Events & Activities
Mark Your Calendar!
Planting days enhance Fry's Run buffer zone
Fry's Run Family Fun
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Roadside Cleanup
Saturday, Nov. 4th, 9:00 am
We'll meet on Raubsville Road at Wassergass. Email frysrun@gmail.com to register so we'll know how many gloves, vests, and bags we'll need.
These cleanups not only beautify the township roadways but they keep trash and other pollutants from finding their way with storm runoff into Fry's Run and eventually the Delaware River.
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Monthly Meetings
We meet on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm at the Williams Township Community Center.supplies.
Fry's Run Family Fun
Planting days enhance Fry's Run buffer zone
Fry's Run Family Fun
At our annual fall Family Fun event at Fry’s Run Park in Williams Township, we welcomed at least 100 adults and children for demos, talks, arts and crafts, and a native plant sale.
Separately, 20-25 attendees traveled to a nearby property to show the beginning signs of erosion from road runoff and to hear from Easton arborist Rob Christopher about the importance of trees.
As FRWA President Bob Schmidt said at Wolfe’s farm, “We like to bring people to a place like this that’s private and otherwise inaccessible so you can see what it is we’re trying to preserve. The adage goes, People take care of what they love, and people only love what they know.” He also explained that whatever actions the association takes to remedy storm damage at the park, which is near where Fry’s Run empties into the Delaware River, can be totally undone if others upstream don’t exercise the same care and nurturing of the creek, stream banks, and boundary areas.
Event participants learned about watersheds and healthy streams, including how to identify key macroinvertebrates — young water-borne insects — that are among the best indicators of water quality. Children painted and assembled cardboard replicas of those creatures and colored pages featuring hand-drawn artist’s renderings by FRWA member Mary Budkoski.
Scott Douglas, president of Cooks Creek Watershed Association, just down Rt 611 in northern Bucks County, engaged youngsters with his expert stream-side presentation on macroinvertebrates and freshwater stream ecology.
Planting days enhance Fry's Run buffer zone
Planting days enhance Fry's Run buffer zone
Planting days enhance Fry's Run buffer zone
Just two years ago, a handful of intrepid FRWA volunteers helped Northampton County Parks & Rec’s Jim Wilson to plant about 60 container trees and shrubs available thanks to a grant secured by Wildlands Conservancy. That was was our fourth planting at the park since 2015.
Eight years after our first planting, some of the sycamores, river birches and oaks are 30 feet tall and we've got a beautiful young woods, creating an effective stream side buffer from the creek upland into the lower meadow at the park. The buffer zone helps mitigate flooding and erosion when stormwaters come through.
By definition, a riparian buffer is a vegetated “buffer-strip” near a stream, which helps to shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent urban, industrial or agricultural land use. It plays a key role in increasing water quality in associated streams, rivers and lakes and provides a greatly enhanced and varied habitat for wildlife.
Fry's Run is famously "flashy". In recent years, the buffer zone has held up well through named and unnamed storms creating record flood levels.
When the last plantings were young and flooded, FRWA volunteers and NorCo Parks staff salvaged and staked back upright more than 100 young trees that had been flattened. Not a one was lost, however—testament to the staying power of well-rooted trees.