Friends of the Cedar River Watershed Programs
The Friends of the Cedar River Watershed (FCRW) has a 16-year track record of successfully managing volunteer community stewardship programs. Since 2006, FCRW’s operating revenues have increased over 400%. Volunteerism has increased 500%. Partnerships with cities, school districts, businesses, community groups, churches, and committed individuals have grown at equally impressive rates.
With a staff of only 6 FTE (4 fulltime, 4 part-time), FCRW acccomplishes:
- Volunteer Habitat Restoration FCRW recruits, educates, and coordinates over 2,216 volunteers annually to restore wetlands, forests, and riparian areas. Restoration events are necessary to help address problems of flooding, property damage, water pollution, and habitat loss for fish and wildlife. In 2011, volunteers planted 10,000 native shrubs and trees.
- The Cedar River Salmon Journey (CRSJ) program provides one of the most compelling outreach actions in the Cedar/Lake Washington watershed: to inform and engage the public about stormwater pollution, salmon recovery, and water quality issues. FCRW recruits, trains and coordinations over 80 volunteer naturalists each year for the CRSJ. Along with informing over 8,500 local residents about these issues, CRSJ offers direct actions in which individuals may engage. The ultimate goal of the Salmon Journey is to encourage and facilitate behavior changes that support a healthy Cedar River watershed.
- The Cedar River Watershed Report youth program DVD is narrated entirely by local high school students, and updated every year, the Watershed Report is an award winning series of short videos that track positive sustainability trends in the 13 school districts and 28 cities of the greater Lake Washington Watershed. This program inspires, educates and engages the next generation of watershed stewards and civically engaged voters.
- Stewardship in Action —FRCW is helping citizens in the lower Cedar River basin to systematically remove the infestation of invasive knotweed from private and public properties from Renton to Maple Valley and re-plant with natives. Over 10,000 landowners reached in 2010!
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
- Recruited 12,216volunteers to go out into the woods, rain or shine, to continue the long-term restoration of critical, native habitat in the Cedar River Watershed.
- 25 acres of wetlands, uplands, and riparian areas were restored and/or maintained.
- 62 riparian habitat restoration events were completed, four of which were at weed-infested Cavanaugh Pond. Other sites included Taylor Creek, a highly flood-prone stretch of the Cedar River that has been nurtured by volunteers all year, while the land is being restored through a multi-year county buy-back effort) as a natural flood plain, Ricardi Reach and Jan Curve.
- Reached over 8,500 people (a 14-year, record high) with messages of environmental stewardship by our 67 volunteer naturalists who are committed to helping their neighbors change their behaviors for the benefit of native habitats and clean water.
- Recruited local conservation and sustainability related community, business, city and government partners: Cedar River Watershed Education Center, Cedar River Council, Mercer Slough / Pacific Science Center, King County Wastewater Division, SCAN TV, Reel Grrls, YMCA Earth Service Corps, Cascadia Green Building Council, Student Conservation Association, Recreational Equipment, Inc, Hyatt Hotels, Brown Bear Car Wash and Cascade Land Conservancy.
- Conducted twenty introductory Cedar River "Sustainability Seminars" in watershed high school classrooms that reached over 2,000 students to begin recruiting and training Youth Watershed Report Representatives.
- Recruited 9 partner schools out of 9 watershed districts, key teachers, administrators and board members. Our goal is to involve all watershed schools to inspire, educate and engage the next generation of watershed stewards.
- Conducted Watershed College, a series of leadership and science-based trainings to prepare students for stewardship and reporting projects conducted during the school year.
- The Watershed Report 2009 DVD won 3rd place in Ecotrust's "2010 Stories from our Watersheds" regional film contest over 1,000+ entrants.
- The Watershed Report's program manager, Peter Donaldson, was named "2010 Outstanding Nonformal Environmental Educator of the Year" by the Environmental Education Association of Washington.
- The Watershed Report was recognized with the "2011 John Stanford Award in Education" by the Cascade Land Conservancy.FCRW has reached capacity for the number of volunteer habitat restoration events that we may conduct with existing staff time. In order to grow our stewardship programs (salmon recolonization, rain gardens, youth sustainability projects in watershed schools) FCRW seeks to secure broader community investments for these inter-related suite of watershed stewardship programs that leverage public & private partnerships.
The Watershed Report program is a model, scalable and replicable example of private-public partnerships to educate and engage the next generation of watershed stewards and civically engaged voters. This program has generated interest as far away as Texas to Tennessee, and does deserve deeper financial support, plus the involvement of mentors who help advise these youths from experts in the field on sustainability, science and communications. The Friends welcomes community volunteers to serve on our Board of Directors.