Stories of the Susquehanna River

At least 12 years ago, maybe longer, I first came in contact with a river that didn't make sense to me. The Susquehanna River, can be up to a mile wide in certain spots,yet is shallow enough to wade across the better part of it during the warm months of summer. Coming from the mountains of Western Maryland, I was used to fast flowing but relatively small rivers, but I was nonetheless intrigued by the beauty of this wide, ancient river. Considered the longest non-navigable river in North America, I have since had a number of experiences with the Susquehanna in the past decade that have significantly shaped my education and future interests.


My relationship with the river began with canoe trips with my father on the mid-Susquehanna and its largest tributary, the Juniata, and has now found me studying on its banks at Bucknell University in quiet Lewisburg, Pa. Several of my academic projects have been directly related with the river, which I would like to share here.

Last summer I had the privilege to participate in the Bucknell Susquehanna River Initiative's undergraduate research program, the Summer Writers Institute. Over the course of that summer, I had the opportunity to travel from the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, the state capital, investigating the policy and impacts of the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom. Because of concerns over the environmentally questionable practice of hydro-fracking, along with water contamination, habitat fragmentation, and the impact of thousands of wells to be drilled in the state over the coming decades, this is a leading environmental issue for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The products of that program will be online shortly, (and I will post a link when that happens) but just today this video was posted on the University website, explaining some of what we were planning to do as of early last summer.


Right: One of MANY natural gas wells in Tioga County because of the profitability of the Marcellus Shale Gas boom.


(Unfortunately some new multimedia ways of sharing things don't turn out to be as wonderful as intended. The code for "sharing" the video isn't working, so just follow this link: http://www.bucknell.edu/x68.xml and watch the "River as Classroom" video.)


Also, I participated in the inaugural Bucknell on the Susquehanna (BotS) program, a multi-disciplinary program that exposed 11 students to a wide variety of experiences and issues within the Susquehanna River watershed. I wrote a blog for the University website, journaling our travels through 9 states on both the East and West Coast of the Continental United States. With 23,000 words in the blog and 900+ publication-worthy photos, I am currently looking to publish a large-format book featuring all of our travels, which I will probably write more about as time progresses. Maybe in time it can be required reading for a class like these books were for BotS 2010.