History of WSA

In 2003, Arlington Echo Outdoor Education center partnered with the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works (DPW) to install restoration projects to address stormwater issues. These innovative solutions represented a paradigm shift away from "collect and convey" toward mimicking nature to clean, cool, and infiltrate stormwater. As students and parents toured these sites, planted native plants, and learned about stormwater, they understood their role in Bay restoration. Communities began to ask what more they could do to help restore their creek, river, or the Bay. As Arlington Echo and DPW started to work with these communities, the interest in residents taking action overwhelmed the existing capacity. Each of these communities needed someone to work with them, but there were not enough staff resources to capitalize on all the enthusiasm.

In 2005, Ron Bowen and Ginger Ellis of DPW met with Stephen Barry and Suzanne Etgen of Arlington Echo to brainstorm ways to turn this growing awareness into action. Over the next two years and hundreds of hours, the Watershed Stewards Academy concept developed. After pitching the idea to a few funders, the founders secured initial funding. In December 2008, with Suzanne Etgen dedicated to staff the program, WSA was born.

Early in the development of WSA, about 40 partners, consisting of RiverKeepers, landscape architects, local government leaders, and environmental activists, engaged to assist in forming the critical components of the program: the Certification Curriculum, a Tool Box for Sustaining Action, and a Consortium of Support Professionals. In March 2009, WSA began training our first class of 32 Master Watershed Stewards.

Since the spring of 2009, we've trained over 280 Watershed Stewards. Our 14th Certification Course begins in October 2021. Watershed Stewards are active throughout the County, educating their communities, building rain gardens, planting trees, talking about pet waste. They truly are an army of leaders motivated to restore our waterways.

In the spring of 2010, the Chesapeake Bay Program wrote WSA into their strategy to address President Obama's Executive Order for Bay Restoration. The 2015 Bay Agreement indicated the WSA model as a successful model to reach the Citizen Stewardship goals for Bay restoration. Through a strategic partnership with the University of Maryland Seagrant Extension, the Anne Arundel WSA assisted the development of several other Watershed Stewards Academies throughout Maryland. WSAs now exist in the National Capital Region (Montgomery and Prince George's counties and DC), Howard County, Cecil County, and St. Mary's counties. Additional replications of WSA exist in Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Minnesota.