Category: Water

The Center for Watershed Protection is a non-profit corporation that provides local governments, activists, and watershed organizations around the country with the technical tools for protecting the nation’s streams, lakes, and rivers. The center has developed and disseminated a multi-disciplinary strategy to watershed protection that encompasses watershed planning, watershed restoration, storm water management, watershed research, better site design, education and outreach, and watershed training.

“The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is the only independent organization dedicated solely to restoring and protecting the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers”, its primary goal to improve water quality by reducing pollution. The foundation “fights for strong and effective laws and regulations while working cooperatively with government, business, and citizens in partnership to protect and restore the bay.”

The Jones Falls Watershed Association works to protect and restore the health and beauty of the Jones Falls Watershed through restoration, monitoring, advocacy, and citizen awareness. The volunteer-driven grassroots organization is credited with bringing attention back to the river and building awareness of the stream and stream valley as natural resource assets for the community. Volunteers participate in trash cleanups, water quality monitoring, buffer plantings, and working with large landowners in the watershed to improve land management practices.

The Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association’s mission is to protect and improve the environmental quality and natural beauty of the Baltimore Harbor and its tributaries. Specifically, they plan on installing a trash netting/collection system around the harbor, creating educational trash programs in the neighborhoods and school systems, and addressing the water quality issues in the city’s harbor and tributaries. More information on the organization, the watershed, and volunteer opportunities can be found on their website.

The Herring Run Watershed Association’s goal is to improve the environmental quality of the Herring Run Watershed for the benefit of its communities and the Chesapeake Bay. While mobilizing volunteers for advocacy, restoration, and education, HRWA’s main focus is the creation and implementation of watershed action plans. Their website features information on the watershed, the association, and ongoing volunteer opportunities.

The Chesapeake Bay Program is a regional partnership that brings together members of various state, federal, academic, and local watershed organizations to create and adopt policies that support the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. The program works within a collaborative organizational structure where members from partner organizations participate in a series of committees. Their website is a host of information on the land, water, and people of the Bay and the restoration efforts currently underway. It also features information on how citizens, whether students, teachers, business owners, or government officials, can help get involved.

An offshoot of the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Izaak Walton League of America, renowned as one of the country’s oldest conservation organizations, Save Our Streams (SOS) works nationally to clean stream beds, restore deficient stream banks, and monitoring stream health. Largely a volunteer-supported group, SOS urges citizens to involve themselves in self-directed projects that will assist America’s many at-risk waterways.