What We Do

The Letort Regional Authority has been actively working to protect the Letort Spring Run since 1973 and the Letort Nature Trail since it was built one year later. We lead community initiatives to help clean up the stream and nature trail, raise awareness of how our everyday actions impact our water resources and collaborate with local stakeholders to plan for the future and implement change.

Streams like the Letort Spring Run are complex systems that are affected by how our land is used and by seemingly mundane decisions we make every day. They are vital habitat for many aquatic and semi-aquatic species and provide the filtering mechanism for our nation’s clean water.

Volunteer groups working in conjunction with the Letort Regional Authority have stabilized the Letort Spring Run’s channels, planted and seeded stream banks in grass, and repaired sections of the stone retaining wall along the spring run.

• Hiking
• Biking
• Fishing
• Birding

The Letort Spring Run is a hands-on classroom for second- and fifth-graders from the Carlisle Area School District. Through most of May each year, they take field trips to the Letort Environmental Center at Letort Elementary School in Carlisle for an annual unit on stream ecology. Teachers and staff from Audubon PA lead them in conducting soil and stream studies, examining aquatic insects and determining the overall health of the stream.

Bruce Rowland, a science teacher at Carlisle High School, started the program in 1995. Audubon PA has been at the helm since 2012. Learning stations emphasize how streams and rivers are interconnected and affect one another. The waters of Letort Spring Run flow into the Conodoguinet Creek and then the Susquehanna River to the Chesapeake Bay.