In 2021, Pat McElhenny led removal of a dam that had held back water for 100 years. 1 year later, the original Sterry Creek channel resurfaced intact, restoring a natural floodplain on Moosic Mountain

For more than 100 years, water covered the place where Sterry Creek once flowed. Then, in 2021, the O’Conner Dam on Pennsylvania’s Moosic Mountain was removed. The reservoir drained, and conservationists expected to find a changed landscape beneath it. Instead, they saw something remarkable: Sterry Creek’s original channel was still intact.

That discovery gave the restoration team something nature had already built for them. They did not need to invent an entirely new route for the creek. The old channel could once again guide the water, while the former reservoir could become a natural floodplain.