Join the Watershed Academy
Is this fall your semester to go back to school to train as a Master Watershed Steward?
The Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy is looking for a few good men and women to join its 10th certification class. Training, beginning in October, includes class time and field sessions in managing stormwater and restoring waterways.
Recent graduate April Florey did her capstone project on a neighbor’s flooding yard. Trevor Dehar had just moved into Brooklyn Park when drainage problems began. He contacted the watershed stewards academy for a solution.
With help from Dehar’s homeowner organization, Florey designed and volunteers from the Anne Arundel Patapsco River Alliance installed a rock drainage system in the yard, leading to a conservation landscape of native plants. Behind the house, a second conservation landscape was planted to soak up additional stormwater from the surrounding neighborhood. Dehar’s yard sits lower than his neighbors’. The conservation landscape now slows and contains the water that used to flood his yard after a rain.
The annual certification course is taught at Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center in Millersville. Stewards may choose to serve within an Anne Arundel community in which they live, work or worship. In addition to stewardship, you can learn either rainscaping techniques or skills to promote environmental literacy with local schools.
Attend a free informational orientation before submitting an application to the academy. Upcoming info sessions: Aug. 29, 6-7pm, Severn Library; Sept. 6, noon-1pm, Eastport-Annapolis Neck Library; Sept. 18, 6-7pm, Arlington Echo. Once orientation is complete, applications are due by Sept. 20. Course begins Oct. 28. Details and applications: www.aawsa.org.