Who Are the People In Your Watershed?

POWR and PEC Host Regional Workshops for Community Watershed Organizations

 

As a follow-up to its successful series of regional watershed group workshops in 2016, the staff at the Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds & Rivers (POWR) and Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) are convening workshops again starting this spring!

The Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds & Rivers (POWR) is a nonprofit, membership organization with a mission to protect Pennsylvania’s watersheds. POWR operates through direct work and support of other organizations with similar missions across the state and is a supporting organization of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC). POWR fulfills its mission through key initiatives including the PA River of Year, the River Sojourn mini grant program, organizing and convening regional capacity-building workshops for community watershed organizations (CWO), and hosting a statewide watershed group technical conference every other year.

In collaboration with PEC, POWR planned and convened six regional workshops in the spring and fall of 2016. Building on those discussions, we then planned and hosted a statewide conference in March 2017. The purpose of these events was to provide organizational capacity training directly to Pennsylvania’s community watershed organizations, to help them meet their missions and set a strong foundation for sustaining watershed conservation and restoration programs. In total, more than 175 people attended the regional workshops, representing 83 watershed or affiliated organizations/agencies and 20 county conservation districts.

We are thrilled to announce that we are planning the six regional workshops once again and our first one is scheduled for April 25^th in Danville, PA.  We are starting in the North Central Region to celebrate the selection of Loyalsock Creek as the 2018 Pennsylvania River of the Year.  We have worked closely with the Middle Susquehanna RiverKeeper, Carol Parenzan, to plan a great workshop, and hope you’ll consider joining us. You can view the Agenda here and register here.

Other regional gatherings are also in the works. Drawing upon feedback from the 2016 regional meetings and from our statewide survey, we are working to develop a program that provides information on organizational capacity, technical resources, and program funding opportunities. Check the POWR and PEC websites for more information about these regional workshops and our 2019 statewide conference. We look forward to meeting with our fantastic watershed groups and bringing you more opportunities to network with each other.

Feel free to contact either Janet Sweeney ([email protected]) or me ([email protected]) to find out more about our 2018 and 2019 events for watershed groups. We are always looking for suggestions on topics and speakers, so please feel free to reach out to us.