January Message from the Executive Director
Happy New Year Wetlands Supporters:
I hope that if you made any new year's resolutions, they are going well! We are almost at the end of January, and I want to reflect on our accomplishments from last year and look toward the future.
After releasing the State of the Wetlands report last month, the Science Committee continues to work on white papers dealing with wetland values and research. They also hosted a well-attended webinar given by the State of the Wetlands Report lead author Ginny Baker, co-chair of the Science Committee. For the future, the Science Committee wants to recruit new members and define new projects such as helping communities install rain gardens and other similar endeavors. The Program Committee continues to manage the Wetland Treasures on the Carolinas program and attended outreach events such as the Good Hope Farm Fall Festival in Cary. For the future, the Program Committee wants to recruit new members and increase their educational outreach and other similar efforts. The Development Committee has managed the transition of our webpage (yes, it is a wonderful new webpage for the Association, so please take a look). A huge thanks goes to Kim Matthews who managed the transition. The Development Committee also produces the newsletter and leads our annual fundraising campaign (all the infrastructure of the organization). They could use new members and are in desperate need of a Chair.
We start the year with four part-time staff. We have a wonderful grant administrator, two project coordinators, and an executive director. The Association is truly in good hands with this staff and our volunteers. We have three funded projects:
- The ongoing Volunteer Wetlands Monitoring Program (coordinated by Chase Bergeson) funded by the US EPA Wetlands Program Development Grant (with NC State and RTI International)
- The Stony Run Walkable Watershed project (coordinated by Marilyn Mayer) and funded by the NC Land and Water Fund (with Wetland Solutions, Inc. And Skeo)
- The Winyah Bay Watershed Project (managed by Rick Savage) where Carolina Wetlands Association is a subrecipient of a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant acquired by the Center for Heirs Property.
The future looks very good for projects as we have several more in the works. The purpose of these projects is to work with vulnerable communities who are experiencing flooding and to restore their wetlands and watersheds to reduce flooding.
We also spent a lot of time keeping up with wetland policy at the federal level and the state level (both NC and SC). This is a very time-consuming activity and can get very complicated, but it is critical that we do everything we can to keep wetland protection as strong as possible.
Financially, the Association is in pretty good shape due to our grant funding. We need to increase our sponsorships and our general donations to better establish base funding. So if you have not donated to the year end fundraiser, please do so, every dollar helps.
Personally, I want to do everything to make sure the Association is strong and stable. One of the most important assets we have is our volunteers. There are lots of opportunities to volunteer so please contact us if you are interested.
So, with the new year, find a new wetland to explore and remember that your wetlands organization is working hard to ensure they stay protected.
Rick Savage
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