SPEAKERS:
Nissa Dean, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay
Erin Ling, Virginia Cooperative Extension
Elizabeth Chudoba, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay
View Archived Webcast & Resources
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The Chesapeake RiverWise Communities program’s mission is to educate communities about the importance of controlling stormwater, the benefit of using native plants, and how to encourage residents to make informed decisions about how they manage their property to minimize harmful impacts to local waterways. The RiverWise program’s focus is to not only provide local watershed or community organizations with better stormwater information, but also hands-on resources they can use to change local behavior and improve habitat and water quality.
Residential scale BMP implementation has been identified as a valuable strategy for meeting stormwater reduction goals. There are many similar initiatives and efforts throughout the bay watershed, however consistent and comprehensive guidance has been lacking. The RiverWise program has pulled together the existing resources and identified the gaps among them, building on the strengths of everyone’s efforts. The RiverWise Manual provides guidance and resources to help other organizations and localities engage and inform the public, educate about appropriate actions and practices, incentivize implementation, track and report implementation and provide training that ensures the practices are installed in a manner that will be accepted by localities, the state, and the Chesapeake Bay Program. The manual is currently under internal review and is slated for public release by the end of the year.
In addition, the following web links may be of interest to you also: