ProjectGreenLancaster

LandStudies has a master green plan of recreating the Earth’s natural habitat.

By Keya Summers

LandStudies in Lititz Pennsylvania has been landscaping sustainably for 25 years. They believe that understanding and working with natural systems, instead of artificially controlling them, provides longer lasting results. The LandStudies team works with local non-profits, both financially and with volunteers, to help create a restored future.

Photo By Keya Summers

Photo By Keya Summers

Since 1989, LandStudies developed award-winning watershed models over the past 15 years for the Lititz Run Watershed Alliance (LRWA) and the Borough of Lititz in Lancaster County, PA. Their goal is to target locations based on water quality benefits and the availability to redesign the sites. The planning approach includes four components such as community organization, public outreach/education, management planning, and project implementation.

An example of their partnership was restoring New Street Ecological Park in Lititz. The Santo Domingo Creek that runs through that park has been significantly altered by historical human activities. The challenge was to restore the floodplain down to its natural elevation and create wetland pockets to avoid future erosion. The workers also had to realign the river channel through farming operations. The final stage of this project was installing native vegetation selected for its adaptation of flooding. The vegetation itself will provide uptake for some the undesirable nutrients otherwise carried downstream.

BEFORE:

Photo By: https://landstudies.com/new-street-ecological-park/

NOW

Photo By Keya Summers

Photo By Keya Summers

Photo By Keya Summers

The overall results left a more stable, natural system with improved water quality. Currently the diverse native vegetation and walking trails has become an aesthetic asset to the employees of the Rock Lititz campus located nearby as well as the local community. “Lititz is much cleaner today than it was 15 years ago,” said Matt Schavnis; field operations supervisor for LandStudies. Excavation for restoration removed the following quantities of sediment and nutrients:

Made By Keya Summers

Once they restore a property, they manage upkeep and focus on public outreach through education. LandStudies offers tours, online informational packets, and resources available for schools, scouts, and education groups to learn about geology. Of their 100 green infrastructure sites in Pennsylvania, 30 of them are located near Lancaster County. LandStudies wants to spread the information to its local tour sites through their vast experience in water resource management and watershed planning. If you are not local, but want more information about the background of water management and river restoration, click here to be redirected to a website all about the history of restoring rivers and streams. The overall goal is to improve community well-being and provide economic value to future stakeholders. Each tour offered is hands-on and participants get to explore the tour site of their choice. Some of their local tour sites are as followed:

If you’re looking to get more hands-on involved in protecting the Earth, LandStudies partners with Lititz Run Watershed Alliance (LRWA) in happily taking volunteers to help clean watersheds and rivers. For those who may not know, a watershed is the land that water flows across or under downstream. The decisions we make everyday affect how the Earth’s soil, water, air, plants, and animals affect our water management. As a non-profit, their vision is to have a community join together to improve their water quality. Any age can help serve the township’s various duties to shaping the community’s future. If you wish to serve in the landscaping committee, there is a form online that gets sent to that applied district. If you need advanced notice on the meeting dates, here’s a list of them for the rest of this year.

Every meeting begins at 4pm and are held at the Warwick Township Municipal Building in your interested in the Lititz area cleanup. Usually the Lititz Run begins in Lititz Springs Park, which is their main park located in the heart of Lititz, and flows through Lititz and Warwick Township’s numerous springs. Eventually it flows into the Conestoga River, thus dumping into the Chesapeake Bay.  If you are not located in Lititz, go online to seek your closest municipal building to get started volunteering in your district.

Sources

“Home.” LandStudies, landstudies.com/. “LRWA Meeting Schedule.” Warwick Township, www.warwicktownship.org/lititz-run-watershed-alliance/pages/lrwa-meeting-schedule. “New Street Ecological Park.” LandStudies, 31 Oct. 2016, landstudies.com/new-street-ecological-park/. “New Street Ecological Park Stream Corridor and Floodplain Restoration.” Warwick Township, LandStudies, www.warwicktownship.org/sites/warwickpa/files/file/file/ls-new_street.pdf. Palmer, Margaret A., and J. David Allan. “Restoring Rivers.” Issues in Science and Technology 22, no. 2 (Winter 2006). “Santo Domingo Creek Floodplain Restoration at Rock Lititz.” LandStudies, 12 Mar. 2017, landstudies.com/santo-domingo-creek-floodplain-restoration-rock-lititz/.