Master Watershed Steward Tim Matthews aims to make conservation family-friendly

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Volunteering as a Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward has enabled Tim Matthews to combine his skills and interests and engage with his community to design family-friendly projects aimed at protecting and improving the environment.

Matthews was a science teacher and then a systems and software engineer before completing the Master Watershed Steward training in 2022. During his time in the program, Matthews has led several long-term projects in the Silver Lake Watershed in Susquehanna County, including planting riparian buffers, monitoring water health and developing wildlife videos to share with the public. Matthews focuses on cultivating volunteer opportunities for families.

“Parents appreciate opportunities for their children to be outside working side-by-side with neighbors and new friends to connect with their environment,” Matthews said. “The projects yield a concrete feeling of community; people, young and old, working together for everyone’s benefit. If you get children to feel that they’re a part of their environment, they’ll care about their local environment as adults, too.”

At Silver Lake, the loss of many ash trees near inlet and outlet streams has provided an opportunity for a stream bank forest with long-term benefits for the watershed. Matthews has coordinated the planting of riparian buffers, which are beneficial for filtering runoff, decreasing erosion, reducing stormwater effects and capturing excess nutrients.

“We’ve found that if the task is clear in scope and duration, many people are looking for opportunities to make a positive impact on the environment,” he said. “Including the opportunity for children to work alongside adults and put their energy into protecting their environment is rewarding and builds life-long connections.”

Monitoring water health in the watershed is another key component of Matthews’ volunteer work. About 15 years ago, an invasive species of fish called alewife was introduced to Silver Lake and quickly caused a significant environmental imbalance.

“Alewife eat the zooplankton that normally control levels of green algae,” he explained. “With an overpopulation of alewife, the zooplankton population plummeted and the green algae flourished. The normally clear lake became pea-soup green.”

With research and education, Matthews and other volunteers designed a fish-stocking project that uses trout to control the alewife population. Children and adults participate in releasing trout into the lake.

In addition to helping construct a raptor nest to encourage breeding pairs to visit Silver Lake, Matthews has shared videos about the wildlife that calls the area home. Using trail cameras, he has captured footage of wildlife such as black bears, great horned owls, gray foxes and snapping turtles.

“We can share videos with friends and family around the globe,” he added. “There’s a lot of positive feedback from those who appreciate the beauty of the environment and the interesting and surprising behaviors of the local fauna.”

Looking to the future, Matthews is continuing to develop a water monitoring project that was launched after the occurrence of a large blue-green algae bloom in Silver Lake. The long-term goal is to work on ways to adsorb phosphorus from stream water before it enters the lake.

“We started monitoring to determine what triggered the bloom,” Matthews said. “Blue-green algal blooms have an associated toxin that can be harmful to people and pets. We tested 27 inlet sites and eventually narrowed the sources of high nutrient input to three inlet streams. The sources of high levels of phosphorus look to be legacy agriculture, current animal pasturing and an unpaved dirt road.”

Jeremy Leaidicker, Master Watershed Steward coordinator for the Endless Mountains region, said the Master Watershed Steward program and its volunteers fill a community role that sometimes goes unrecognized.

“Volunteer citizen scientists provide water quality data that may not be accessible through other means due to a lack of manpower or budget restrictions,” he said. “Providing educational content also helps create awareness of things like stormwater management and invasive species control.”

For Matthews, designing projects based on specific local needs and issues is very satisfying.

“The Master Watershed Steward program provides opportunities for action beyond just talking about problems,” he said. “Working with neighbors who become friends and getting to know their children and families is at the heart of building our communities.”

Leaidicker added, “Tim works well with all the volunteers and has created great relationships with some of our local partnering organizations. His dedication to protecting water quality is clear to all who meet him.”

The Penn State Master Watershed Steward program provides extensive training in watershed management to volunteers who, in return, educate the community about watershed stewardship based on university research and recommendations. The program was established to strengthen local capacity for management and protection of watersheds, streams and rivers by educating and empowering volunteers across the commonwealth.

Anyone interested in becoming a Master Watershed Steward can learn more at the program’s website.