News/Events

Grant Funding for Community Association Dirt, Gravel, and Low-volume Road Maintenance

April, 2023

The Lake Wallenpaupack Watershed Management District is pleased to announce a brand new program designed to assist community associations in better caring for privately owned dirt, gravel, and low-volume roads. Proper maintenance practices on privately owned roads can help maintain property values, reduce long-term costs to associations, and most importantly- prevent sediment and stormwater pollution to Lake Wallenpaupack and surrounding streams. Associations must be located within the Lake Wallenpaupack watershed to participate. Maps are available on our website to help make this determination. This program is funded through a PA Department of Environmental Protection Growing Greener Grant and will consist of an educational workshop and a competitive grant program.

We will be hosting the Penn State Center for Dirt, Gravel, and Low-volume Road Studies to present an educational workshop on environmentally sensitive maintenance practices for community association roads. Attendees will learn proper techniques to address drainage, erosion, surface material deficiencies, and other common maintenance issues. Association board members, residents, staff, and contractors are encouraged to attend the workshop and learn about the most current science-based solutions to road maintenance issues.

Any association attending the training session will then be eligible to pursue competitive grant funding to help complete improvement projects within their association road systems. Associations will be responsible for matching 25% of project costs. For additional requirements and information, please refer to the program announcement below.

Lake Wallenpaupack- Funding Announcement

To register for the workshop, Click Here

Cost-Share Program

The Lake Wallenpaupack Watershed Management District (LWWMD) expects the open application period for our 2024 Cost-Share Program to begin in mid-summer. The program is designed to provide financial assistance to landowners and keep Lake Wallenpaupack clean. Grant funding is awarded for projects in the Lake Wallenpaupack watershed that will help protect water quality. These projects may include shoreline erosion stabilization, stream bank erosion stabilization, storm water improvements, and agricultural improvements. Contact LWWMD if you have questions about your project/location eligibility.

2024 will be the fourteenth year of this successful program. Residential, commercial, and community properties are eligible. Grants may provide up to a 50% match of project cost; up to a maximum of $10,000. (For example-If your project cost is $20,000 the LWWMD may provide a $10,000 match.) Priority will be given to projects that reduce or eliminate the flow of pollutants into Lake Wallenpaupack and those that provide greater than 50% landowner match. Landowner match may be in-kind(materials/labor/etc.) or cash.

SEPARATE AGRICULTURAL APPLICATION -Agricultural Projects have a separate application and different maximum award. Applicants wishing to submit the Agricultural Application must qualify under the “Pennsylvania Right to Farm Law” (see link below). Those who do not qualify under this law are still eligible to submit a standard application for an agricultural project.

To preview the application for 2024, please click on the link below. Applications change very little from one year to another.

Funding for the LWWMD Cost-Share Program is provided by Brookfield Renewable through the FERC Relicensing Settlement Agreement of 2006.
2023 Cost Share Grant Application(.doc)
2023 AGRICULTURAL Cost Share Grant Application(.doc)
Fact Sheet- PA Right to Farm Law

For more information, contact Nick Spinelli, Executive Director at 570-226-3865, or nick@wallenpaupackwatershed.org.

Cooperative Habitat Improvement Program (CHIP)
Building fish habitat at Lake Wallenpaupack with the PA Fish and Boat Commission

Habitat Project for 2022 on hold

Map of Habitat Structures with GPS Locations

When Lake Wallenpaupack was built in the 1920’s, construction crews removed all of the structures in the Wallenpaupack Valley to make way for the lake. Some years however, crews are busy putting structures back in the lake, albeit a different kind of structure. Early in 2013, the Lake Wallenpaupack Watershed Management District partnered with the PA Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) to improve fish habitat in the lake through their Cooperative Habitat Improvement Program (CHIP). The CHIP program utilizes the resources and expertise of the PFBC and the local knowledge of groups like the Lake Wallenpaupack Watershed District. Since 2013, we’ve helped install appx. 100 porcupine cribs in various locations around the lake. As with most things, covid cancelled some of our habitat plans, and changed the rest. We haven’t had a volunteer-scale project since then, but we’ve still been doing lots of planning work and last year we installed structures without volunteers.

In 2021, 60 “Short Vertical Plank Structures” were installed in Lake Wallenpaupack, thanks in large part to the voluntary Bass Stamp funding. These structures are specifically designed by fisheries biologists to provide improved habitat in impoundments (man-made lakes) lacking natural habitat. According to the PFBC, “Artificial fish habitat may provide opportunities for anglers to have greater success if the artificial habitat is accessible. But the main objective, is to increase the abundance of submerged native habitat materials, primarily, wood and rock rubble, through engineered structure design that mimics native or natural habitat found in Pennsylvania impoundments. Wood and rock rubble are the key habitat elements that invertebrate and vertebrate animals use in lakes and impoundments. When the utilization aspect of fish habitat improvement increases the anglers’ success and provides opportunities for aquatic animals to increase in abundance and in efficiency, it is a win-win lake management tool.”

The CHIP partnership has been a great benefit for Lake Wallenpaupack and we’re planning for several different types of habitat being installed in the lake. “For many years, we’ve been working on establishing a relationship with anglers,” said Spinelli. “We want people to make the connection between healthy lakes and healthy fish populations. If we can get people interested in building fish habitat, maybe we can also get them interested in other ways to help protect the lake from pollution and accomplish the Watershed District’s Mission.”

Check back frequently for new announcements and other programs!