Pennsylvania Legacies

The newest member of PEC's Trails team is a veteran of the movement for safe and equitable access to active transportation in big cities. Program manager Emilia Crotty talks about her experience as director of LA Walks, Los Angeles's premier pedestrian advocacy organization, and how it informs the equity work she's now doing for PEC on behalf of the Circuit Trails Coalition.

People need plants to live. Plants need carbon and nitrogen to grow. But there’s too much carbon in the atmosphere and not enough in the ground, especially on farmland degraded by generations of unsustainable practices, while rivers and streams are full of nitrogen that should be nourishing crops. Can regenerative and holistic farming methods set things right? A conversation with Hannah Smith-Brubaker of PASA Sustainable Agriculture, ahead of PASA’s upcoming 2022 Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Lancaster.

Interest in the outdoors skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, opening the doors for big investments in recreation, conservation, and climate. Most recently, billions in new funding for outdoor recreation and alternative transportation are now available with last month’s passage of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We discuss with Charles Cooper, Managing Director with Signal Advocacy and a Co-Chair of Signal Outdoors.

From the formation of fossil fuel deposits to the tectonic ballet that gave us the Appalachian Mountains, geologic events occurring hundreds of millions of years ago made the Keystone State what it is today. These events also created the distinctive regional topographies by which DCNR's Conservation Landscapes program is organized. We explore the links between outdoor recreation, climate change, and Pennsylvania's geological history with DCNR's Kristen Hand.

With the energy market changing, power-generation companies must reassess their business models. Rather than cut their losses and move on, Talen Energy of Allentown, PA, is looking at ways to keep facilities open by exploring other options for their plants, like battery storage and digital currency mining. We discuss with Julie LaBella, Talen’s Senior Director for Regulatory and External Affairs.

The problem of plastic polluting the ocean has been a popular topic for a while. But until about 10 years ago, no one was studying the prevalence of plastics in fresh water. Dr. Sherri Mason, Director of Sustainability at Penn State Erie, was one of the first to look into plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. We speak with her about her research on microplastics, and what it means for ecosystem and human health.

The mission of Penn State Extension is to bring the scientific and practical expertise of PSU researchers and faculty throughout the Commonwealth. But even with offices in every county, extension staff can’t be everywhere at once. That’s where master volunteers come in. PSU Extension's Master Gardener program is familiar to many, but did you know you can also train to become a Master Watershed Steward? We talk with program coordinator Erin Frederick.

PEC's Senior VP for Legal & Government Affairs, John Walliser, joins us for an update on the climate and energy, outdoor recreation, and conservation legislation to watch in the coming months.

Philadelphia's trails took a beating from Hurricane Ida, and some will take months to recover. Two weeks after the floodwaters receded, we look at conditions along the Schuylkill River Trail with representatives from the City and the Schuylkill River Greenways National Heritage Area.

We celebrate Pennsylvania Trails Month with a preview of this year's PEC Public Lands Ride and the 11th annual PEC Environment Ride.

An aerial map of tree canopy in any large U.S. city will also give you a relatively accurate picture of income and racial demographics. With little exception, the more tree cover a neighborhood has, the more likely it is to be wealthy and predominantly white. Tree Equity Score, a new tool by American Forests, helps quantify this disparity. Ian Leahy, VP of Urban Forestry at American Forests, walks us through the process of developing Tree Equity Score, and how it can be used to promote healthier, greener cities.

There are 349 rare, threatened, or endangered native plant species in Pennsylvania. The habitats they call home are as diverse as the plants themselves. As the climate changes, new challenges will arise for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the group in charge of managing these habitats and protecting Pennsylvania’s rare plants. On this episode, DCNR botanist Andrew Rohrbaugh discusses what the future may hold for Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable flora.

It's one thing for an environmental organization to tout its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It's another thing to live out that commitment at the level of programming and daily activities. On this episode: how Philadelphia's Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership is innovating upon its mission to protect the watershed and better serve all its residents.

Billions of dollars' worth of solar panels and other components are flowing into the U.S. from China, feeding a market increasingly hungry for renewable energy. Many are made with materials linked to alleged forced-labor practices in the Xinjiang region. As the market heats up and trans-Pacific trade relations become strained, a new supply chain traceability protocol created by the Solar Energy Industries Association offers importers a way to prove their products are ethically and sustainably sourced.

Trails can be a tremendous economic opportunity for small towns – but all the funding and political muscle in the world won’t matter if a trail project doesn’t address real community needs and center community voices. In her new book, trails advocate and community-builder Amy Camp explains why the most successful Trail Town initiatives are built on an authentic local “trails culture” and a community-wide decision to invest in trails.

In the perennial swing state of Pennsylvania, elections are often decided by voters who don’t identify with either political party – and recent polling shows Independents have swung hard on the issue of climate. With 3 out of 4 Pennsylvanians now voicing serious concern about the impacts of climate change, what’s the political cost of inaction? Analysis from Jim Lee, CEO of Susquehanna Polling & Research, and Franz Litz of Litz Energy Strategies LLC.

Nobody knows exactly how many orphaned oil and gas wells dot the Pennsylvania landscape, but even conservative estimates put the number well into the hundreds of thousands. Every day these defunct facilities remain unplugged, they’re emitting greenhouse gases, contaminating groundwater, and compromising air quality. Their owners are nowhere to be found, leaving the Commonwealth holding the bag and largely unable to meet the costs of remediation. The recently introduced REGROW Act would provide billions of federal dollars for orphan well cleanup across the U.S. What would it mean for Pennsylvania? Analysis from Adam Peltz, Senior Attorney with Environmental Defense Fund.

In 1971, Pennsylvania became the first state to guarantee citizens' rights to clean air, pure water, and a healthy environment. Fifty years later, the state legislator who led the campaign for Pennsylvania's Environmental Rights Amendment is taking it to the next level. In his new book, Franklin Kury makes the case for a federal constitutional amendment to meet the unprecedented threat of climate change.

For most of its history in academia, ecological studies has been centered on STEM disciplines. But an emerging interdisciplinary movement is opening the environmental field to new scholarly approaches and bringing new voices into the discussion. PEC’s Lily Jones speaks with John MacNeill Miller, a professor of English literature at Allegheny College, about his work exploring the link between humans and non-human systems through a cultural lens.

As Pennsylvania weighs a new DEP rule that would expand leak detection and repair requirements for oil and gas producers, there's new research on the integrity of relatively low-producing "stripper" wells. Such facilities would remain exempt under Pennsylvania's current rulemaking, but a University of Cincinnati study suggests they're among the leakiest well sites in Appalachia. We speak with the author, Dr. Amy Townsend-Small.