It was a hot but jubilant night at the Oley Fairgrounds on July 28, 2025, as some of Berks County’s finest champions of nature gathered for the Berks County Conservation District’s (BCCD) Annual Awards and Scholarship Dinner. Students, individuals, and community groups alike came together under the fairgrounds’ open-air pavilions to celebrate the next generation of environmentalists and the County’s outstanding work in conservation, environmental, and agricultural best management practices.
Included in this audience were members of the Hay Creek Watershed Association (HCWA), a small but passionate group – just eight volunteers strong – who were selected to receive the BCCD’s Award for 2025 Organization of the Year.
The nomination stemmed from the HCWA’s on-going involvement in a BCCD-funded stream restoration project at the Watts Farm in Geigertown, which resides in the Hay Creek watershed.
The BCCD first met with Dave Watts in 2022 to discuss Watts’ desire to adopt a rotational grazing system for his sheep. The change meant relocating the herd to fertile, upland pastures while retiring about 10 acres of soggy, marginal pasture bordering the Cold Run Creek, a tributary of the Hay Creek which was suffering from extreme bank erosion estimated at about 1 ft per year.
To restore the Cold Run, Watts and the BCCD planned to implement several measures for addressing the streambank erosion, including an ambitious effort to reforest between 6-9 acres of the Cold Run stream corridor.
But as they say, many hands make light work and so the BCCD reached out to HCWA for help. The small but mighty group of volunteers agreed to not only help plant the trees, but to steward their growth, returning several times a year to help the young trees take root by clearing away intrusive plants around the trees and straightening any leaning stakes or tree tubes.
Consequently, the planting of over 600 trees has an 86% survivorship rate overall.
Hay Creek Watershed Association volunteers Jen Stinson (right) and Jack Peronteau (left) accepting the Berks County Conservation District’s award for 2025 Organization of the Year on behalf of the HCWA.
Just this spring, the HCWA volunteers assembled at the Watts Farm to plant an additional 200 trees. It was a grueling 4.5 hours of planting made amiable by warm temperatures, refreshing breezes, and the unshakeable can-do attitude of the HCWA.
The BCCD’s Certificate of Recognition for the 2025 Organization of the Year, presented to HCWA by the BCCD’s Board of Commissioners, reads:
“Your commitment to environmental stewardship and the mission of conservation has made a lasting impact on our community and natural resources. We commend you for your work to ensure a clean and beautiful Berks County for future generations.”
It is a compelling reminder that a great power to invoke change remains in the hands of the passionate. We are, in these moments, reminded of American author and cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, who once so aptly stated, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”