Media Advisory
Public Forum Explores Threats to Little Mahoning Creek

Day:                            Thursday, May 17, 2007

Location:                    The Marion Center Community Park Hall
                                    (across from Marion Center High School)

Time:                          6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
 
Key Points:    
 

• A public meeting to discuss the Little Mahoning Creek Aquatic Habitat Restoration Initiative. The primary goal of the initiative is to protect this unique watershed from the impacts of agriculture, dirt and gravel roads, and gas well drilling sites.
• The meeting is designed to inform the public about the project and give local residents an opportunity to provide input.
• Area residents are encouraged to attend the meeting and provide comments about the project.
• The stream is home to a number of mussel, fish, and aquatic insect species, and is also inhabited by the eastern hellbender salamander. Rare and threatened species have thrived in these waters.
• Recent developments are beginning to take a toll on this resilient waterway.
• The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) completed a visual assessment of the watershed in December 2006, and findings derived from that effort indicated significant impairments resulting from accelerated erosion and sediment deposition.

For more information, contact Nick Pinizzotto of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy at (724) 459-0953 ext. 100.

                                                                          ###

About the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy:
Since its founding in 1932, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has protected more than 212,000 acres of natural lands in Pennsylvania, restored watersheds and saved natural habitats for a diversity of life and uses.  The Conservancy has been responsible for the founding of six state parks, including Ohiopyle, Laurel Ridge, McConnell’s Mill, Moraine, Oil Creek and Erie Bluffs.  In addition, WPC created the 300-acre Wildflower Reserve at Raccoon Creek State Park, and added land to Blue Knob State Park.

The WPC also preserves Fallingwater®, the masterpiece home designed in 1935 by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar J. Kaufmann in Mill Run, Pennsylvania.  In 1963, Edgar Kaufmann jr. (sic) entrusted Fallingwater to the Conservancy.  Today, WPC continues its award winning preservation efforts and offers a wide variety of educational programs to more than 135,000 annual visitors.  The preservation of Fallingwater is a symbol of living in harmony with nature. 

Each year, WPC also partners with 5,000 volunteers and dozens of community organizations and businesses to plant and maintain more than 135 gardens and greening projects in 20 western Pennsylvania counties.

High resolution photographs are available upon request.

###