In 2019 and 2020, Blair Planning worked with the PennState Sustainable Communities Collaborative and instructors Jeffrey Catchmark and Megan Marshall to study the recurring problem of bank erosion along the Juniata River basin. A site in Catharine Township was selected with the constraints that proposed solutions must be affordable to private property owners, replicable within the watershed, non-obstructive to river traffic, and environmentally sustainable.

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The class spanned two semesters. The students, Michael Gillett, Marali Kalra, Ryan Pavlik, Laura Saleh, and Peter Savchik, identified several potential mitigation treatments to stabilize the bank and keep the river navigable. The report at right discusses several possible treatments and settles on four solutions specific to the site.

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The four solutions include a riparian buffer, a mudsill, a log vane, and rock cross vane to stabilize the bank and keep the river navigable through this location. The project cost was kept in the four-digit range, and is replicable along the entire river corridor with some investment in an additional small study to ascertain how to apply it to a specific site.

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Work to install the recommendations at the site will commence in the next six to eighteen months.