projects
'Stream Crossing' Signs - Watershed Awareness
With assistance from Northwest Regional Planning Commission, the St. Albans Area Watershed Association was awarded a grant last Spring from ANR to promote Connecting Healthy Lawns to Healthy Waterways.
The project is located in the St. Albans Bay Watershed, with a specific focus on water quality awareness in the urban/suburban areas of the Stevens and Rugg Brook watersheds. We are continuing our theme of lake friendly lawn care, to use "stream crossing signs" to illustrate the connection of urban residents to their water quality impact on their local streams and St. Albans Bay. Signs were posted at about 15 stream crossings in the Stevens and Rugg Brook watershed. We hope that residents will begin to recognize and 'get to know' their local streams.
Signs have been placed throughout the watershed, both in the City and in the Town. When people hear, talk of or read about issues with the Bay, and specifically Stevens and Rugg Brooks, most people do not realize where these waterways are located or how they are connected. Often they are also unaware of how their daily activities in the watershed generate the storm-water runoff and phosphorus pollution that is impacting these waterways. “Stream crossing” signs will provide a starting place for discussion about the connection between urban areas and the Lake, so that more citizens are likely to be engaged and informed when reading about projects and efforts. Some residents don’t even realize that what they think is possibly a “ditch” is actually part of Rugg or Stevens Brook. Hopefully, these signs will raise public awareness about the extensive waterway network in our watershed.
St. Albans Area Watershed Association | P.O. Box 1567, St. Albans VT 05478 | email: sawatershed@myfairpoint.net
St. Albans Area Watershed Association | P.O. Box 1567, St. Albans VT 05478 | email: sawatershed@myfairpoint.net
Lawn Signs Make the Connection Between
Healthy Lawns and Healthy Waterways
We are still spreading the word about using Phosphorus free fertilizer! Through a grant from the Vermont Watershed Management Fund, we distributed 25 lawn signs that emphasize using phosphorus free fertilizer. (as pictured at left) to place in the St. Albans Bay watershed.
With these signs we are continuing our theme of Connecting Healthy Lawns to Healthy Waterways. Last Spring, with assistance from Northwest Regional Planning Commission, SAAWA was awarded a grant from the Agency of Natural Resources to install Stream and Lawn signs to increase awareness about the impact of using lawn fertilizer in the St. Albans Bay Watershed.
This grant was funded through the Vermont Watershed Management Fund which was created in 1996 to provide funds to restore and protect Vermont's "nongame wildlife and major watershed areas." In addition, stream signs were strategically placed at 15 stream crossings in the Stevens & Rugg Brook watershed.
To spread the word about P-Free fertilizer, you can volunteer to place a sign on your lawn.
The Watershed Management Fund has provided the funding for the Lawn and Stream Signs grant, and other water quality projects in Vermont.
IIf you still have one of these signs, please keep it and display each Spring....
We appreciate the support!
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