NATURAL RESOURCES FOR GREENE COUNTY
Department of Economic Development
Robbie Matesic, Executive Director of Economic Development 49 South Washington Street, Waynesburg, PA 15370
Phone: 724-852-5300 / Fax: 724-852-2944
Office Hours: 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday—Friday
Natural Resources:
There are many significant natural resources in Greene County including biological diversity areas, a High Quality Watershed, and a number of high quality warm water fisheries and trout stocked fisheries. The County's Comprehensive Plan recognizes the sensitive environmental characteristics that are so integral to the County’s quality of life and establishes County-level development policies for growth and future growth areas to lesson the potential harmful affects of development to these locations.
The Monongahela River is classified as a Warm Water Fishery and continues to support commerce and is a focus of future economic development strategies centered on recreational and leisure pursuits. Greene County also has several streams designated as High Quality Waters and/or as High Quality Warm Water Fisheries, which offer recreational opportunities as many are designated as trout stocked fisheries.
There are also three areas of state game lands; which serve as a recreational outlet for many residents and visitors to Greene County. Most of the "exceptional" Biological Diversity Areas (BDA) and Landscape Conservation Areas (LCA) in Greene County are located along Ten Mile Creek and Dunkard Creek, making these two critical areas in need of protection.
The protection the natural character and ensuring the rural integrity of Greene County is of primary importance to residents. Greene County is working aggressively to mitigate impacts from resource extraction and is spearheading remediation projects across the county. Additionally, the County has formed a partnership to address watershed planning at a regional level and is seeking funding to encourage "green development" through land use regulations.
Save Our Natural Resources:
Recycling Saves Natural Resources — Our finite reserves of natural resources are being depleted rapidly, particularly with the increasing use of disposable products and packaging. Pennsylvanians recycled 5 million tons in 2005. This rate of use and disposal takes a particularly heavy toll on irreplaceable natural resources from our forests and mines.
Reprocessing used materials to make new products and packaging reduces the consumption of natural resources. By recycling over 1.2 million tons of steel in 2005, Pennsylvanians saved 1.4 million tons of iron ore, 829,786 tons of coal, and 71,124 tons of limestone. Through recycling newsprint, office paper and mixed paper, we saved the equivalent of 78 million tree seedlings grown for 10 years. Recycling often produces better products than those made of virgin materials; for instance, the tin in "tin" cans is more refined (thus more valuable) after being processed for recycling.
Source reduction, preventing waste before it is generated, can further reduce the need for disposal and save more resources.
Greenways:
A greenway is a corridor of open space. Greenways vary greatly in scale, from narrow ribbons of green that run through urban, suburban, and rural areas to wider corridors that incorporate diverse natural, cultural and scenic features. They can incorporate both public and private property, and can be land- or water-based. They may follow old railways, canals, or ridge tops, or they may follow stream corridors, shorelines or wetlands, and include water trails for non-motorized craft.
Some greenways are recreational corridors or scenic byways that may accommodate motorized and non-motorized vehicles. Others function almost exclusively for environmental protection and are not designed for human passage. Greenways differ in their location and function, but overall, a greenway will protect natural, cultural and scenic resources, provide recreational benefits, enhance the natural beauty and the quality of life in neighborhoods and communities, and stimulate economic development opportunities.
Watersheds:
A watershed is a geographic area from which water drains toward a common watercourse (such as a lake, stream, and ocean) in a natural basin. When thinking of a watershed do not just think of water, include landuse, topography, geology etc. All of these components affect watersheds. Within each major watershed lie sub-watersheds or tributaries that drain into these larger watersheds.
Watersheds are the basic building blocks of the natural environment.
Plants and animals are dependent on a healthy watershed to provide their habitat.
People are dependent on watersheds for our habitat as well.
Polluting our watershed means ruining water supplies and recreation areas.
Careless land development means increasing flooding and property damage.
Water is one of Pennsylvania's most precious and basic resources. Pennsylvanians use 14.3 billion gallons of water every day. Almost all of it - 13.7 billion gallons - is returned to the environment. That means that each of us has a special responsibility to use water in ways that do not harm aquatic life and other water users downstream. But we also must be concerned about water in other ways. Our activities, as individuals and as communities, can have a big impact on the severity and frequency of floods that cause loss of life and property damage.
Greene County is divided into two river basins, the Monongahela River Basin and the Ohio River Basin. Seven of Greene County watersheds (Crooked Run, Dunkard Creek, Little Whiteley, Muddy Creek, Pumpkin Run, South Fork of Ten Mile and Whiteley) flow into the Monongahela River and its river basin. From Greene County the river meanders north and meets the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River.
There are ten watersheds within Greene County:
Crooked Run
Dunkard Creek
Dunkard Fork of Wheeling Creek
Enlow Fork
Fish Creek
Little Whiteley
Muddy Creek
Pumpkin Run
South Fork of Ten Mile
Whiteley Creek
Three of our watersheds (Enlow Fork, Dunkard Fork of Wheeling Creek, and Fish Creek) flow into the Ohio River Basin, and it moves southwest through West Virginia and eventually flows into the Ohio River.
All of our little streams that flow from our hillsides feed our major streams in Greene County, and our major streams feed the rivers. As the Ohio River flows, it meets the Mississippi then onto the Gulf of Mexico. The waters and rivers of Greene County are part of a bigger process called the Hydrologic Cycle. So how Greene County treats our watersheds can have far reaching effects in other watersheds of the nation.
Click here for information on Greene County Watershed Management Program.
Today's date is:
For general information, please contact the Information Services at 724-852-5399 / Toll Free: 1-888-852-5399. County Office Building, 93 E. High Street, Waynesburg, PA 15370
