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Watershed Information and Education Program
Go back
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Mini-Grant Information
Please refer to the
Mini-Grant information page for news and
information regarding the
319
mini-grants.
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15
Things You Can Do To Help Your Watershed
(from the EPA's website: http://www.epa.gov/adopt/earthday/index.html)
Learn About Your
Watershed
Become Active in
Your Watershed
Help Increase
Public Awareness in Your Watershed
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Learn about your
watershed.
Start by using the
Watershed Region Information to
find your watershed address and
learn about its environmental
health. Other useful sites include
Surf Your Watershed,
Envirofacts and
Enviromapper. Also be sure to
check out EPA's
Wetlands web page to learn about
the importance of wetlands. |
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Use EPA's
Nonpoint Source Program web
pages to learn about how nonpoint
source pollution affects your
watershed and your
coastal watershed. Identify ways
you can help prevent polluted runoff
from your home, ranch or farm. Check
out
Give Water a Hand
(for students) or the
National Farm*A*Syst/Home*A*Syst
Voluntary Assessment Programs
(for farmers and homeowners), and
the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Natural Resources Conservation
Service's Programs and Activities
to find out how you can be part of
the solution, instead of part of the
problem. |
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Go on an Estuary
Walk, Lake Walk,
Stream Walk, or River Walk and
make observations and assessments of
waterbody conditions.
If you see anything abnormal (such
as dead fish, oil spills, leaking
barrels, and other pollution)
contact your city or county
environmental department right away
and report the nature and location
of the problem. |
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Find out about our
precious coastal and marine
resources by reading the
Coastal Watershed Fact Sheets.
Learn about our
pressure on ocean resources
and find out
25 things you can do to help save
coral reefs.
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Learn how land use
and development decisions affect
your water resources and how
watershed planning and the
watershed approach can help.
Find out about model ordinances to
protect water quality at EPA's
Model Ordinances to Protect Local
Resources web pages and
the
Center for Watershed Protection.
Also learn about alternatives to
current development patterns such as
low-impact development
and
smart growth.
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Find a watershed
organization in your community and
volunteer to help.
If there are no active groups,
consider starting your own. Use
EPA's Adopt Your Watershed's
Catalog of Watershed Groups to
locate groups in your community or
visit the Watershed information
website
How to Start a Watershed Team
page. |
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Become a Volunteer
Water Quality Monitor.
Help collect water quality data and
build stewardship for your local
waterbody. Attend a training
workshop to learn proper monitoring
techniques and safety rules. Visit
EPA's
Volunteer Monitoring Homepage
and read
Starting Out in Volunteer Water
Monitoring (PDF) (4 pages,
837KB). Consult the
National Estuary Program's Volunteer
Monitoring page for guidance in
coastal areas. |
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Organize or join
in the cleanup of a beach, stream,
estuary, or wetland.
For example, participate in the
National River Cleanup Week.
sponsored by American Outdoors, or
the
International Coastal Cleanup
sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy
on the third Saturday of every
September. For information on
coastal debris, read
Turning the Tide on Trash. Be
sure to follow safety guidelines for
any cleanup activity! |
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Create a Wildlife
Habitat in your Backyard, Workplace
or Schoolyard.
Certify your backyard
or schoolyard as part of the
National Wildlife Federation's
Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program
or
Schoolyard Habitat Program.
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Participate in or
help coordinate a special wetlands
activity during the month of May to
celebrate American Wetlands Month.
Visit
EPA’s wetlands web site for
ideas for special wetland
activities. Also, celebrate
International Migratory Bird Day
by joining in an event to raise
awareness about the importance of
birds, biological diversity, and
wetlands. |
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Enter
environmental art and poetry
contests.
For example, the
International "River of Words"
Poetry and Art contest
is open to youth between the ages of
5 to 19 and invites children to
explore and interpret their local
watershed through the arts. Similar
sites include the National Institute
of Environmental Health Sciences'
Environmental Art and Poetry Gallery
.
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Prepare a
presentation about your watershed
for a school or civic organization.
Explain
what a watershed is. Discuss
water quality threats, including
polluted runoff and habitat loss.
Highlight things people can do to
protect water quality, including
limiting fertilizer use and
eliminating herbicides and
pesticides. Be sure to provide case
studies from other watersheds and to
highlight success stories. Research
your presentation using a variety of
water education materials.
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Organize a Storm
Drain Marking Project in your
neighborhood.
Produce and distribute a flyer or
door hanger for households to remind
residents that storm drains dump
directly into your local waterbody.
Click here for
guidelines on how to conduct a
project. Visit
EPA’s Stormwater Website for
door hangers, videos and
publications that can be downloaded
or ordered for free. |
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Sponsor a World
Water Monitoring Day Event or
Watershed Festival in your community
to raise awareness about the
importance of watershed protection.
Organize the event around a water
body in your watershed (e.g.,
estuary, lake, river, etc.), an
issue (protecting drinking water
sources), or a national event. Find
out how to get involved in or start
planning your own monitoring event
using the Water Environment
Federation’s
World Wide Monitoring Day Web site
.
The Groundwater Foundation's
"Making Waves: How to Put on a Water
Festival" and "Making More Waves:
Ideas from Across the US and Canada
for Organizing Your Water Festival”
guidebooks can help you organize a
festival in your community.
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Learn how to fund
your watershed outreach and public
education efforts.
Use the following EPA resources to
get started: the
Environmental Education Grants
Program, the
Catalog of Federal Funding Sources
for Watershed Protection,
Environmental Finance Program,
and the
Clean Water State Revolving Fund
Program. |
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Watershed Planning Tool
The EPA has developed a
comprehensive watershed planning toolkit which will
guide groups (agency, citizen, civic, educational) through all the steps in developing a
plan that will focus and frame the work to
protect, restore or maintain watersheds.
Watershed Planning Tool
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| Clean
Water Act Training
The Clean Water Act training
is a South Dakota specific training on how
the Clean Water Act requirements are
implemented in the state. This
training provides the background information
on why watershed restoration projects (aka
TMDL projects, aka 319 projects) are
necessary.
Clean Water Act Training (large file,
long load time) |
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Resources for Developing an Outreach
If your
job description requires you to coordinate or conduct
watershed related outreach, I recommend the
following resources.
The Tipping Point: A seminal work on why ideas and behaviors catch on. Reader's
guide and suggested reading list provided.
Getting In Step: Materials from the
Environmental Protection Agency on conducting
watershed outreach and involving stakeholders.
Includes web based training. A South Dakota
specific workbook has been developed to help you
design your outreach utilizing best practices.
South Dakota Workbook
Community Based Social
Marketing: This site consists of six
resources: an online
guide
which provides valuable information on the use
of community-based social marketing to design
and evaluate programs to foster sustainable
behavior; searchable databases of
articles,
cases,
graphics,
and downloadable
reports
on fostering sustainable behavior; and
discussion forums
for sharing information and asking questions of
others. (Note: free registration required)
Proceedings from the EPA sponsored 2003 NPS I&E
Programs conference are available at
http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/proceedings.html.
Of particular note are The Outcomes are Coming
by Susan Gormann and John LaRocca and The
Outreach Continuum: Moving Participants from
Information to Action by Lynda Ransley.
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Signage
These full color signs were developed
with a grant from the 319 Information and
Education Project for the Wall Lake
Interpretative Center. The content of
the signs, summarized below, is applicable
beyond the Wall Lake Watershed so they are
being made available here for download.
To view the signs, a portable document file
program such as
Adobe is required.
The signs measure 36" x 24"
and are suitable for printing on vinyl and
Tyvek(r).
Ground Water (438 KB PDF) How is Groundwater Contaminated, How
Groundwater Occurs, What You Can Do To
Protect Your Well Water
Hydrology (1320 KB PDF)
Terms, Hydrology and
Wetlands, Wetlands Distribution in Eastern
South Dakota.
Non-point Source
Pollution (1,936 KB PDF) Agricultural
Runoff: Sources & Solutions; Urban Runoff:
Sources & Solutions
Wetlands (1,285 KB PDF) Suitable for
Prairie Pothole/Eastern South Dakota.
The Value of Wetlands, Wildlife,
Hydrology, People |
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South Dakota Watershed Quick Facts
*requires Adobe Acrobat or other PDF reader
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