Watershed Project

Clean Water is everyone’s business! Clean water is extremely important for human life and other organisms. According to “Medical News Today,” it says that around 785 million people do not have basic drinking-water services and they estimate that by 2025, half of the world’s population will live in a water-stressed environment. And healthy watersheds provide things such as clean drinking water, fishing, and outdoor recreation. As the most important water source, the Chesapeake Bay provides vitally important habitats for wildlife, and is an important fishery upon which both people and wildlife depend. The most recent data from the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) estimates that only a third of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers are healthy enough to support essential aquatic species. The use of chemicals in our daily life, such as fertilizing vegetable gardens and lawns, applying pesticide to kill insects and weeds, deicing driveways and roads in winter, among others, contribute to the degraded water quality in the Bay.

We, a student club of the Chinese American Parent Association in Montgomery County (CAPA-MC), are supported by the Montgomery County Watershed Restoration and Outreach Granted program and the Chesapeake Bay Trust funded through the Montgomery County Water Quality Protection fund to do public outreach on the Chesapeake Bay watershed protection.

Our goal is to engage 500 or more minority youths, and 500 or more parents in raising the community’s awareness of detrimental impacts of consuming chemicals during our daily life on local watersheds and Chesapeake Bay. We lead by example through practicing eco-friendly planting in the CAPA-MC Growing & Giving Club’s garden plots.

We care about the Bay. You should too.