I am an anxious person by nature. And in nature. And with nature. I worry that my plants get enough water. I worry that my friends are having fun when we go for a walk. I worry that the environmental apocalypse might hit us at any moment… Okay, that might be a little dramatic, but for the three decades I’ve been on this planet, news about our environment has often felt pessimistic.

“In my conservation career, I have seen my share of doom in how environmental concerns are reported,” said Ellen Ferretti. “When those messages make us knowledgeable and passionate enough to act toward a workable change, it’s a good thing. But when we only talk about the problems and don’t take time to reflect on what we as individuals can do or the successes that have occurred, things start to feel hopeless… but, most importantly, that simply is not true.”

This is not to say we don’t need to do anything because things are all hunky-dory

In fact, it’s action and its effects that has helped me change my tune! It can be hard to see the impact of stewardship, conservation, and environmentalism in most of its forms; nature works on a longer timeline than most of us are used to. But a recent experience forced me to re-examine my catastrophizing and start to feel hopeful about how we take on these problems right here in our backyard.

While checking out a slideshow of conservation projects with North Branch Land Trust and Earth Conservancy, Pinchot State Forest District Forester Nicholas Lylo pointed out a photo of a forest in Wanamie, “I planted those.”

Between 1968 and 1982, The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources Operation Scarlift funded more than 200 projects focused on healing the mine scars that marked Pennsylvania. Because nature abhors a vacuum, planting efforts under the name of Project 20 quickly followed suit. In 1999, Lylo, who was a Service Forester for the Wyoming Forest District at the time, coordinated planting more than 135,000 seedlings on former mine sites in Luzerne County.

Foresters and conservationists believed in the project

Lylo explained, “Many of the people involved in the project are retired now, so I may be the only one who can tell you how this forest got here. Project 20 reforestation projects were happening in Western PA, but these were among the first in Luzerne County. We didn’t have expectations for perfection, only initiative. Goals were geared towards maximizing habitat, minimizing erosion, and helping nutrients return to the soil.”

“We had plenty of nay sayers too,” Lylo recalled. “Folks saying, ‘It’ll be cut down,’ or ‘the trees will just burn.’ But for the most part, the forest is now managing itself. The seedlings survived severe droughts in their early years, but looking at it today, you might never know. Witnessing the area go from scarred to scenic, that’s what the wildland and fire protection of the Bureau of Forestry has allowed us to do.”

Today, you can see the effects of Operation Scarlift and Project 20 all over Pennsylvania! In fact, some of North Branch Land Trust, Earth Conservancy, and Bureau of Forestry conservation projects have their foundations in those projects.

Terry Ostrowski, President of Earth Conservancy, said. “The 1975 Scarlift study for Nanticoke Creek, Warrior Run and Solomon Creek proposed a project on Espy Run to restore and line the channel that laid the groundwork for the restoration project competed by EC.  Another major contributor to the final design for both the Espy Run project and the Nanticoke Creek project we have currently underway was the 2005 US Army Corps of Engineers Nanticoke Creek Watershed study.  The Espy Run channel design from that study incorporated many of the features in the current Espy Run channel, such as step pools and lining.”

This brief experience at an, admittedly unrelated, meeting changed so much about how I view my work in the timeline of NEPA Conservation

Each seed and seedling planted means something different now. Each project proposal I write, even if unsuccessful, can lay the groundwork for a great project that comes after.

My journey to North Branch Land Trust was not the traditional route of a conservationist. Folks who ask about my undergrad work get a chuckle out of learning I focused on English, French and Writing. Though I suppose that studying Voltaire’s Candide-or Optimism prepared me for just this moment when he wrote, “Il faut cultiver notre jardin.” We must cultivate our own garden.” And what a joy to see those seedlings grow!

A history of Wanamie Colliery can be found here.

Featured image (top) courtesy of Borth Branch Land Trust.