EPCAMR

10/20/2026

Check out our Rock Star ⭐️ Bonner Leader from Wilkes University!! Ian Padden!! 🙌🏼😎🤘🏻

An environmental engineering major, a sustainability management minor, a mine reclamation intern, an Eagle Scout, a Bonner Leader, a director and producer for WilkesNOW, a bassist, a drummer and a scare actor walk into a professor’s office. The professor says, “Hi, Ian.”

All kidding aside, the amount of course work, community service, campus activities and entertainment Ian Padden fits into a day is no joke. Since his first days on campus, the junior from Laurel Run, Pennsylvania, has carved out a niche that’s uniquely his own, learning, leading and helping every step of the way.

“I like spending my time doing things that are valuable to me and trying to brighten other people’s days along the way,” says Padden. “I like to be that guy.”

When “that guy” was in the college search process, Wilkes was one of 11 colleges he applied to and one of four he toured. Though some other schools made decent offers, one thing drew Padden to Wilkes — the personal touch. Nelson Anaya, assistant professor of mechanical and electrical engineering, met with Padden and showed off the labs in the Mark Engineering Center during his visit.

To learn more about Ian, visit News at Wilkes!
https://bit.ly/4ywndgB

10/17/2026

We definitely need to get PFAS out of our waterways. It can be found in data center discharge water as well. We know AMD is bad too, but there are so many other chemicals in our waterways that it’s important to protect them all.

10/17/2026

We spent an hour or so this afternoon following the rain 🌧️ in the morning and before the rain in the afternoon in the City of Pittston Riverfront Park with our friends who work at PA Inclusive for some outdoor environmental education while the sun was shining. The activities were led by Leah Malarkey and Lauren Holder. Bobby Hughes and Jakob Snipes, EPCAMR Conservation Legacy AmeriCorps Stewards Individual Placements VISTA volunteer assisted with the activities that included nature art.

They completed a Sound Mapping Art activity where they listened quietly to what they heard around them in all directions and then wrote down what they heard and tried to draw the images of what sounds they heard in nature. They heard lots of things from birds, to crickets, to ospreys, cars, ducks, and the wind. 💨 Leah even heard Bobby talking, but couldn’t draw him except to write his name a few times on the white board, so Bobby went ahead and had drawn a skinny version of himself with a wooly bu**er caterpillar 🐛 on his hat. Everyone thought his drawing was spot on.

They were shown different bark types of trees in case they wanted to run paper on the wood 🪵 logs to create a textured art piece.

They also put leaves down on paper that were heat sheets that when leaves were placed over them it would turn them colors after dipping the sheets in water and create an outline of each of the leaves. 🍁 Perfect fall activity!

They also created some fossil rubbings of dinosaurs 🦕 and fossils. They even got to write ✍️ and draw with our iron oxide chalk on some old school chalk boards that were donated to EPCAMR years ago that used to be in all the classrooms of many schools in the area.

Bobby donated a half of dozen or more pieces of chalk to each of the participants before they left in the afternoon. He also gave them each a copy of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s Look Before You Toss Open Your Eyes to Litter activity book he picked up recently at their conference yesterday. They seemed to have had a great time. This project is being administered and funded by a PA Department of Environmental Protection Environmental Education grant managed by the Luzerne Conservation District.

10/16/2026

Big shout out to our newest top fans! 💎

Erin Eileen Portland, Paul Otruba

Please continue to share our page and get us to a goal of 5000 followers! Thanks Erin and Paul! We appreciate the support and the organic sharing of our page and posts when you have the time.

10/14/2026

The Student Symposium on the Environment will once again be hosted by Westminster College and will take place on December 3, 2026. The event is free and open to the public. It is always a great event and Stream Restoration Incorporated encourages anyone who is interested in hearing about and supporting student research on environmental issues to attend. Submission Deadline for students is November 19. Please see below information. If you know a professor or student who might be interested please feel free to forward to them. We’re just helping our colleague, Cliff Denholm out. It’s located pretty far west in PA, but it’s an opportunity for students to get their research out there and to talk about it.

10/14/2026

On Saturday Mark, Ian, Kali, and Carolyn had the pleasure of attending the fall festival at Bear Creek Community Charter School. Kids and adults explored our macroinvertebrate specimens using magnifiers, played macro bingo, and learned about EPCAMR's efforts to support clean water for NEPA. Thank you, Bear Creek, for having us!

10/14/2026

A C+ is not a grade we should be satisfied with receiving. All jurisdictions can be doing a better job, but we can’t have funding cuts that prevent us from doing the improvements and practices on the ground that are sorely needed.

The overall bay cleanup, according to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, gets a C+ in the 20th annual Chesapeake Bayand Watershed Report Card.

10/14/2026

Aquatic connectivity is key to the migration of trout and other fish species when the bridges and culverts are aligned and don’t have signs of impediments, blockages, and other woody debris at the intakes, or deep scour pools below culverts that prevent the passage of the fish to higher elevations in the tributaries and headwaters. We perform these assessments throughout the year and certify volunteers in Aquatic Organism Passage through NAACC.

10/12/2026

We’ll be having a presentation by Louis Krak, from PA DEP at our annual PA Abandoned Mine Reclamation conference next week on grant navigation. Registration has now closed.

The Shapiro Administration has launched new tools through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) designed to make it easier for Pennsylvanians to figure out what permits they may need for a project and find funding to support environmental improvements.