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PINE GROVE - A calm, blue sky overlooking a chilly green creek. Sawed-off icicles latching onto frigid bushes. Sunlight poking through the branches of barren pine trees.

These were a few of the images that Audrey Wells, a local naturalist, sought to sketch on a cold Saturday morning during a visit to Sweet Arrow Lake County Park.

Wells, a volunteer with the Schuylkill County Conservancy, hosted the year’s last edition of the Schuylkill County Sketchers Nature Walk, an event designed to spark people’s creativity and connection with the outdoors.

The Friends of Schuylkill Parks and Recreation has contracted with Clauser Environmental to complete a dredging plan complete with permitting. The initial phase has been completed and final phase should be in hand late Spring 2024.

That’s the easy part. Finding funding to dredge is where community support comes in. Dredging the entire lake to its original depth is probably cost prohibitive. And that is not including the wetland area at the upper end which will remain intact. Everyone who fishes, kayaks, bikes, wildlife watches etc. at the lake has a stake in this. And not just people who live In Schuylkill County. We are a regional destination and we need everyone to contact their legislators, not just the officials who govern Schuylkill County. Guesstimates, in my opinion, to at least dredge the upper 1/4ish area, would probably hit $5mil or more.

Here’s how we will need your help, especially when a plan is in hand. Your state and federal legislators, will need to be encouraged to help find funding. Of course, if u see them before then please mention that we will need their help in the near future.

Couple things going for us. The $800,000 project recently completed above the lake should be able to be used as a funding match if required by the grant. (A public site showing of the completed project will take place on October 15 at 11am at the new parking area above the lake. Politicians have been invited so the more people who show up the better).

Also, the federal government has finally release over $200mil over the next 10 years I believe, for abandoned mine reclamation. The dredged sediment may fit into a strip mine reclamation plan.

So, we need to be proactive and be heard! The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Please share this with your friends to help get the word out.

I’ll keep everyone updated.

Schuylkill Conservation District and the county are pursuing all avenues of funding, including BAMR and AMLER funding.

Grant awards won't be announced until sometime in Summer 2026 and Summer / Fall 2027.

With that, it seems likely that we are looking at 2028 at the earliest for the dredging project.

Sitting in a tree stand for hours Archery hunting makes for good quiet planning time. As many already know, the permits to remove the sediment from Sweet Arrow Lake is in place thanks to the Friends (Friends) of Schuylkill Parks and Recreation. The Friends hired Clauser Environmental, who did a fabulous job securing the permits.

Now the hard part; securing funding. The estimated total to remove all the sediment is roughly $14M. The good news is that a potential funding source is available! This month, a grant application was submitted to fund the planning and permitting of a mine land reclamation project that would create a beneficial use of the dredged soil. We anticipate it taking approximately 2 years for the grant to be awarded, contracts to be signed, and the planning and permitting of that site to be completed. As that work is being completed, the grant application to fund the actual dredging will be prepared and submitted upon receipt of the ‘site’ permit mentioned above. The goal of the funding request will be to dredge the entire lake and restore a large area of mine land.

The Schuylkill Conservation District will be the lead entity to oversee the funding application on behalf of the County of Schuylkill. Wayne Lehman of the Conservation District has been instrumental and successful in applying for numerous mine reclamation grants and is very familiar with the process, which was begun about 2 years ago. After a number of meetings with many ‘partners’, a plan of action has been developed. Another rough estimate on the drawdown of the lake, given that all grants would be approved, would be in the year 2030, with dredging soon thereafter. Fingers crossed.

So, what does all this have to do with the fishing events at the lake? A great deal in more ways than one. The obvious is that once the lake is drawn down fishing will cease until the project is completed. Another rough estimate is that the dredging will take approximately one year. As the dredging progresses, the Friends, Sportsmen’s Advisory Board to the County Commissioners, and other partners will be looking for funds to fully implement a fish habitat plan prepared by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

Here’s where anglers’ matter. The funding application for dredging places a lot of emphasis on recreational and economic aspects of the proposed project. In other words, the more people using the lake the better the chance of approval of the grant. We already have a very good start with the records we have for the number of youths attending Mentored Youth Trout Day and The Betty Dietz and Bruce Schneck Memorial Year Long Fishing Events. But we need to maximize the attendance at these events. The Tevis Energy and Modern Comfort Mentored Youth Trout Day continues to grow with 200 youth last year. Can we grow more? We hope, with your help, that we can approach 300 in the next 3 years.

That leaves the Pioneer Pole Buildings Dietz and Schneck Memorial Event. With over 600 registrants the past 2 years plus all the sponsors and donations, we have a great start. In fact, because of the past success and the need to show as many participants as possible to make the grant application even more competitive, we have lowered the registration fee to $10. We are hoping that with the reduced fee we will get many more registrants; some who could not afford, had limited time to fish, as well as those who took advantage of the event and chose not to pay the fee. Since so many registrants also donate we hope that we could maintain enough income to continue with the reduced fee and still maintain the quality event. The latest suggestions include 100 tagged trout worth $20 each for mentored youth day and beyond and 100 tagged trout worth $100 each. We will probably go back to 300-350 lunkers and the balance in other quality trout worth $20,000 total.

So, look for more information about added incentives for the youth day and the year-long event and keep your eye on the Friends of Schuylkill Parks and Recreation webpage for the latest information.

Friends of Schuylkill Parks and Recreation
PO Box 81
Friedensburg, PA 17933