BHE GT&S grant supports local Trout Unlimited chapter’s commitment to restore Glade Run

Dunbar Creek is designated as a Catch-and-Release, Fly-Fishing-Only stream by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

The grant, awarded in 2022 through the BHE GT&S Watershed Mini-Grant Program, pays for water sampling within the Glade Run basin and for the expensive analysis of water samples by an accredited laboratory. The $800 award supplements nearly a half-million dollars invested by the Chestnut Ridge Chapter to restore Glade Run since 1998. Those funds came from the state’s Growing Greener program, the Coldwater Heritage Partnership, the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Fayette County Conservation District, and from funds the chapter raised through its popular annual banquet.

Chestnut Ridge Trout Unlimited, headquartered at Uniontown, constructed a passive acid-mine-drainage treatment system on Glade Run’s headwaters in 2003 and has continued a twice-yearly program of dosing Glade Run and two tributaries with finely crushed limestone “sand” from approved quarry sources since 1998. Both methods neutralize sulfuric acid discharged from inactive mines, and add alkalinity, a chemical property important in aquatic ecosystems. By funding the restoration effort’s water sampling component, the BHE GT&S grant enables Trout Unlimited to track improvements in water quality resulting from its work.

“We considered it tragic that a beautiful mountain stream like Glade Run, flowing for much of its course through state game lands open to public fishing, could not support trout due to pollution from past mining,” said Chestnut Ridge Trout Unlimited vice-president Dennis Croft. “Our efforts over more than two decades have not only brought the stream back to where it can support wild trout, but have benefitted Dunbar Creek and the Youghiogheny River downstream.

We appreciate the support of BHE GT&S, which has helped us to document the progress we’ve made.”

“Financial support for this [water sampling] project is provided by BHE GT&S which is dedicated to the economic, physical, and social health of the communities served by BHE GT&S companies,” said a BHE GT&S spokesperson.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy administers the BHE GT&S Watershed grant program in commitment to its core mission of conserving Pennsylvania’s diverse ecosystems through science-based strategy, leadership, and collaboration.

Chestnut Ridge Trout Unlimited’s Croft acknowledged the cooperation and support of other partners in the effort to restore Glade Run including Pennsylvania Game Commission, Wharton Township Supervisors, Mountain Watershed Association, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, California University of Pennsylvania, and the hundreds of area residents who attended Trout Unlimited’s popular fund-raising banquets over the years.

“Anyone who ever bought a ticket to our banquets also helped in these achievements,” Croft said.