DiscoverNEPA is partnering with American Rivers, a national leader in protecting and restoring rivers throughout the United States. In this space, they’ll offer insight and tips on keeping our rivers clean and healthy as well as updates on the organization’s local efforts and initiatives taking place right here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Our Rivers Need Protection All Year Round
At first glance, it sometimes seems like all of the action on rivers takes place in the warmer months. That’s when we get out on boats or to swim, and it’s when the fish and other wildlife are most active. During the winter, much of life in and around rivers goes dormant, a process that biologists call “overwintering”. For many people, winter for rivers is a time of rest. It’s also a time when river ecosystems are particularly fragile, and when protecting them is most important.
With the leaves off the trees, it can be easier to see how rivers traverse the land. Winter hikers may find it’s easier to see how land around the river slopes down towards it. They may notice places where the riverbanks are high and steep, or where lower banks allow the river to flood into low forests and meadows (known as floodplains). With fewer birds and animals, the sound of the water becomes more noticeable. It’s also a time when the lack of vegetation allows us to see where small creeks and streams are tucked away within our downtowns—behind a shopping center, or running underneath a street. If we look closely, winter lets us know that we all live within a watershed.

What happens to aquatic animals when it gets cold out?
Most fish go into a hibernation of sorts to conserve energy while food is scarce. As the water cools, their metabolism slows and they need to eat less. Many species gather in the deepest parts of the river, where the water is warmest. Some may burrow down into the mud and go fully dormant, like frogs and other amphibians. Stream bugs, on the other hand, match their life cycle to weather, with the adults dying off as the weather cools, and the young overwinter as eggs or larvae.
With so many aquatic animals in hibernation mode—focused only on surviving—it’s important that their bodies are not put under additional stress. People, unbothered as we are by the need to hibernate, can unknowingly cause a great deal of stress to winter river ecosystems. One of the most significant stressors comes from road salt, which can cause big changes in water chemistry that can badly stress the animals that make it their home.

Of course, road salt is also an important part of how people stay safe during the winter
But there are things we can do to reduce the impact. First, making sure to only use what’s needed, and to avoid over-applying salt to our driveways and streets. Most towns manage road salt application through their public works departments. Residents can ask what town managers are doing to ensure that road salting practices are done in accordance with best practices.
Perhaps even more importantly, protecting the land alongside the river or stream—known as the “riparian buffer zone” —can have significant benefits in the wintertime. In places where parking lots and roads are very close to streams, it’s easy for salt to wash off during periods of snow melt. But, if land alongside the stream is left as forest or meadow, salty runoff has room to absorb into the ground and be taken up by plants over a wider area, reducing its impact to the ecosystem. For many years, Pennsylvania’s state government has considered establishing laws that would protect these critical riparian buffers, and hearing from the public about the importance of this issue can encourage them to make river-friendly decisions.
Rivers are magical places, even during the coldest months. American Rivers is proud of our work to protect and restore the rivers of Northeast Pennsylvania and across the country. Visit our website or join our movement to learn more.