Blair Township approves habitat project

Residents sought recognition of bank erosion prevention effort

DUNCANSVILLE -- During Tuesday night's meeting, the Blair Township board of supervisors accepted a request from two community members for their property to be recognized as a natural habitat/bank erosion prevention project.

At 555 Hillsideview Drive in Duncansville, married couple Diane Fees and Matt Krueger have been growing many types of plants inside of their property's bank since June 2022. To date, they have planted 77 trees and bushes and identified over 20 native perennials.

Fees is a member of the Blair County Master Gardener Group, while Krueger has given botanical lectures at the Winterthur Museum in northern Delaware.

Krueger said they placed these plants there not only to create shade but to reduce water erosion.

"We noticed big turrets of water coming down our driveway because there was literally no vegetation," Fees said. "As a result of that, the erosion was really bad."

Their action, however, was met with a complaint from a neighbor about overgrown weeds, according to Blair Township supervisors Chairman Paul Amigh II.

Amigh believes the couple is doing a favor for Blair County "by keeping that erosion from happening."

After the board accepted the request, Krueger said it's time to get "back to work."

"With gardening, it takes time and things don't just happen overnight," Fees said. "They have to have time to establish."

Amigh mentioned that the couple's work is also helping taxpayers as well, saying that runoff erosion affects the township.

"So these people are willing to use their own time, their own money to prevent that runoff, and that saves the taxpayers money," he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.