Thank You to Our 2024 Volunteers!

A Crucial Piece of Our Clean Water Efforts

Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered in Pennsylvania with the Alliance in 2024! This past fall we planted over 3,000 trees with all of you. That brings the total number planted by volunteers this year to more than 13,000 trees. We had nearly 650 volunteers at 29 different events, and reforested 45 acres in Pennsylvania in 2024.

We also hit a major milestone this fall and planted the 1,000th acre of the Alliance’s PA Riparian Forest Buffer Project. Our volunteers’ hard work has a lasting impact improving the ecosystem, health, and beauty of the watershed, and their time and dedication has made this effort a success. We could not have done it without them!

Join us in celebrating some of our most committed volunteers of 2024 below!

Cindy Pizziketti

Lifetime tree planting stats: Volunteered 22 times, totaling 63 hours

Cindy was born to plant trees, champion for clean water, and inspire others to join her. From her overalls to her can-do attitude, she marches into each event with an infectious enthusiasm and a lot of know-how. At one event, she once told me that her goal was to plant 10% of the 300 trees there that day. I lost count, but I’m positive she hit her mark.

You’re very active in a variety of environmental groups around the Lower Susquehanna area! Can you tell us more about who they are and your work with them?

I became a Master Watershed Steward almost seven years ago. I first thought that would mean just hanging out in my local stream, but the definition of a watershed is: an area of land that channels rainfall, snowfall, or runoff into a common body of water. I soon realized how much work there is to be done on the land. The MWS group in York County has many partners including the Alliance, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper (LSRA), Watershed Alliance for York (WAY) and the York County Conservation District (YCCD). Initially the many organizations and their acronyms were confusing, but it also offered a wealth of different opportunities. Some highlights of the work I’ve done:

• I started doing things as simple as picking up trash. It can be gross, heartbreaking, and sometimes hysterical in terms of the wild items I’ve found (baby dolls often look like items from a horror movie). In 2022 I worked with the Watershed Alliance of York (WAY) and our many partners to remove 50,000 pounds of trash in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. It could not have been done without the cooperation of all the partners.
• I became involved with the stream team through the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper’s partnership with the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring at Dickinson College (ALLARM). Every month, I get into Kreutz Creek and record different chemical and physical parameters. My monthly visits made me see the phenology that I was missing as a fair weather visitor.
• One of my favorite activities is working with young people. I am coaching aquatics for high school and grade school students for the York County Envirothon, macroinvertebrate studies with LSRA’s school programs, stream studies at York County Parks, during the summer MWS does programs for local camps, and we have recently begun a Future Master Watershed Program.I tell the children that they are the Lorax, the water can’t speak for itself and we all need to advocate for it.
• I also get to plant trees! After becoming a MWS I soon realized the value of riparian buffers and began advocating for buffers and helping to plant them. You can recognize me easily at an Alliance tree planting because I am the one talking to the tree babies. I make a hole just the right size, remove the tree from its pot, loosen up the roots, place it in the ground, and tuck it in with soil. All the while I am telling it what a handsome species it is, how it is now loose from its plastic box and should spread its roots, how the plastic tube is just a temporary home and that I can’t wait to see it pop out the top. I have also spent a lot of time as a Riparian Ranger at Horn Farm, who installed a six-acre multifunctional riparian buffer. The multifunctional part is cool because we are harvesting trees for livestakes, hazelnuts, and elderberries.

What’s your favorite part about volunteering in general?

The world is gigantic, with many overwhelming problems I am unable to fix. Volunteering helps me engage to make change one tree at a time and being a Riparian Ranger is where I see the fruition of our work. At first it’s just bird habitat (there are so many nests in newly planted buffers) but then it’s the shade and the cooler temperature a forest can offer.

You’ve planted a lot of different species of trees this year. Do you have a favorite?

I love sycamores because they are one of the first up and out of their shelters and during the winter I love the look of big white sycamores that stand out when all the leaves are gone. I also enjoy big old silver maples because of their majesty and their efforts repopulate the world. I love hackberries because of their warty bark and the berries they produce for my bird friends.

Rob Winslow

Lifetime tree planting stats: Volunteered 19 times, totaling 53 hours

Rob’s support of the Alliance work has been steadfast and heartfelt. His humor buoys us along no matter the planting conditions. In addition to being a planting volunteer, Rob is one of our top Riparian Rangers, taking care of his assigned sites year after year with aplomb.

As a Riparian Ranger, you’re a previous Golden Mallet recipient (awarded to our top Rangers)! Can you tell us more about you experiences volunteering with us? What makes them special to you?

For me, joining the Alliance team as a volunteer has been a very rewarding experience. With a background in wildlife management, I have always enjoyed the great outdoors. Whether it was hunting, fishing, camping, or just hiking, I have always felt comfortable being out in it. Fast forward to retirement, and now I have rekindled my love, but in constructive way. From my very first tree planting where I met Ryan Davis, Senior Forests Projects Manager at the Alliance, I was hooked.

While volunteering, I have found great purpose in my retired life. The hours put in over the last few years have been very rewarding. A while back the Alliance gave me a “golden” 2lb hammer for being a top Riparian Ranger. Seeing those trees and shrubs rising out of the tree tubes is really amazing. And to think I was part of that!

No matter the weather conditions, every time I show up at a planting, I see many faces of young and older folks, who, like me are trying to do the right thing. We see the warehouses, roads, and developments eating up the country. We know that guided by the professional staff, that the right trees are going into the right areas to provide decades of forests.

I hope to cross trails with more people someday, whether it’s planting trees or taking care of them through the Riparian Ranger program. It’s all a wonderful way to meet like-minded people who all want to save the planet, one tree at a time.

What is the most memorable volunteer experience you’ve had with the Alliance and why?

What thrills me is to see wildlife using these riparian buffer strips. Whether it’s a mouse or an eagle, all wildlife needs habitat, and we are trying to help produce that, one tree at a time.

You’ve planted a lot of different species of trees this year. Do you have a favorite?

While I love all native trees, my favorite might be the serviceberry. The ones I’ve planted at home really bring in the cat birds, thrushes, mockingbirds, cedar waxwings, blue jays and cardinals. Many birds really need biodiversity to survive in our ever-increasing sprawl. Foxes, chipmunks, deer, and bears also enjoy the blueberry-like fruit.

I hope to cross trails with more people someday, whether it’s planting trees or taking care of them through the Riparian Ranger program. It’s all a wonderful way to meet like-minded people who all want to save the planet, one tree at a time.

Rick Cooper

Lifetime tree planting stats: Volunteered 18 times, totaling 55 hours

Rick’s got the knowledge, the passion, and the investment characteristic of our rockstar volunteers. He shows up with his own tools and is always willing to help mentor our newer volunteers at events. In addition to planting trees, he grows them for us as well as a part of the PA Seeding Cooperative.

In 2024 you helped us grow thousands of seedlings to transplant into buffers. Can you tell us more about your passion behind that work?

I have a distant background in horticulture, and love planting trees, and the second or third planting with the Alliance, I thought to myself that I could grow better quality plant material than what I was planting. Eventually, my inside voice turned it into a dare, so I started collecting seed and growing trees. After a while, I had figured out how to grow quality seedlings, and about that time the Alliance asked me what help I needed to be successful. I also met several folks doing the same thing who are wonderful to collaborate with and really energizing to be around!

There are plenty of volunteer opportunities out there. Why do you enjoy sharing your time and effort with the Alliance, specifically?

I am a Master Watershed Steward in York County, and do a lot of work through them, and the Alliance is active locally, so it is very easy to find opportunities to use my skillset. The MWS and the Alliance have really worked to bake effective volunteer outreach into their DNA, and it shows. Plus, it is really great to be out at a planting site and have other folks get as excited as I am about trees!

Big picture, habitat loss is real, invasive species are real, and reversing human-caused environmental degradation takes a lot of work. The planet isn’t going to save itself, and saving the planet is a team sport.

You’ve planted a lot of different species of trees this year. Do you have a favorite?

Yes, I have two: silver maple – the saying goes that you can put a silver maple seed on a picture of soil and it will germinate. They are tenacious and just want to be left alone to grow. My second favorite is black gum. They can get huge and very old, they are good for cavity nesters, and their fruits and seeds feed all kinds of birds and mammals.

Thomas Reidenbaugh

Lifetime tree planting stats: Volunteered 16 times, totaling 48 hours

Tom is always a friendly face at tree planting events. His methodical approach to the work creates a wonderful system for us to rely on to reach our planting goals. When he comes to an event, I always know it’s going to be a success!

There are plenty of volunteer opportunities out there. Why do you enjoy sharing your time and effort with the Alliance, specifically?

I think we all would like to do something to make the world a little better for our having been here. Planting trees just does that for me. They make an immediate tangible difference, and should still be making a difference a hundred years and more from now. Sometimes volunteering can be a little messy and disorganized, so that the actual benefits might feel questionable. This is not so planting trees with the Alliance. They’ve got procedures down so pat, that in just a few hours a group can see rows and rows of new trees. Besides, it’s just fun!

Do you look forward to anything specific (like Treelay) for 2025?

I’m looking forward to more rain in 2025. Dust and rocks, not so much.

You’ve planted a lot of different species of trees this year. Do you have a favorite?

I like the tall ones with branches. I’m less likely to get confused and plant them upside down!

Thank you again to all of our incredible, dedicated volunteers who joined us in 2024. We’ll see you this spring for the next planting season and our 3rd annual Treelay!

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