Photos by Michelle Johnsen
You showed up big time for our streams and rivers this Lancaster Water Week! More than a dozen partners hosted over 40 events ranging from river paddles to poetry readings. We filled Penn Square in downtown Lancaster City with native plants and music on First Friday. We distributed native trees, shrubs, and wildflower seeds before enjoying the kickoff performance of the Long’s Park Summer Music Series. We paddled the Conestoga, joined workshops at the Lancaster Science Factory, toured rain gardens and wetlands, explored underwater with a film night, tested our Lancaster County knowledge with trivia, and cleaned up our community.
Since it began in 2017, Lancaster Water Week has celebrated the many partners, organizations, and volunteers caring for our cricks and creeks. During the week of events, we encourage ourselves and our community to reflect on the importance of healthy waterways and consider what we can do to help them thrive.
One of the best steps we can take to care for our waterways is planting native trees. Working with the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership, we gave away over 1,700 native trees and shrubs during the 7th annual Lancaster Water Week! These trees and shrubs will prevent pollutants from entering our waterways, absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife, among many other benefits.
Photo by Kelly Snavely
Planting trees is one way we can restore streams to health – and keep them healthy – but sometimes we have to get our gloves dirty in other ways to undo damage that has already been done. During the Water Week Community Cleanup, we visited five sites around Lancaster to pick up trash and prevent it from continuing downstream or harming wildlife. Volunteers removed almost 10 tons of trash from just two of the five cleanup locations, and they pulled 200 tires out of the Conestoga River.
And we can’t forget our epic Water Week beers – the Cocalico Dark Lager and Conestoga American Pale Ale brewed by Pour Man’s Brewing Company and Our Town Brewery – which sold out all over Lancaster County! A portion of the sales from each beer went towards our clean water efforts.
Thank you to everyone who participated in a 2023 Lancaster Water Week event or picked up a native tree to plant, to our partners who hosted events and helped energize our community around healthy waterways, and to our sponsors who make Water Week possible! Your positive impact on our waterways is clear, and because of you, we are optimistic that we can restore Lancaster County streams and rivers to health in our lifetime!
