UNION COUNTY, Pa. — There are plenty of trees, grasses, and shrubs surrounding a section of Turtle Creek near Lewisburg, but it did not look this way ten years ago.
"There were cattle in the stream, on the stream banks. There were no grasses, no trees. The stream banks were falling into the stream," Dave Rebuck said.
All of that sediment washed through Turtle Creek into the Susquehanna River and into the Chesapeake Bay. It affected the water quality.
About ten years ago, the landowner reached out to the Union County Conservation District about the erosion problems.
"A lot of the goal is to put something on the bank that's actually a stable surface and avoid those areas where there is just exposed soil," said watershed specialist Savannah Rhoads.
Sections of the stream were restored over the last decade. It now has protection from erosion.
"Fertilizer, manure, herbicides, whatever it might be, this buffer is now protecting this stream by filtering it all out before it gets to that stream," Rebuck said.
Water quality has drastically improved in Turtle Creek, enough to delist sections of the stream from the Impaired Waters list. Various state and local agencies were involved in the project.
"It's such a cause for celebration to see the efforts of this partnership result in delisting parts of this stream," Rebuck said.
As a result of the improved water quality, officials say aquatic life has returned to sections of Turtle Creek.