The Intake

Your Source for Collaborative News

October 2020

 

Collaborative Logo Unveiled

After six months of development, and many meetings, we are excited to reveal our new Safe Water Conservation Collaborative logo. The development of this logo was a truly Collaborative process, and we couldn't be happier with the results! But most importantly, we want to hear from you. Tell us what you think about the logo.

Thank you to everyone that provided their feedback at our Collaborative Gathering in June 2020 regarding what symbols and images best represent our partnership. Your ideas formed the basis for our logo design, as captured in this document. A full write-up on the development process for our logo can be found here.

A most gracious thank you to Bill Howard with The Downstream Project for volunteering their organizational experience and capacity in guiding us through this process and developing a beautiful logo for our partnership pro-bono.

Many thanks to the three members of the ad-hoc logo development subcommittee for all of their hard work and dedication - Georgia Jeppesen, Susan Whalton, and Tanner Haid.

Lastly, we also wish to acknowledge local Charles Town artist Devan Whitacre for drawing proof of concept logo ideas that helped the subcommittee envision what was possible.

 

In the news

The Safe Water Conservation Collaborative recent outreach campaign was featured in an article in the Herald Mail.

 

Strategic Planning Update

Click this image to see where we're at in the Strategic Planning Process. The green box shows our current phase.

Our Strategic Planning process is moving along right on schedule. Our our big-picture, long-term Goals were adopted by the Steering Committee on Friday, October 16.

Thank you to everyone for your engagement! Our Goals are:

  • Education - Community members, community leaders, and public policy makers understand the links between protected lands and safe drinking water and have taken action to support our efforts.

    Implementation - Accelerated adoption of conservation easements, implementation of stewardship practices, and community engagement in source water protection.

    Funding & Collaboration - A sustainable partnership with adequate financial resources, mechanisms for collaboration, and engaged partners providing leadership and support on action plan strategies.

    Policy - Strengthened policies that increase funding, resources, and time for land conservation, stewardship practices, and source water protection.

Stay tuned for the upcoming meetings to develop the workgroup-specific objectives (see below).

 

Around the Collaborative

If you have exciting news, please let us know and we'll share with our partners in next month's edition.

Collaborative partners have created another landowner legacy video - this time highlighting the story of Matthew Grove at Broomgrass, a community conservation easement held by the Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board. A sincere thank you to Susan Whalton with Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle for her leadership role in assisting Matthew with creating the video. We also wish to thank local photographer David McMasters for contributing photos of Broomgrass to the video. Visit our website to see Matthew's story and many more!

The Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle was recently featured in the Martinsburg Journal regarding their establishment of a Legacy Fund with the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation. The Fund is designed to offer financial aid to landowners who wish to conserve their land in the Eastern Panhandle. Bonnie Stubblefield is the Vice President of the Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle. Learn more about the Legacy Fund on LTEP's website.

*LEARNING OPPORTUNITY* - Highstead has announced a series of online events designed for conservation organizations across the northeast to discuss topics such as climate change and community resilience against today’s economic and social challenges. Short webinars will be on Oct. 28, Nov. 5, and Nov. 13, followed by a full day of conversations on Nov. 19. For details, see the program website, registration, and detailed agenda. Katie Blake is a Conservationist with the Highstead Foundation.

 

What's Happening

A recap of recent & upcoming meetings, webinars, and more.

  • September 18 - logo development subcommittee met with Bill Howard to discuss the final three designs. Meeting notes here.
  • September 28 - logo development subcommittee met to review focus group results of the final three designs. We selected a final design to focus on and explore other potential color combinations. Meeting notes here.
  • October 1 - Collaborative Gathering to discuss the results of our Goals Survey and develop a final draft list of Goals for our partners to review and Steering Committee to approve. Meeting notes here.
  • October 6 - Postcards were sent to 750 landowners identified in our GIS Prioritization Model. A press release was sent to local media outlets regarding this outreach initiative.
  • October 13 - final meeting of the logo development subcommittee to approve the logo created by The Downstream Project. Meeting notes here.
  • Upcoming Strategic Planning Meetings
    • Stewardship Workgroup - November TBD
    • Conservation Workgroup - November 12 at 10am
    • Education & Outreach Workgroup - November 24 at 1pm
    • Steering Committee - December TBD
 

Partner Spotlight

Take a moment to learn about all the great people & organizations that are a part of our work.

Angie Rosser is Executive Director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and serves on the Steering Committee.

The West Virginia Rivers Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection, restoration and perpetuity of natural waterways across West Virginia. Their team of six works across the state to “conserve and restore West Virginia’s exceptional rivers and streams.” They advocate for safe water for all West Virginians and seek to empower communities to protect rivers and defend public lands.

Angie's experience involves policy advocacy, community organizing, coalition building and program administration.

Lavonne Paden is Executive Director of the West Virginia Agricultural Land Protection Authority and is a member of the Conservation Workgroup.

The West Virginia Agricultural Land Protection Authority (WVALPA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization designed to acquire conservation easements across West Virginia, and aid County Farmland Protection Boards in obtaining state and federal funding to conserve land as well as provide them with legal and technical services for the procurement of easements.

Established in 2002, the WVALPA shares the desire and ambition of County Farmland Protection Boards to protect West Virginia’s lands and streams against development through perpetual conservation easements.

David Lillard is a member of the Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle and serves on the Steering Committee.

David is also the Executive Director for the Catoctin Land Trust. Prior to that he worked for The Downstream Project implementing communications strategies, and with West Virginia Rivers Coalition on public lands campaigns and drinking water protection in the state’s Chesapeake Bay region. He has served as executive director of the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship.

David spends as many waking hours as possible in the outdoors hiking and paddling, and is the publisher/editor of Clarke Monthly.

 

Quick Fact

“Nearly 1.36 million acres of land in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have been permanently protected since 2010. This marks an achievement of 68 percent of the [2 million additional acres of] land conservation goal adopted in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement and brings the total amount of protected land in the watershed to 9.16 million acres.”

–Chesapeake Progress

West Virginia Rivers Coalition
3501 MacCorkle Ave SE #129  | Charleston, West Virginia 25304
304-637-7201 | wvrivers@wvrivers.org

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