Pennsylvania Legacies

The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership is a small organization with a big name, and even bigger ambitions. Executive Director Julie Slavet explains how TTF works across urban/suburban boundaries to educate and engage residents, and how they leverage collaborations like the Delaware River Watershed Initiative to better steward their corner of Greater Philadelphia.

Here's a pretty good reason to root for the Philadelphia Eagles (even you, Steelers fans): under the team's award-winning Go Green initiative, every field goal they put on the board means another ten trees planted in Bucks County's Neshaminy State Park. We celebrate another tree-planting season with the greenest team in pro sports, and share more opportunities for Pennsylvanians to get involved in...

How do you talk about potentially divisive environmental topics with a hostile audience? Tora Johnson, a University of Maine geographer and keynote speaker at last month’s Statewide Conference for Watershed Organizations, says the key is affirming the dignity of everyone involved. Conversation with Dr. Johnson -- and much more from the watersheds conference -- on this episode.

Who are the creatures in your neighborhood? We go in search of urban wildlife with writer, podcaster, and naturalist Billy Brown. Don’t miss his upcoming Nature Talks lecture hosted by Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership.

The Senate passes a massive public lands bill including permanent reauthorization for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and Pennsylvania's native trout are flourishing thanks to the state- and national-level work of Trout Unlimited. We talk with TU President Chris Wood and Mid-Atlantic Organizer Rob Shane.

Pennsylvania is home to hundreds of small, people-powered organizations dedicated to protecting and restoring local watersheds. These groups are accomplishing great things in their communities, typically on a shoestring budget. But could they be even more effective by coordinating their efforts? PEC's sister organization, the Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers (POWR), is forging a...

Patriots Cove, along Beaver Run in Wyoming County, is more than just a great fishing spot. It's a refuge for brook trout and human beings alike, where injured veterans are healing themselves and one another while helping to restore an impaired stream. Patriots Cove co-founder Jeff Swire is our guest.

There's been plenty of talk about climate in Pennsylvania. Now it's time for action. Davitt Woodwell and John Walliser discuss PEC's just-released policy proposal for putting the Commonwealth on a path to zero carbon emissions.

Despite what you may have heard, environmental causes resonate with Pennsylvanians from all walks of life, throughout the state, and across the political spectrum. Recent polling from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership shows Pennsylvania hunters and anglers in particular are passionate about conservation, irrespective of party affiliation -- and they vote their values.

Vermont Law School is home to the nation's top-ranked environmental law program. Its graduates are also among the best prepared for the real world, thanks to the Semester in Practice program. Davitt Woodwell chats with Vermont Law's Johanna Thibault and fall 2018 PEC legal intern Ethan Story.

With new urgency around the unfolding climate crisis, policy discussions at the state level are intensifying. PEC's policy team has an update and analysis on recent and forthcoming proposals to tackle Pennsylvania's carbon emissions.

As voting begins for 2019 Pennsylvania River of the Year, a chat with Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper's Carol Parenzan about last year's winner, Loyalsock Creek. Then: plenty of groups and government agencies are working independently to restore Pennsylvania's forest lands. Could they make a bigger impact by coordinating their efforts? We explore an emerging statewide reforestation partnership with...

In working to clean up one of Pennsylvania's most impaired urban watersheds, the members of the Wissahickon Clean Water Partnership face a daunting challenge. But the coalition also has a major advantage: a shared recognition that working together is the only way forward. As the initiative pivots to focus on community engagement, we drop in on a public forum held recently in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are both on Bloomberg Philanthropies’ list of 20 American cities being recognized for leading the way on climate action, each receiving up to $2.5 million to accelerate existing sustainability work. We talk with the director of Philly’s Office of Sustainability, Christine Knapp, and Pittsburgh’s Chief Resilience Officer, Grant Ervin. Plus: what does a new state law limi...

Cambria County's business, government, and nonprofit sectors are teaming up with citizens to reinvent the historically flood-ravaged city of Johnstown. We explore Johnstown's evolution through the work of the Vision 2025 initiative and the Laurel Highlands Conservation Landscape.

Participants in the 2018 Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition Summit talk about meeting the challenges of a growing trail network in this excerpt from the Pennsylvania Legacies podcast.

An update on the expired – but not yet extinguished – Land and Water Conservation Fund, and a visit to the 2018 Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition Summit in Morgantown, WV.

As time runs out for the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, we hit the road to discover how LWCF funding has enhanced parks and public lands across the Commonwealth -- and why it's so urgently important for Congress to reauthorize the Fund before September 30.

Without congressional reauthorization, the Land and Water Conservation Fund will expire on September 30. What would that mean for Pennsylvania? And what can we do about it?

Pennsylvania is getting ready to tackle the next phase of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, with a new emphasis on getting things done at the county level. But will it be enough to get us back on track after a disappointing EPA assessment? We'll get an update from Harry Campbell of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and take a ride on a historic railroad line that could become the setting for northeastern P...

Pennsylvania's first-in-the-nation recycling law is 30 years old this summer. Act 101 helped launch a multibillion-dollar industry and trained a generation of Pennsylvanians to drop their bottles and cans in the blue bin. But changing market conditions and consumer behaviors have prompted calls for an overhaul to the 1988 legislation. Justin Stockdale of the Pennsylvania Resource Council is our gu...

Community gardens and CSAs make it easy for apartment-dwellers to access fresh, locally-grown produce. What if you could apply the same concept to sell homegrown electrons to utility customers? As lawmakers set the stage for community solar projects to move forward, PEC energy analyst Alissa Burger explains how the model could help transform the market for clean energy in Pennsylvania.

On this episode: how the Super Bowl LII Champion Philadelphia Eagles became the greenest team in pro sports, plus news from the Laurel Highlands Conservation Landscape.

A deep dive into Pennsylvania's new alternative utility ratemaking law, and a visit to the soon-to-reopen Climax Tunnel on Clarion County's Redbank Valley Trail.

The PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has received national recognition for the work of its Trails Advisory Committee. A conversation with committee chair Andy Hamilton, and news about DCNR's plans for confronting climate change, on this episode.