Each month, we will highlight innovative, bay-oriented local actions. If you have a project that you'd like to see highlighted, please contact Catherine Shanks.

The Anne Arundel County
Watershed Stewards Academy:
Training local leaders to guide community environmental action

The Watershed Stewards Academy is an initiative to train community leaders as “Master Watershed Stewards”. The Master Watershed Stewards will work to reduce the impacts of storm water runoff in Anne Arundel County. The Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works and Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center are co-sponsors of this program. The role of the Master Watershed Steward is to engage and educate citizens, businesses and organizations within the community on relevant environmental issues. Stewards are also trained to coordinate small-scale restoration projects on private property such as installation of rain gardens, green roofs, rain barrels and septic retrofits as well as large-scale restoration efforts such as bio-retention areas or shoreline restorations on community property. The goal is to initiate small local actions that, collectively, will reduce the amount of pollution from the land that enters our waterways. Improvements in local waterways will lead to improvements in the Chesapeake Bay. The first class of the Watershed Stewards Academy trained 32 Anne Arundel County residents as Master Watershed Stewards.

Backyard Rain Garden

Master Watershed Stewards program is an intensive 9 session training course. Through the course, participants gain hands on experience with conducting neighborhood assessments, installing a raingarden, and participating in County projects such as the retrofit of a dry stormwater pond. The course also includes lessons on as topics such native plants and using computer mapping programs known as geographic information systems. They learn methods for organizing community projects, finding and managing project funding, and meet with local watershed organizations. Once the course is completed, the Watershed Stewards have access to a “toolbox” of materials as well as a network of professionals to support their continued work within their communities.

To receive the full title of Master Watershed Steward, the participants must also complete a “capstone project”. Capstone projects must include conducting a neighborhood assessment of environmental problems and determining the restoration potential. This assessment is followed by community outreach and education and community stewardship action. Completed capstone projects include 4 communities with rainbarrel installations, 7 raingarden projects, a reforestation and invasive species removal project, a pet waste installation project, and a number of community outreach and education programs.

Following certification, Master Watershed Stewards serve as neighborhood and community resource persons. They continue to coordinate efforts to infiltrate stormwater and reduce pollutant sources within their subwatersheds.

The next class of the Watershed Stewards Academy will begin on October 28, 2009. For more information about the Watershed Stewards Academy, please contact Suzanne Etgen, Coordinator of the Watershed Stewards Academy at (410) 222-3822 or setgen@aacps.org. The Watershed Stewards Academy has received generous support from the Keith Campbell Foundation, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

 

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