How to Make a Difference in Your Watershed
(http://www.epa.gov/adopt/)

Learn about your watershed: Start by using the Watershed Information Network (WIN) to find your watershed address and learn about its environmental health. Other useful sites include Surf Your Watershed, the Watershed Atlas, Envirofacts and Enviromapper. Also be sure to check out EPA's Wetlands web page to learn about the importance of wetlands. Use EPA's Nonpoint Source Program web pages to learn about how nonpoint source pollution affects your watershed and your coastal watershed. Identify ways you can help prevent polluted runoff from your home, ranch or farm. Check out Give Water a Hand (for students) or the National Farm*A*Syst/Home*A*Syst Voluntary Assessment Programs (for farmers and homeowners), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service's Programs and Activities to find out how you can be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem. Go on a Wetlands Walk, Estuary Walk, Lake Walk, Stream Walk, or River Walk and make observations and assessments of waterbody conditions: If you see anything abnormal (such as dead fish, oil spills, leaking barrels, and other pollution) contact your city or county environmental department right away and report the nature and location of the problem. Find out about our precious coastal and marine resources by visiting the Coastal Watershed Fact Sheets. Learn about pressures on coastal watersheds and find out 25 things you can do to help save coral reefs. Learn how land use and development decisions affect your water resources and how watershed planning and the watershed approach can help: Find out about model ordinances to protect water quality at EPA's Model Ordinances to Protect Local Resources web pages and the Center for Watershed Protection. Also learn about alternatives to current development patterns such as low-impact developmentand smart growth. Become Active in Your Watershed: Find a watershed organization in your community and volunteer to help. If there are no active groups, consider starting your own. Use EPA's Adopt Your Watershed's Catalog of Watershed Groups to locate groups in your community or visit the Watershed Information Network's How to Start a Watershed Team page. Become a Volunteer Water Quality Monitor: Help collect water quality data and build stewardship for your local waterbody. Attend a training workshop to learn proper monitoring techniques and safety rules. Visit EPA's Volunteer Monitoring Homepage and read Starting Out in Volunteer Water Monitoring. Consult the National Estuary Program's Volunteer Monitoring page for guidance in coastal areas. Also visit Kentucky Watch's listing of national, regional, state and local volunteer monitoring homepages, as well as homepages for volunteer monitoring in estuaries, international volunteer monitoring, and examples of K-12 educational efforts. Organize or join in the cleanup of a beach, stream, estuary, or wetland: For example, participate in the National River Cleanup Week, May 12 - 19, 2001 sponsored by American Outdoors, or the International Coastal Cleanup sponsored by the Center for Marine Conservation on the third Saturday of every September. For information on coastal debris, read Turning the Tide on Trash. Be sure to follow safety guidelines for any cleanup activity! Create a Wildlife Habitat in your Backyard, Workplace or Schoolyar: Download the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service's 28-page booklet that outlines 10 backyard conservation projects. Or join the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program. Participate in or help coordinate a special wetlands activity during the month of May to celebrate American Wetlands Month: Visit the Terrene Institute web site for ideas for special wetland activities. Also, celebrate International Migratory Bird Day on Saturday May 12, 2001 by joining in an event to raise awareness about the importance of birds, biological diversity, and wetlands. Help Increase Public Awareness in Your Watershed Enter environmental art and poetry contests: For example, the International "River of Words" Poetry and Art contest is open to youth between the ages of 5 to 19 and invites children to explore and interpret their local watershed through the arts. Similar sites include the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' Environmental Art and Poetry Gallery and Environmental Defense Fund's Kids' Poems for a New Millennium. Prepare a presentation about your watershed for a school or civic organization: Explain what a watershed is. Discuss water quality threats, including polluted runoff and habitat loss. Highlight things people can do to protect water quality, including limiting fertilizer use and eliminating herbicides and pesticides. Be sure to provide case studies from other watersheds and to highlight success stories. Research your presentation using a variety of water education materials. Organize a Storm Drain Stenciling Project in your neighborhood: Produce and distribute a flyer or door hanger for households to remind residents that storm drains dump directly into your local waterbody. Join the Center for Marine Conservation "Million Points of Blight" campaign or check with a local watershed group, or your county government -- many offer assistance with stenciling projects. Earthwater Stencils also provides guidelines and information! Sponsor a Watershed Festival in your community to raise awareness about the importance of watershed protection: Organize the festival around a water body in your watershed (estuaries, etc.), an issue (protecting drinking water sources), or a national event (Coast Week.) Find out how to organize an event using the Water Environment Federation's Walk Your Watershed Festival Organizing Kit or the Groundwater Foundation's guide, "Making Waves: How to Put on a Water Festival" and "Making More Waves: Ideas from Across the US and Canada for Organizing Your Water Festival. Learn how to fund your watershed outreach and public education efforts: Use the following EPA resources to get started: the Environmental Education Grants Program, the Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection, Environmental Finance Program, and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program.

Last Updated April 14, 2003
Webmaster: Howard Drossman, hdrossman@ColoradoCollege.edu
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