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The River Group and the Humanities Council can trace their beginnings to H.W. "Skip" Wieder Jr., senior vice president emeritus of Geisinger Health System and former vice president of finance and development for Susquehanna University.

H.W. "Skip" Wieder Jr.

"All of this came about as a consequence of Skip's efforts and vision," Holt says. "To bring these groups together took someone who wasn't a scientist or a member of an NGO, someone who wasn't necessarily an environmentalist in the political sense, but rather someone who had a larger vision and no territory to defend."

"Now it seems like such a natural thing to do. But at the time – and even now – if you looked across the United States, I doubt you'd find another group like this."

Wieder says he decided to facilitate the group's formation because four or five years ago "it became apparent that each of the colleges and universities in the region was doing its own research on the river, and it just made a lot of sense. I thought that if these institutions could come together and work collaboratively, it would benefit everyone. And it has."

Today, Susquehanna, Bloomsburg, Bucknell and Lock Haven universities, along with Lycoming and King's colleges, partner with Geisinger Health System and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations in an array of projects. The group is currently engaged in $800,000 worth of grant-funded research.

Susquehanna University, in particular, has been a strong contributor to The River Group and a beneficiary of its activities.

"It starts at the presidential level and the willingness of President Lemons to promote the region and to engage his faculty and students in regional issues," Wieder says. "Having an institution like Susquehanna with such high-caliber faculty and students involved in this has been a tremendous addition to the whole effort of cleaning up the river and therefore the bay."

For Susquehanna faculty, it's "a wonderful opportunity to engage students in meaningful educational work and, in many cases, provide them with opportunities to conduct publishable science," he says.

It's also likely that The River Group will continue to grow. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health may become a partner as well, thanks to an agreement it has entered with Geisinger's Center for Health Research. The medical research facilities have come together to form the Environmental Health Institute at Geisinger Medical Center. Wieder says that data collected by The River Group will be used by the institute to determine if there are any connections between human health and the environmental considerations impacting the river.

"Every new partner we engage brings something new to the table that helps to broaden the whole perspective and makes it even more exciting," Wieder says.

And by participating in the work of The River Group and the Humanities Council, Wieder believes students will gain a fuller appreciation for the region. "More important," he says, "no matter where they go after graduation, they will recognize the importance of the environment in maintaining the quality of life that we all need to respect more."