Mill Run work wrapping up!

Altoona Mirror, November 3, 2011
By Kay Stephens

Along the Mill Run stream between the Allegheny Reservoir and South 15th Avenue, a construction crew is moving dirt, placing rocks and planting grass.

By the end of the week, Flyway Excavating of Lititz expects to wrap up a seven-week effort to keep the water flowing.

"The township is glad to see the project reach this point," Logan Township Director of Development Cassandra Schmick said Monday. "The last two months have gone really fast."

In contrast, the work prior to construction moved slowly. The stream restoration project took 10 years to design, redesign and to secure permits from three governmental agencies: the state Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Neighbors work together to resolve flooding problems!

MURRYSVILLE, Pa., Oct. 31, 2011 Penn-Franklin News
by Linda Lyman

When they learned that the municipality could not fix flooding problems on private land, a group of 10 neighbors banded together to find a solution. Directed to Blazosky Associates, the neighborhood group raised the money to fund the evaluation and design phase along with the permitting fees.

At first they focused on flood control but when they learned that trying to keep the stream within its banks would just push the problem further downstream, they turned to finding a way to stabilize the banks, going with rather than against nature. The WHM Group developed a design plan that would alleviate the erosion and sedimentation that was occurring within and along the stream while maintaining a natural look.

For complete article and additional photos, please contact:
Penn Franklin News

Pennsylvania Governor Corbett Announces Confirmations, Nominations, Appointments

HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Tom Corbett today announced the following recent confirmation of his nominee by the Pennsylvania Senate:

Council of Trustees of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania B. Michael Schaul, Mechanicsburg - reappointment.

For Other Nominations and Appointments go to: PR Newswire

B. Michael Schaul (Chair)

President of WHM Solutions, Inc. and Vice President of WHM Consulting, Inc., B. Michael Schaul has extensive experience with American and European corporate activities. For more than 16 years, he has served three Pennsylvania governors, promoting and developing domestic and international business investment in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

As Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary of Commerce he coordinated interagency economic development initiatives. He has also managed and directed offices in Tokyo, London, Brussels, and Frankfurt, and has traveled extensively in efforts to induce business investment and promote the sale of goods and services. He has been the Director of the Governor’s Response Team, Special Assistant to the Secretary and Director of Legislative Affairs, and Special Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce. Schaul also established The Spruce Creek Group, Ltd., a company dedicated to industrial real estate development.

Schaul earned both his Master of Arts in Public Administration (with an emphasis in public opinion, systems and procedures of management, inter-government relations, economics, and finance) and Bachelor of Science in Political Science, Social Science, and Finance from Shippensburg State University.

Schaul serves on the board of directors of several not-for-profit or government-related organizations, including the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority, Pennsylvania Wetlands Protection Advisory Committee, Pennsylvania Learning Network, Shippensburg University, and the State System of Higher Education. He has been a member of the Council of Trustees since 1999.

PA. FIRM AWARDED CONTRACT TO CONSTRUCT WATER RUNOFF SYSTEM AT COUNTY LANDFILL

By cmattix@cecilwhig.com Cecil Whig

A $499,721 contract was approved by the Cecil County Commissioners Tuesday for a Pennsylvania firm to design and construct an environmentally friendly approach to improvement of storm water runoff at the Central Landfill.

DELAYED MILL RUN RESTORATION PROJECT TO BEGIN SEPT. 19

By Kay Stephens - kstephens@altoonamirror.com

Construction is expected to begin later this month on a Mill Run stream restoration project that spent 10 years on the drawing board.

While the project is not designed as a flood control measure, it will stabilize 2,000 feet of Mill Run's embankments in Logan Township that will keep sediment from washing down stream, project manager Josh Lincoln said.

The work is to be done in an area of the stream between the Allegheny Reservoir and South 15th Avenue, above the 31st Street railroad culvert.

"Indirectly, we're helping downstream because this will keep large trees from washing into Mill Run and will make those banks stable," he said.

GOVERNOR TOM RIDGE WETLANDS PRESERVE

Replenishing nature: Public preserve helps replace wetlands lost during I-99 construction

Anne Danahy - adanahy@centredaily.com

Ridge is an honorary board member of the State College nonprofit Wildlife for Everyone Endowment Foundation, which received the land once the project was completed. WHM Group, of Harrisburg, completed the wetland project, for the federal and state government to address the problems the I-99 construction had caused. In particular, it mitigates the impact on the wetlands that couldn’t be replaced on site.

WHM’s contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said that it would donated the land to a nonprofit. Now, what had been farm fields prone to flooding is 53 acres of wetland and 15 acres of upland woodland, bordered by Bald Eagle Creek, with I- 99 in the background.

“You’ve got an outdoor classroom here,” Ridge said, as the sign bearing his name was unveiled.

The site is a stopping place and feeding ground for migrant birds and a home for other wildlife, including birds, reptiles and amphibians like leopard and pickerel frogs, along with spring peepers, bullfrogs and salamanders.

Mal Gilbert, a scientist at WHM, said golden eagles, red tailed hawks, falcons and wading birds visit the site, along with song birds, egrets, herons and American bittern.

“The diversity of birds in this area is outstanding,” Gilbert said.

He said specific species of plants are grown to encourage the ecosystem to develop.

Anglers Anticipate Better Fishing without Dam

Anne Danahy- adanahy@centredaily.com

RUSH TOWNSHIP — With the stream gurgling in the background, a group of conservationists, fishermen and supporters got together Thursday afternoon to celebrate the removal of an aging dam in Moshannon State Forest.

Josh Lincoln with WHM Inc., the contractor on the project, noted that Thursday’s gathering was taking place on top of part of the old embankment.

He explained how log and rock structures were installed with help from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to restore the waterway. There were sediments built up behind the dam that had to be dealt with and nearby wetlands and a spring the project was designed to protect.

Read more: Centre Daily Times
Full video news coverage: WJAC-TV.

The WHM Group Donates Land to Wildlife for Everyone Endowment Foundation

The WHM Group, Harrisburg, has donated more than 135 acres of land along Bald Eagle Creek, and a $50,000 maintenance fund for the property, to the Wildlife for Everyone Endowment Foundation, State College. See full video news coverage from WJAC-TV.

The property, known as the Bald Eagle Wetlands, was acquired and developed since 2002 by The WHM Group under contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as wetland mitigation for environmental disruption caused by the relocation of Interstate 99 and as a Federal Highway Administration demonstration site.

The WHM Group bought the property; designed and secured all state and federal environmental permits; completed all construction, and then monitored the results consistent with permit conditions.

“The WHM Group's science and business goal for the Bald Eagle project was to avoid any and all long term mechanical support systems for the project, while creating a fully functioning ecosystem capable of sustaining a habitat to host the return of Pennsylvania's indigenous species as overseen by Mother Nature,” explained B. Michael Schaul, President of The WHM Group.

The site has attracted an increasingly diverse wildlife population, including species from aquatic mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

“Reports to The WHM Group by neighbors, residents and wildlife not-for-profit organizations that regularly visit the site tell us that species not previously seen there are now using the wetlands and habitat,” said Schaul. The WHM Group is comforted by the return of animals and plants to the site, which demonstrates that the science and business practices followed by the company yielded these successes.

The site includes more than 50 acres of wetland that The WHM Group created, employing runoff and ground-fed hydrologic sources to maintain the ecosystem; about 15 acres of upland woodland; a quarter mile of Bald Eagle Creek, which are multi-use recreational stream stocked with trout; road frontage on Old Rt. 220 and a township road. A few archeologically important sites of former Native American encampments have been protected on the tract.

In addition, a few archeologically important sites of former Native American encampments have been protected on the tract.

Vern Ross, executive director of WFEEF, said in the near-term, the foundation plans to develop wildlife viewing platforms, trails and educational facilities on the site.

As part of the project, The WHM Group inserted into its contracts with Penn DOT its intention to donate the property, after the wetlands mitigation project was completed, to a suitable not-for-profit organization for its perpetual care and use.

Schaul said The WHM Group selected WFEEF because of its not-for-profit business objectives and its overall wildlife educational strategies.

WFEEF was established to provide private support to enhance wildlife habitat, scientific research and education; land preservation; youth programs and for a science and research center. For more information about the Wildlife for Everyone Endowment Foundation, visit www.wildlifeforeveryone.org

County Task Force to Study Gas Drilling

Natural gas well drilling is on the rise in Pennsylvania, and Centre County officials responded by putting together a task force to find the best ways to react in response to the boom. The task force will look at the Marcellus Shale activity in the county, and include different groups and interests, such as the business community, environmental concerns and municipalities.

The goal of the task force is to identify key issues, research facts, collect information, and provide public education related to this topic.

In addition to the Natural Gas Task Force, Centre County Commissioners developed subcommittees to address the specific issues surrounding natural gas development in Center County that include: Economic Development, Education, Environment, Public Policy and Legal Issues.

B. Michael Schaul, President of WHM Solutions, was recognized by the Center County Commission for his extensive background in the development of economic initiatives throughout Pennsylvania and the surrounding regions. Mr. Schaul will serve on the Economic Development subcommittee that will focus on issues relating to Commercial and Residential Real Estate, Business and Industrial Development Opportunities, Financing, Transportation, Roads and Bridges, Rail, New Wealth Life-Style Changes or Lack Thereof, and Workforce Development.

Our own Josh Lincoln and Ryan Nelson featured in the ERM Alumni Newsletter

Featured in the Alumni Profiles for their recent work together with Clearwater Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission on Spring Creek to stabilize the stream channel and restore the riparian zone after the McCoy-Linn Dam was removed.

Go to the ERM Alumni Newsletter for the complete profile.

Crew works to help waterway recover after removal of dam

Consultant Josh Lincoln, a WHM specialist in stream and wetland sciences, said the root balls that are also due to be fixed to the banks will help natural vegetation take hold.

Lincoln, who designed the repairs for the former Mc- Coy’s Dam site, said dams don’t help streams. Streams, he said, “are very dynamic and when you take them out of equilibrium, things can become unwound.”

Get detail Project News and Updates at Clear Water Conservancy.org

Moo-vers and shakers at business expo

The WHM Group and Blazosky Associates, Inc., was featured at the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry business expo Thursday March 12, 2009 at the Church Farm School in West Whiteland. Daily Local News

Mallory N. Gilbert

Congratulations to Mallory N. Gilbert, an Associate of WHM, who was elected as 2009 President of the Society of Wetland Scientists Professional Certification Program SWSPCP