
Page 211 and 212: 2007d Waterways, Wetlands, and Eros
Page 213 and 214: Richardson, J. B., and J. B. Peters
Page 215 and 216: Soon, W. and S. Baliunas 2003 Proxy
Page 217 and 218: Tomikel and Shepps 1967 Trasande, L
Page 219: Whitley, D. S., and R. I. Dorn 1993
Page 223 and 224: Preparing For Watershed Conservatio
Page 225 and 226: Introduction (cont’d) In March of
Page 227 and 228: Executive Summary Overall, responde
Page 229 and 230: Executive Summary (cont’d) Cont
Page 231 and 232: Summary Of Key Groups (cont’d) Ur
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Please Indicate Whether You Agree,
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In Your Opinion, Is The Need For Im
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If You Had To Choose Between Proper
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Favorite Locations For Recreation I
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Favorite Motor Boating Locations To
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Favorite Hiking Locations Location
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Favorite Swimming Locations Total R
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Knowledge Of Historic And Prehistor
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Support For Stream Protection Measu
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LERC Rivers Conservation Plan Publi
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• Mason: As far as education, get
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• Kloss: Educate people about Act
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Great Lakes Commission http://www.g
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Center for Economic and Environment
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The Erie County portion of the Penn
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Feature Parameters Parameter Variab
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Feature Parameters Parameter Variab
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Watershed Conservation Plan - Destination Erie

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