A little background info on the Cooks Creek Watershed Association’s all-volunteer board of directors.
W. Scott Douglas, President
Scott has lived in the Watershed since 1990 and is currently residing in Springtown with his wife Aimee and a rotating cadre of dogs. Scott is a professional environmental toxicologist with more than 30 years of experience working in the areas of surface water hydrology, freshwater stream ecology and sediment toxicology.
He is currently employed as a Project Manager at the NJ Department of Transportation where he coordinates environmental programs and dredging projects for the State of NJ. His latest initiative involves finding ways to create sustainable transportation infrastructure programs by integrating natural design principles. Scott has been active in the Watershed since 1990, when he became involved in opposing the proposed quarry and asphalt plant in Durham.
Scott was a founding member of both the Durham and Springfield Township Environmental Advisory Councils and a longtime member of the Springfield Township Planning Commission. He was the driving force behind the award winning Cooks Creek Watershed Conservation Plan and currently heads up our water quality and quantity monitoring programs.
Scott loves working with children and introducing them to the great outdoors and all the wonders that it holds. He has been active in local Scouting programs for almost 20 years, helped to found and organize the Watershed Inclusion Program (WIP) at Palisades Middle School, and conducts our popular Mini-Monster Mayhem children’s education program.
Lois Oleksa, Communications Director
Lois is a homemaker and retired owner of Gill O’er the Ground (a provider of high-quality gardening services). She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology (specializing in the field of Botany) from Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA. She has been a member of the Board of the Cooks Creek Watershed Association for more than 25 years and was trained to assist and has performed water testing for the Delaware River Keeper. Her interest in the Cooks Creek Watershed began soon after moving to Durham. Her family property borders Cooks Creek, located about a mile from its mouth. When a spring flood threatened to destroy the bank of the stream and began to divert the water in a new direction, the family began to repair the banks without the use of large equipment, a “natural” correction for the problem. The Cooks Creek Watershed Association members volunteered to assist and a bond was forged with the organization.
She currently resides with her husband, David, in Durham, Pa., and gardens a large plot of land organically growing flowers and vegetables. She grows oyster and shiitake mushrooms on logs in the woods and helps her husband, David, with their goats and cheese making. She is on the Durham Township Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) and the Durham Historical Society board.
In her capacity as Newsletter Editor, she is appreciative of any articles or rebuttals suitable for publication in the Cooks Current.
Jim Orben
Jim moved into the Cooks Creek Watershed in 1973 and has been a member of the Watershed Association since 1975. He holds a degree in Environmental Science from Lehigh University and worked for many years in industrial wastewater treatment and air pollution monitoring.
Jim has served on the Cooks Creek Watershed Association’s Board of Directors since joining the Association, for a time filling the role of president. He has worked on many of the association’s projects including stream improvement, tree sale, roadside cleanup, newsletter and stream classification upgrades.
Travis Pantaleo
Travis is relatively new to the area, having moved back to the northeast in
late 2022. He and his wife, Katie, live just outside of Springtown with their
two daughters, a variety of chickens, dogs, and other critters.
Growing up in New Jersey, Travis became an avid angler from an early age
and attended a marine sciences high school at the tip of Sandy Hook in
Monmouth County. Upon graduating, he entered the Virginia Military
Institute and has remained an active-duty naval officer ever since. His
relocation to Pennsylvania after more than 15 years elsewhere has him in
school for strategic studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.
However, the affinity for angling and marine sciences never waned and he
completed a graduate certificate in fisheries management with Oregon
State University in 2023. Appreciating the opportunity to research, he has
studied social media impact on catch and release fisheries, as well as
policy regarding illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the Arctic
Ocean as a result of climate change.
No stranger to volunteering, Travis has worked with different chapters of
Trout Unlimited from coast to coast, as well as conservation districts, and
numerous groups involved in river habitat restoration. His love for trout
knows no bounds and he is thrilled to be with Cooks Creek Watershed
Association and the fabled water it serves.
Steve Smith
Steve Smith has lived with his wife Ruth in Springfield Township since 1979 and has been a member of the Cooks Creek Watershed Association since the 1980’s. Shortly after becoming a member Steve travelled to Harrisburg with Lynne Berseth to act as spokesman, using Lynne’s slides, for the Association’s application for the designation of Cooks Creek as an “exceptional value cold water fisheries stream.” This designation was granted shortly thereafter.
Steve served for approximately two years as president of the Cooks Creek Watershed Association and has occasionally contributed articles for publication in the Association’s newsletter, “Cooks Current.” He served on the Springfield Township Planning Commission for eight years and has been an advocate for land preservation in the township. While serving as a member of the Upper Bucks Community Fund, a fund affiliate of the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation, he promoted grants for The Heritage Conservancy and other local nonprofit groups.
Steve has recently been working with Scott Douglas on illustrations of invertebrates for a proposed “Guide to Invertebrates of the Streams of the Cooks Creek Watershed.” His interest in fresh water biology was first manifested in a quaint sixth grade science project “Life in Pond Water.” He recently published a book “Uncommon Skill” in which the work of local artisans Bill McCarthy and Alan Miller was documented with annotated photographs.