Being involved in the Schuylkill County Envirothon from fourth grade through high school, Jenna Fehr said she always wanted to do environmental work in Schuylkill County.
“I knew that it was probably the most local environmental work that is going on and in a roundabout way I ended up back here,” Fehr said Wednesday.
Fehr, 29, of Pine Grove, started her first day as the Schuylkill Conservation District’s manager April 7. She has been at the district as conservation program coordinator since October 2013.
Fehr graduated from Penn State University in 2009 with a degree in environmental resource management and worked for three years as volunteer coordinator for AmeriCorps VISTA regional program in West Virginia, where she was involved in rural volunteer management for the Appalachian watershed. She also worked for about a year and a half as a volunteer coordinator at the Gino J. Merli Veterans’ Center in Scranton.
“Just being raised here and being familiar with the different environmental issues going on, they are interesting on many levels historically and environmentally,” Fehr said Wednesday. “My work in West Virginia was interesting because it made me look at Schuylkill County differently. I would see places in similar situations, but would come back and see things I was kind of blind to before. To me, it was especially exciting to come back and do that work here.”
On March 23, the Schuylkill Conservation District’s board of directors recommended Fehr for district manager after Elizabeth “Liz” Hinkle announced her resignation. Hinkle is working part-time as a mentor.
“Liz cares so much for the work that we do here. It was difficult for her to even give it up, so she is very invested in making sure everything stays on track. But I think she also knows it is in good hands with the people that are here and that she can still play a role in it, but move on to the next step.”
Fehr said the conservation district has expanded in recent years due to more regulations increasing the workload and opportunities for new projects. The conservation district is involved with everything from abandoned mine issues and its impact on water resources to flood recovery and making sure farmers have the resources they need while still supporting the environment. As conservation program coordinator, Fehr also reviewed non-agricultural land disturbance activities, like construction and land development.
“We are kind of at an interesting spot in our progression,” Fehr said. “We have gone from a very small office and keep growing with more projects. We are at the point where we have to take time to look at our process and where we want to go.”
Fehr said the district has to consider whether it can take on additional projects while maintaining the ones already here. For example, the Chesapeake Bay program at the conservation district is federal and state funded to take care of waterways in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which makes up about half the county.
“More and more we are thinking what are we going to do about the Schuylkill Watershed side of our county because they have the same nutrient management issues and things like that,” Fehr said. “There are still pollution issues and we can be offering them a lot more technical assistance and connect them with the resources they need to do more projects.”
Outreach will still continue to be a priority for the conservation district, Fehr said.
Fehr, along with Andrea Geist, agricultural program coordinator, co-chaired the Bear Creek Festival last year. This year’s event will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Schuylkill County Fairgrounds.
“That’s one of those things where we can invite the public to a free event and all our departments do different activities,” Fehr said. “It’s just another chance for us to show the work we have been doing and show all the great partners we have been working with and give them that opportunity too.”
The conservation district is also coming off of a controversy. In 2014, there was a criminal investigation regarding a former employee at the conservation district who stole more than $449,000 from the organization over the course of nearly seven years.
State police officially charged Virginia G. Kunigonis, who was employed as a fiscal technician, in January 2015 with five counts of forgery and one each of theft, theft by deception and access device fraud. Kunigonis was sentenced in February to spend one year in prison, followed by one year on supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution.
“We have come through a pretty difficult time here with the recent scandal, but I think we are stronger because of it,” Fehr said. “It was something where we came out of it with stronger policies in place with stronger controls to avoid that in the future.”