Updates from LFWA

Long time since my last posting. I guess everyone was tuckered out by all the activities in April.
To recap - we utilized some 400 volunteers on four different days.
On April 4, As part of the Alice Ferguson Foundation effort to clean up the Potomac, a group picked up street litter in the Friendship Heights and Tenleytown area in an effort to stop the trash before it hits the creek!
On April 18, Partnering with numerous groups, we did a creek clean-up. More than 200 volunteers pitched in at four different locations in the watershed.
On April 25/26, we have over 120 volunteers label 250 watershed storm drains. Thank you to our many partners and sponsors who helped with this. We have t-shirts now too! You can buy one for $15.00 info@lfwa.org

All this while continuing to have our twice monthly invasive pulls and lead talks for area groups! Not shabby!

May has been a time of planning, education and some housekeeping necessary for running a small non-profit. We received a scholarship from River Keepers so that I could attend their River Rally in Baltimore. This three day conference was a great opportunity to meet with watershed stewards from all county. There were three full days of terrific workshops and I am now almost fluent in CWA, TMDL. ESD and other acronyms related to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and stormwater management! We have also been working on a plan for a forest restoration at Westbrook Elementary School. With any luck, we should be ready to start pulling in the fall. More on that as we firm up details. We will need a lot of volunteers to remove invasives and plant native species.

We are gearing up for our first annual members meeting (yes, we are celebrating our first birthday!) The meeting will take place in July and we're hoping to have a big party. If anyone knows any musicians in the watershed who might be willing to donate an evening of music, please let us know - info@lfwa.org.

On the advocacy side of LFWA, we are working with Stormwater Partners to lobby Montgomery County for strong regulations as they rework their permitting process to comply with the Maryland Clean Water Act. The new regulations must be in effect by May 2010, so everyone is working very hard on this. If you would like to see a copy of the guidelines that Bruce Gilmore from American Rivers has put together, please email me and I will be happy to send you one. stormwater@lfwa.org

Lastly, we are in the process of planning our calendar for next year. If you have a great idea for an event let us know so we can get it on the calendar.

Sarah Morse
Blog Master