Easton Man Found Dead in Lehigh River

An Easton man was found dead in the Lehigh River this morning, and authorities are investigating how he died, according to the Northampton County Coroner's office.

The body of Joshua Pereira, 25, was found floating in the water by a fisherman and emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene along Larry Holmes Drive at 7:38 a.m., said Northampton County Chief Deputy Coroner Kelly Gillis.

The man's family has been notified of his death, she said.

At this point, the manner of Pereira's death is unclear, she said, adding that an autopsy is pending and the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the man's passing is ongoing.

"It will be a few weeks before we know all the particulars of how he died," Gillis said.

According to various online sources, Pereira was a West Ward Easton resident who lived on the 800 block of Ferry Street and was the father of two young children.

Updated at 4:39 p.m. to add background information.

Easton Officials Express Skepticism of Dam Removal Plan

By Christina Georgiou

A three-year study by the Wildlands Conservancy on how to restore shad to the Lehigh River calls for the complete removal of two dams in Easton, but Easton officials seemed skeptical of the plan Wednesday evening, saying that while they'd like to see the shad return to the waterway, there is probably a better way to achieve that.

Vice president of the Wildlands Conservancy Abigail
Pattishall presents the ecology group's study findings
to Easton City Council Wednesday evening.

Abigail Pattishall, vice president of the conservation group, said the study looked at various options including partial dam removal and fish ramps but concluded the only effective solution would be the complete removal of both the Easton dam, located at the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, and the Chain dam which lies further upstream.

The Easton dam is owned by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), while the Chain dam is owned by the City of Easton. Both were originally built in the early 1800s and were intended to feed the Delaware and Lehigh canals.

Removal of the two dams would cost between $11.5 and $15.2 million, excluding engineering costs, the Wildlands Conservancy estimated. The potential undertaking, which would likely span a decade, is currently unfunded, though about $150,000 has been pledged by Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and from the Palmerton Superfund settlement.

Additional funding could be raised through grant opportunities, Pattishall said.

A slide from the Wildlands Conservancy study presentation
at the Easton City Council meeting Wednesday evening.

She added that while a number of infrastructure issues would need to be addressed and pumping stations would need to be constructed to keep the Delaware and Lehigh canals full as well, these obstacles could be overcome and the benefits of the dams' removal would be worth it.

"We're really talking about opening up a lot of new habitat," she said.

John Berry of the Shad Fisherman's Association also urged city council to support the removal of the two dams, saying that it would not only bring shad back to the Lehigh River, but would also bring several other desirable species of fish to the waterway.

And, removing the dam would open up new recreational opportunities on the Lehigh as well.

"The economy dam removal would bring is honestly the biggest benefit to the City of Easton," Berry told council members. "The City of Easton, located where it is, should see the lion's share of (increased revenue)...You have 20 million people...within a gas tank's distance of Easton...and they are potential (fishing) license buyers."

Councilman Roger Ruggles, who is also an engineering professor at Lafayette College, questioned the accuracy of the study, saying that claims that the dams' removal would mitigate flood situations is misleading.

Easton City Councilman
Roger Ruggles disagreed
with the Wildlands
Conservancy study findings
and said claims dam removal
would help reduce flooding
were inaccurate and
misleading.

"Your report states a reduction of 16.1 feet in a hundred-year event," he said. "That was an inaccurate statement...You're wrong. The level on South Third Street is driven by the Delaware, not the Lehigh. If you're wrong about that, what else are you wrong about?"

He added that possible contaminants from decades of riverside industry may lurk under the river silt and these would be released if the dams were removed. He said the cost of environmental cleanup if this were the case could add "untold millions" to project costs.

Mayor Sal Panto agreed with Ruggles' assessment of the cause of flooding in the city.

"You should remove flooding from your report," he told Pattishall.

Councilwoman El Warner worried that the dams' removal would cost the city in other ways, even if Easton didn't contribute directly to the project's funding.

"The city may only own one dam, but the city owns several valuable assets that would be affected by it," she said, noting that sewer and gas lines, as well as other infrastructure, span the lengths of the two dams.

City officials also worried about the costs associated with pumping water back into the Delaware and Lehigh canals, saying that while Easton might not have to pay directly for the dam removal, they'd almost certainly have to bear the pumping costs.

Councilman Jeff Warren questioned why the fish ladders at the two dams have been ineffective, noting that they cost about $3.9 million to install less than 20 years ago, and that at the time were described as being state of the art.

"The design of the fish ladders developed on the west coast for salmon, which go through fish ladders quite well," said Leroy Young from the Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission. "Shad don't."

The Easton Planning Department also said the study was flawed in a number of ways, and that total dam removal would present a number of disadvantages to the city.

Chief City Planner Brian Gish, who is also an avid fisherman, said the department looked at the issue from "a more holistic standpoint, not just fish passage."

"Written solely from a fish-navigation standpoint, (this study) is misleading," he said.

The city can't support dam removal at this point, and other remedies to allow shad back into the Lehigh should be considered, including modifying the fish ladders, or the installation of fish elevators.

"We know things don't work as they are, but that doesn't mean other solutions wouldn't," he said. "The solutions may require out-of-the-box thinking, but last I checked, that isn't something Easton has trouble with."

Gish also said that while dam removal might create some new recreational opportunities along the river, it would also likely eliminate others, as well as devalue some existing waterway investments, like boat docks and ramps, through the drop in water levels.

"It's one thing to cast into the Lehigh when it's five feet away, It's another when it's 30," he said.

City Planning Director Becky Bradley said the drop in the Lehigh's water levels as a result of the dams' removal would have on utility and sewer lines would be substantial.

"The Lehigh River area is dense with Easton utility infrastructure facilities," she said. "(It) would not just be a matter of inconvenience."

The change in water levels would also directly affect the piers and supports of the six bridges that lie upstream, inconsistent with their engineering and intended use, "necessitating expensive repairs and assessments."

The hydroelectric potential, though currently untapped, of the dams shouldn't be discounted either, Bradley said.

"Given the flow rates on the Lehigh iver and the impoundment height at each dam respectively, these dams have the potential to generate roughy 8.7 megawatts of electricity," she said. "Relative to electricity generated by fossil fuels, this would provide a carbon offset of approximately 226,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of taking 42,640 vehicles off the road."

Bradley also noted the historic value of the canals, as well as the dams, to local history. The canal corridor was the first to be nationally recognized, and the area has been estimated by the federal government to have added 7,892 jobs and $250 million to the regional economy, she said.

Panto also noted the dams' attraction in their own right, saying that many people are attracted to the riverfront to see the falls.

Despite the council's opposition to the dam removal plan, officials said they are committed to helping return shad to the Lehigh River through other methods.

"We just want to work together," Young said.

"There's no set time line. We're not asking you to decide (now)," Pattishall said. "My job is just to tell you what's best for ecological health. We would never move the project forward without city council's blessing."

If You Can't Beat It, Eat It: Japanese Knotweed

By Christina Georgiou

Recently, there's been a lot of attention in Easton being given to the idea of urban gardening, particularly to grow healthier food, and also to the environmental detriments of invasive plant species in the local area.

The idea that the city is a "food desert" has also been floated around a bit, though technically there is no neighborhood that strictly qualifies as one. (To be considered a true "food desert" there needs to be a lack of a dedicated grocery store in a two-mile radius. While it's true three out of four of Easton's neighborhoods don't have a supermarket and it would be a much better thing if they did, all four neighborhoods are within the two-mile reach of one.)

While we are definitely supportive of urban gardening and growing food, favor native plants over invasive ones, and would very much like to see more healthy (and more affordable) foods sold in neighborhood stores, there's one idea that we think is a bit neglected--what already is available and what to do with it.

This is the second article in the series "If You Can't Beat It, Eat It", where we're highlighting a few edible, healthy plants you may not have noticed  (or just call "weeds") that grow all around the Easton area.

Click here to read the first article in the series, on dandelions.

One of many leafy platoons of an army of Japanese knotweed
that is quietly and voraciously taking over plant habitats
in the local Easton area. This one has set up camp along
the Bushkill Creek, crowding out many other native plants.

When it comes to invasive plants, it could be easily said that Japanese knotweed is one of the worst, if not the worst, and few that have ever met this voracious plant would disagree.

Once it gets the tiniest foothold, it takes over like a leafy invading army, creating a "mono-culture" in its immediate environment. Its underground rhizome network sends up fast-growing shoots, which reach heights of three to 12 feet in a matter of a couple of months. During its peak growing time, it can grow one to three inches a day, and when it reaches full height, it's leaves are the size of a man's hand, depriving potential competitors of sunlight.

It's incredibly difficult to kill--a tiny live piece of stem or root in soil with a little water is enough for the plant to regenerate itself. Chemical herbicides aren't terribly effective, and repeated applications of poison over a succession of years are usually necessary to eradicate it.

Other techniques include repeatedly chopping the plant down and removing the vegetation to prevent it from rooting and continuing to spread, as well as burning it. (One suspects the use of a flamethrower might be most satisfying, if not actually prudent.)



Shoots of Japanese knotweed, being a literal "pain in the
asphalt" along Pearl Street in Easton.

Knotweed rhizomes can go 10 feet deep and stretch up to 30 feet away from visible plants. Its roots can--and do--break through concrete and pavement to spread, often causing costly damage to structures and roadways, though it prefers to take hold in disturbed soil, particularly along waterways, which, when their banks flood, is one of the main ways it travels.

It's literally a "pain in the asphalt" to pretty much anyone who has to deal with its unwanted presence.

Japanese knotweed and it's close cousin, giant Japanese knotweed, was imported from Asia in the late 1800s as an ornamental plant. It's droopy flowers, seen in late summer, produce winged seeds, which is another way it establishes itself in new areas.

Areas in the northeast of the U.S. have had a particular problem with Japanese knotweed, but it's found all over the North American continent, including in Alaska. It's also a problem in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The World Conservation Union has listed it as one of the world’s worst invasive species. Probably the only place it's not considered a major pest is in Japan, where it comes from.



Yes, that's ALL Japanese knotweed. We suspect it's
plotting the demise of that tree on the upper left as
its next conquest.

Locally, Japanese knotweed has become a particular problem along Easton's waterways, said  David Hopkins, the city's public works director.

"It's horrible," he said when I asked him about Japanese knotweed.

He said he thinks flooding is to blame for it becoming especially prolific in recent years. It's crowding out native plants, blocking access to waterways and also harbors ticks in season, he added.

But there is one upside to Japanese knotweed. It's edible, and it's surprisingly tasty and nutritious too.

Japanese knotweed is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C and its cofactor, the antioxidant flavonoid rutin, and of resveratrol, the same substance in the skin of grapes and in red wine that lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart attacks. It also provides potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and manganese.

As a food, it can be used as a replacement for rhubarb in any recipe that call for it, including pies, crumbles, muffins, tarts, sauces, syrups, etc. It can also be steamed or grilled like asparagus. Tea, wine, cordials, and pickles are also possibilities.

Flavorwise, it's unique, with a lemony hint, and somewhat reminiscent of both rhubarb and asparagus, though which it is more similar to seems to depend on its preparation.

While most probably haven't heard of eating Japanese knotweed, the practice isn't rare. Several locations in New England have festivals and/or cooking contests annually centered around Japanese knotweed, and in England, where the plant has also become a big problem, chefs have been developing gourmet recipes to find ways to consume it.



Young Japanese knotweed setting up camp in a field setting.
See those pretty violets on the lower right?
If the knotweed isn't stopped, they're doomed.

Hopkins said he thinks the idea of people eating the local Japanese knotweed is a wonderful idea, and said that foraging the plant for food is perfectly fine in the city.

"I would welcome it if (people) took it all," he said, adding he'd be willing to try some himself. "It would make me feel good to consume something that's been such a pest. What a great thing it would be if people ate it."

Foragers need to be mindful about where they pick from, so as not to pull plants from areas where it is prohibited, as well as making sure their chosen locations haven't been treated with pesticides and herbicides, which is a common way many places deal with Japanese knotweed infestations, but in Easton, this is unlikely to be much of a problem.

The City of Easton has no future plans to apply herbicide in most areas, after it controversially did so along the Delaware River banks in Riverside Park last year, Hopkins said. Any place herbicide is applied on city property will be clearly marked, he added.

In Hugh Moore park, the city will utilize goats starting in June to try to help control runaway Japanese knotweed growth, Hopkins said. The initiative, along with others the city will be trying this year, will be led by the city council's Environmental Advisory Committee. Public works employees will also be chopping down the plant with mowers and weed wackers repeatedly, too.

"We're going to try to not use chemicals at all," Hopkins said.

So, upon discovering that Japanese knotweed is edible, not to mention readily available all over the place, I decided to give it a try.

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much. I was more expecting that Japanese knotweed is "edible" in an "it will keep you from starving to death at the end of the world" sort of way. I mean, how good could such a horrid plant, and one that grows as tall as a small building and is advancing like a malicious army be?



Japanese knotweed, cooking with butter and garlic. It
not only looks a bit like asparagus, it tastes a lot like
it too.

 Surprisingly good actually. Pan sauteed with a little butter and garlic, it is very much like asparagus with lemon, which I happen to adore.

While there are a number of specific recipes for knotweed crumble out there, I decided to test the theory that it can be substituted for rhubarb in any rhubarb recipe.

Wow, it really does make a very tasty dessert too. The crumble I made has a sour apple taste, and the green color to match, though from a visual standpoint, it looks more like green rhubarb.

The season to harvest Japanese knotweed for food began about two weeks ago, and will continue for a few more weeks, into June, depending on growing conditions and the weather.

New shoots of the plant are reportedly the best, though the top 6 to 12 inches of taller plants are also fine. Basically what you're looking for is the tender parts, before the mature plant becomes woody and too stringy to be tasty.

Harvesting Japanese knotweed is a snap, literally. You can just break off the hollow stalks, or snip it with scissors, if you prefer. Anywhere where the stalk is too tough and stringy to do that easily is probably too mature to provide good eating, though I suspect peeled, the stringier stuff would be fine for wine-making and tea.

You can use a basket to carry it home, or just stuff a plastic grocery bag full. (I used two, doubled up. En masse, the vegetation gets a little weighty, and I didn't want the bag to split.)

Err on the side of harvesting too much over too little--you're doing the local environment a favor by carrying this stuff off, and there is NO danger of overharvesting here. Once you've tried it too, you may well want to eat more or try other recipes with it, and having it already on hand is easier than having to go pick more.

When you get home, to prepare the knotweed for use, strip it of all its leaves, and chop the top off too. Give it a good rinsing.

If you're not going to use it right away, you can store it in the fridge for a few days as is, with or without the leaves. It will wilt a bit, but the stalks, which is the part you're going to use, should be fine. You can also put it upright in water to keep it crisper, though you definitely don't want to do it for so long that it roots.

As tempting as it may be to compost, this is one plant you definitely should NOT do that with, or you will end up with it growing on your property, out of your compost pile or bin, only furthering the local Japanese knotweed problem. Dispose of unused bits in the regular trash. Or you might burn the scraps on the barbeque and toss the ash in the compost heap, giving it a nice nitrogen boost, if you really want to be a purist about not contributing to landfills while not contributing to the spread of this pest plant.

Many foraging guides I've seen recommend peeling off the skin, though I found that's unnecessary with the youngest stalks. Still, it's a simple process if you need to do it. A light scrape with a knife or using a vegetable peeler is quite effective. The best stalks I harvested ranged in size from 1/4 inch to about 1 inch in diameter, though some smaller stalks were tough and some larger ones quite tender.

To cook knotweed like asparagus, I cut the cleaned young, tender (unpeeled) stalks into 4-6 inch long pieces, and chopped up a couple of cloves of garlic. In a heavy frying pan on a medium heat, I melted about two tablespoons of butter, and tossed the garlic in. After a couple of minutes, I added the Japanese knotweed on top, and while it was pan grilling, I sprinkled a little bit of coarse kosher salt and a dash of black pepper on top. A very  few minutes later, when the stalks had turned a light shade of olive green and went limp, I tossed the entire thing into a bowl.

This turned out to be amazingly good, as I mentioned earlier. The garlic carmelized a bit, and added a nice crunch to the lemony flavor of the knotweed, which softens up considerably when it's cooked. (The stalks should be limp when cooked through, otherwise they'll be stringy and unpleasantly tough. But the limpness is not a detriment to flavor in this case, and the texture is actually still good this way.)

I suspect onions would also be very good with knotweed. Grilling the stuff on a barbeque  in a pan with a little water and then maybe some butter at the end, would also probably work well, either by itself or with other veggies.

Moving on to knotweed's sweeter side, I decided to make a crumble, aiming for something that would serve as a dessert, as well as perhaps a breakfast treat.

Here's the recipe I used for Japanese knotweed crumble, which I adapted from one for rhubarb:



Crumbly-topped Japanese Knotweed
Yes, it was good. Yep, it's all gone now.


Crumbly-topped Rhubarb Japanese Knotweed

• 3 cups chopped Japanese unpeeled knotweed stalks
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 1/2 cup granulated Sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon water
• 6 Tablespoons of butter, softened
• 6 Tablespoons flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup rolled oats (regular or quick cooking--either is fine)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
 
In a 10x6x3-inch baking dish (that's a standard loaf pan), combine the first six  ingredients. Mix the butter into the flour and brown sugar thoroughly, then stir in the oats.

Sprinkle or spread over the rhubarb. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the rhubarb is tender and the top is brown.

Again, Japanese knotweed can be used in any recipe that calls for rhubarb. If the recipe says to peel the rhubarb, then peeling the knotweed is advisable. If it calls for unpeeled rhubarb, then peeling the knot weed probably isn't necessary.

If you harvest Japanese knotweed later in the season and it's beginning to get tough, my online foraging sources suggest peeling it down to the more tender core is advisable.

Boiled Japanese knotweed, pre-puree, on its way to
becoming fruit leather.

I chose easy recipes to begin with, having no idea whether Japanese knotweed would be worth the effort.

As it turns out, it most definitely is. Next on my list, besides more "poor reporter's asparagus", is knotweed muffins, knotweed quick pickles, knotweed vodka, and maybe some knotweed wine.

I also found a recipe for knotweed fruit leather that sounds tasty and pretty easy to pull off, which is in the works.

I'm truly amazed at what I found experimenting with Japanese knotweed. I had expected that it would be a lot of work for little gain as a food, and that it might be passable, but not great when it came to tastiness. All of my expectations turned out to be completely wrong. It's pretty awesome stuff.

Give it a shot. It's not only free, nutritious, tasty food, but by cutting it down, you'll be doing your neighborhood and the local environment a big favor!

Finding and identifying Japanese knotweed:

• It really is everywhere, once you identify it, but known places in Easton and the greater Easton area are along waterways, such as the Bushkill Creek (easily accessible via the Karl Stirner Arts Trail in the city), and along the Delaware and Lehigh river banks. (One place to avoid along the Delaware River though, is in Riverside Park, and also at Scott Park, due to the application of glyphosate last year. Give it another year or two before harvesting from these locations. All other areas along the riverbanks should be okay.)
• If you see obviously unhealthy or "burned" looking Japanese knotweed, especially surrounded by other sickly looking plants, skip picking from that area. Again, the City of Easton says it doesn't plan to use herbicides this year and will clearly mark areas if they do use chemical means to control plants or pests, but that doesn't preclude private property owners' use of these substances. That said, you may find some old, hollow, long, fibrous stems from last year next to the new shoots. This is actually a good sign that the plant has not been treated. Additionally, waterways, where it likes to grow the most, are protected areas, and should generally be free of such hazards.
• Japanese knotweed has hollow bamboo-like stalks that are crooked at the "knots" or stem joints. The leaves are large, usually at least a few inches wide, and grow off the stalks  on alternate sides of the stem joints. It doesn't look like anything else that grows in the area, and there are no poisonous look-alikes. Shoots coming out of the ground vaguely resemble asparagus. It usually grows in stands, with many stalks shooting out of the ground in the same area. Due to the fact that it has a habit of taking over anywhere it's becoming established, few if any other kinds of plants will be found growing within the cluster.

Click here for more about how to identify Japanese knotweed, from a foraging expert.

Click here for a few more Japanese knotweed recipes.

Click here for a number of good rhubarb recipes, for which you can substitute Japanese knotweed.