Twenty-one years ago in 2001, the Burd Run Nature Trail and Restoration was established to reverse the damaging effects of an artificially straightened stream channel which had caused erosion and environmental degradation. (See second image).
Shippensburg University (particularly the Geography and Earth Science Department), Shippensburg Township, the Cumberland County Conservation District, and the Conodoguinet Creek Watershed Association collaborated together for this project, which involved retraining the stream to follow a more natural curvature of the land and a tree and wildlife-planting scheme.
As you can see from the first slide, the project has been very successful and resulted in a changed landscape for the better. It’s an optimistic testimony to the ability to repair human -induced environmental damage.
