Perkiomen watershed award for township
Municipality recognized for storwmaterrelated projects
The township has formally received an award for efforts to keep a local watershed clean.
The 2017 Municipal Award from the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy was officially presented at a recent conservancy gala, roughly two months after the township was notified of the award in mid-August.
For the past several years, Upper Gwynedd has developed and implemented a “Skippack Headwaters TMDL Abatement Program” meant to reduce the total maximum daily load of sediment entering local waterways during heavy rain events. The program focused on three projects: stream bank restoration along a tributary of the Zacharias Creek; retrofitting of a stormwater basin near Conrad Avenue with native plant material; and restoration of roughly 600 feet of banks along the Zacharias Creek itself.
The third project also included a redesign of the stream channel and re-establishment of the riparian buffer, according to information from the township and the conservancy.
The award itself, a wooden paddle with the Conservancy’s logo inscribed above an image of two persons paddling on a body of water, will be displayed at the township administration building, 1 Parkside Place.
The Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy is a regional organization that was established in 1974 to conserve and protect the Perkiomen Creek watershed, which encompasses roughly 362 square miles within 55 municipalities in Berks, Bucks, Lehigh and Montgomery counties.