Connecting Families to Watershed Stewardship
The Gallatin Watershed Council launched our Steward Passport program on Saturday through a community art project along Bozeman Creek. Our new Steward Passports aim to connect families with local watershed stewardship opportunities.
On Saturday, the Gallatin Watershed Council hosted a launch event for our summer 2020 Gallatin Watershed Stewards program. Community members and families gathered around GWC’s clothesline along Bozeman Creek in Bogert Park and created artwork representative of their relationship with our wonderful watershed.
We partnered with Mountain Time Arts and their #SeeBozemanCreek initiative to highlight Bozeman Creek, the waterway that runs through the heart of our Bozeman community. By showcasing our diverse relationships with our rivers and streams, we hope to foster appreciation and emphasize the importance of a healthy watershed.
At the event, we introduced our Steward Passports, which are a part of our Gallatin Watershed Stewards program. Our Passports are a fun, interactive way for community members to engage in unified watershed stewardship! They have an accompanying steward checklist and an online pledge, which both list varying watershed stewardship activities that one can accomplish in exchange for a stamp or sticker in their passport. Our online public calendar encourages the user to attend watershed-related events in the Gallatin Valley and receive a stamp or sticker!
Our Passports aim to incentivize, challenge and inspire community members to make changes in their daily behaviors and to actively educate and motivate their neighbors to care for our waterways. Our Passport program is hands-on, place-based and community-oriented-- these three components work together to cultivate stewardship, increase knowledge and awareness, and provide connections to the local watershed community.
By providing kids and families with active local steward opportunities, we hope to inspire the next generation of watershed stewards. Healthy watersheds mean healthy communities. Together, we can make our community watershed a more sustainable place.
How you can become a Watershed Steward:
Pledge to accomplish a set of watershed stewardship action items by taking our online pledge.
Pick up a Stewards Passport at any of GWC’s Stamping Stations. A list of Stamping Stations can be found on our website.
Follow GWC’s Steward Checklist and track activities in the Steward Passport, get a stamp for every checklist item completed.
Volunteer or attend a Watershed Steward event and get the Steward Passport stamped. GWC’s public calendar lists qualifying events.
Follow GWC on social media for more stampable activity ideas throughout the summer.
Get recognized at our Volunteer Appreciation events!
Visit our website to learn more about the program and to pick up a Passport: https://www.gallatinwatershedcouncil.org/individual-action.
#MyGallatinWatershed
Thank you to our partners the Gallatin River Task Force and the Gallatin Conservation District for helping with the Launch Event! Thank you to our sponsors for making the Stewards Passport program possible: Confluence Consulting, the Four Corners Foundation, and the Environmental Protection Agency (through funding from the Soil & Water Conservation Districts of Montana).