State and federal agencies. Hunters and anglers. Elementary schools. A privately owned landfill. What do they all have in common? In northeastern Pennsylvania, they’re working together to protect wildlife habitat and educate neighbors about local flora and fauna.
Every year the Northeast Environmental Partners recognize projects and initiatives that demonstrate the power of broad-based collaboration for meeting environmental challenges, an ethic PEC calls “conservation through cooperation.” Often the most impactful cooperation happens at the intersection of shared interests, overlapping missions, and mutually beneficial outcomes like those jointly pursued by these 2021 Northeast Environmental Partnership awardees:
Alliance Landfill received an award for their outreach and educational programs designed to support lifelong learning in the community, and for efforts to make their facility in Lackawanna County more hospitable to American kestrels and other threatened or endangered species.
The Northeast Regional Office of the Pennsylvania Game Commission was recognized for its numerous educational program offerings including the annual Envirothon in partnership with County Conservation Districts, providing wildlife education to high school students, their “Grow with the Flow” program, and their many Hunters Safety programs. These programs support the agency’s goals to protect flora, fauna, and downstream natural resources; enhance habitat; protect natural lands; restore streams; manage and enhance wetlands; and reduce invasive species — all to benefit the wildlife, fishery resources and outdoor recreation of the over 415,000 acres of state game lands.
The Northeast Environmental Partners include PEC, the Pennsylvania DCNR, Pennsylvania DEP, PPL Corporation, Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, and Wilkes University. Get to know the 2021 Thomas P. Shelburne and Young Emerging Leader award winners here, and stay tuned for more video profiles of 2021’s most successful and inspiring efforts.