NEW JERSEY WATERSHED AMBASSADORS PROGRAM

5 Years of Making a Difference in New Jersey's Communities and Environment  

The Over the past five years, the ambassadors have nurtured community-based environmental activities and empowered residents of the state to make responsible and informed decisions regarding their watershed. The AmeriCorps Program enables the Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Watershed Management to receive valuable data on the streams and rivers throughout the state as well as affords the Division the opportunity to educate thousands of citizens about the importance of maintaining and improving New Jersey's watersheds, which will ultimately result in better health of the watersheds throughout the state.

• Over the past five years, the AmeriCorps members made over 2,500 educational watershed demonstrations in schools, civic organizations and the general public. These interactive presentations provide information about watershed and nonpoint source pollution issues in New Jersey.
• The members have completed over 2,400 visual assessments and over 1,200 biological assessments on local waterways. The Division has used these assessments for its pollution source trackdown in its Total Maximum Daily Load program, nonpoint source pollution and stream restoration project assessment and targeted stream segment assessments for other Division programs.
• The ambassadors assist DEP's Land Use Regulation Program by reporting potential freshwater wetlands violations when encountered while conducting assessments on the waterways throughout the state.
• Members engage community volunteers by training them on these two monitoring techniques, identifying macroinvertebrate that are indicators of stream health and conducting visual assessments of potential pollution sources and problems.
• In communities throughout New Jersey, the Watershed Ambassadors have generated over 32,000 hours of volunteer community participation. The members have formed over 100 sustaining partnerships between local, statewide and national organizations. With a focus on stewardship, the Watershed Ambassadors engage citizenry through watershed stewardship and restoration projects, such as storm drain labeling events, stream clean-ups, water festivals, invasive species removals, restoration projects and numerous other water quality enhancement projects.
• NJ Watershed Ambassadors assist their host agencies with stewardship projects in each of the 20 watershed management areas of the state. The host agencies are environmental nonprofit groups, local planning agencies or other government offices.
• The AmeriCorps members also participate in national service including Make a Difference Day in October, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, and Youth Service Day in April.

The AmeriCorps NJ Watershed Ambassadors Program strives to better relationships between people and the environment, cultivate community-based environmental actions and empower residents and businesses to make responsible decisions and take enlightened actions regarding their watershed. The Program uses the power of volunteerism to drive watershed stewardship across the state. The Watershed Ambassadors Program provides the resources, through both the members and volunteers, necessary to achieve local watershed awareness.

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