Watershed Festivals – Awareness at its Best

What do flea markets, musical entertainment, kayak demonstrations, fried dough, fly-tying instruction, historical re-enactments, storytelling, and children’s face painting have to do with watershed awareness? Everything, when included as part of a watershed awareness festival!

Ask any watershed group what the biggest hurdle to implementing watershed protection measures might be, and after “funding” you’re likely to hear things like “a lack of cooperation between stakeholders,” “apathy within the community,” and “problems with disseminating information to local stakeholders.” Holding a Lake Awareness Day or a Watershed Festival can help bring local watershed residents together and inform concerned citizens that they can make a difference in protecting their natural resources.

For example, F. X. Browne, Inc. recently designed a public outreach program for the Pennypack Watershed Partnership. In addition to public surveys, workshops, and fact sheets, a watershed festival was held at the local riverside park. The Watershed Wonders Festival included a guided nature walk down the Pennypack Creek, fish electroshocking

demonstrations, cider pressing, pumpkin painting, storytelling, and other fun family-oriented activities. The overall goal was to reconnect Pennypack Creek with the people who live within its watershed. By encouraging more people to use the natural resources surrounding the creek, a vested interest in preservation will ideally be fostered. Designing the festival as a family event helped to energize children and their parents about conservation issues. Watershed festivals are also a good opportunity to involve the business community as sponsors and participants.

	Watershed awareness is especially important when the target watershed crosses municipal boundaries. Gathering stakeholders together in a fun event encourages people to work together as a watershed group. Depending on the watershed, stakeholders may include public agencies,
non-profit organizations, businesses, hunting and fishing clubs, farming organizations, municipalities, chambers of commerce, sewer authorities, utilities, school and scout groups, and local citizens.

Although public meetings and publications are also helpful in disseminating information, a watershed event can help to reach more people who might not normally take the time to participate. When people come face-to-face with their friends and neighbors to unite behind a cause, especially if they’re having fun and the turnout is large, it helps to spawn a greater sense of unity and responsibility.

For information and pictures from one of the area’s largest watershed awareness festivals, the Susquehanna River Celebration, visit http://www.pacd.org/news/rcimages.htm. For more information about designing a public outreach program in your watershed, contact info@fxbrowne.com.