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Over the past year, with help from the Nurture Nature Foundation (NNF) and the related Pennsylvania Nurture Nature Center (NNC), the city of Easton has begun to come to terms with some of its flooding and water resource issues, and is poised to make itself a name as a leading voice in this area. Spearheading the effort, NNC, with backing from NNF, has worked with schools, universities, government officials, and other nonprofits, to find ways to deal proactively with flood issues. Among other activities, NNC is teaming with Lafayette College on two projects including 1) a technical clinic involving a group of students and faculty working on plans for exhibits and outreach programming for NNC’s flood museum project, and 2) a five-part symposium on water that NNC is organizing, aided by Lafayette College, which has awarded a grant for this purpose. NNC has also helped lead a continuing education workshop for high school teachers that includes a unit on flooding. It partnered with the Easton High School and the Northampton Community College for the second year in a row to develop flood education exhibits, games, and materials. NNC is on the steering committee for the 2009 Greater Lehigh Valley Watershed Conference that is expected to bring a diverse group of nearly 300 people together for education and discussion on water issues. NNC is currently developing an after school pilot program for children that will focus on flood education and preparedness in the local community. NNC’s president is on the Committee established to advise the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) on flood regulation reforms. NNC made a presentation on methods of addressing floods at the annual Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors conference in April 2009. The momentum of the NNF/NNC flood effort in Easton has been sufficient to attract the attention of the President and Founder of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, who spent two days in Easton last fall. DRBC has also held a number of events in Easton recently, bringing in among others the head of that agency. NNF and NNC have, in addition, both submitted a number of grant requests to continue these education and outreach objectives, including a request to the National Science Foundation to develop a forum program that would inform the planning phase of NNC’s flood museum project. The outpouring of support for this grant request reflects well on the early success of the Easton flood awareness effort. Specifically, enthusiastic letters of endorsement for the project were submitted by, among others: the Director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History; the Program Manger for the Museum of Science in Boston; the Executive Director of the Johnstown Area Heritage Association, which operates a history museum dedicated to the Johnstown flood of 1889; the Director of the Flood Safety Project in Boulder, Colorado; the Pulitzer prize winning journalist and author of the famed “Save Our Land, Save Our Towns”; the Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at Temple University; a leading professor at the California University of Pennsylvania who is the three Rivers HAZUS Coordinator; the Communications Manager of the DRBC; watershed specialists of the Lehigh County Conservation District and the District Manager for the Northampton County Conservation District; the State Representative for region; the Chairman of the Easton Environmental Advisory Council; and the Department Head for the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at Lafayette College. These endorsements are attached here, for illustrative purposes. |