(Ankeny, Iowa – May 6, 2019) The Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) is pleased to announce it has become a member of the Source Water Collaborative (SWC).
“Having this announcement coincide with the first day of National Drinking Water Week (May 5-11) is particularly impactful to us,” says Clare Lindahl, CEO of SWCS. “Last year, ahead of the Farm Bill, SWCS laid out a set of conservation principals including our belief that all communities should have access to safe and plentiful drinking water, or source water. We are looking forward to working with the Source Water Collaborative, our members, chapters, and partners to advance that belief into a reality.”
The connection with the SWC will amplify the work SWCS does to bring together science and practice and support members and chapters working in the fields of water, soil, and natural resources conservation to address local water resource concerns.
This year’s SWCS 74th SWCS International Annual Conference, to be held July 28-31, 2019, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will bring the source water topic to the forefront with a kickoff keynote from G. Tracy Mehan, III, Executive Director, Government Affairs, for the American Water Works Association (AWWA), also a member organization of the SWC. Mehan has been on the forefront of advocating for national water policy and projects through the Farm Bill and Regional Conservation Partnership Program. In his role with AWWA, Mehan will provide insight on what is being described as “an unheard of opportunity” to scale up partnerships between urban and agriculture for the protection of our water supplies.
The conference will also feature several presentations, by researchers and experts in their fields, that showcase compelling examples of water resource management at work through watershed planning, partnerships, environmental finance, and conservation practices.
“We welcome the Soil and Water Conservation Society and their network that includes researchers, agribusiness, policymakers, technical advisors, federal employees, students, and farmers,” said members of the Source Water Collaborative. “We look forward to having them as our newest partner advancing the Collaborative’s vision and shared source water protection goals.”
To learn more about the SWCS and the upcoming Annual Conference, visit http://www.swcs.org. Information about Source Water Collaborative is available at https://sourcewatercollaborative.org/.
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About Source Water Collaborative
Twenty-nine (with the addition of SWCS) national organizations are now united to protect America’s drinking water at the source – in the lakes, rivers, streams, and aquifers we tap for drinking purposes. The Source Water Collaborative (SWC) was originally formed in 2006 with the goal to combine the strengths and tools of a diverse set of member organizations to act now, and protect drinking water sources for generations to come.
Comprised of federal, state, and local partners, the SWC has come together to further the goals of protecting sources of drinking water – recognizing that resources are extremely limited, authorities are split, and the actors who can actually protect source waters are diffuse. Each national organization in the Collaborative understands and appreciates the importance of source water protection. Individually, each promotes implementation of source water protection in their overall mission. Each organization recognizes the synergy of coordinated actions and the need for leveraging each other’s resources in order to increase the chances for success over each entity going it alone.
About SWCS
With more than 3000 members around the world, the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization that serves as an advocate for conservation professionals and for science-based conservation practice, programs, and policy.
The SWCS mission is to foster the science and art of natural resource conservation. We work to discover, develop, implement and constantly improve conservation practices and systems that sustain the productive capacity of the land while protecting environmental quality.
We pursue our mission through a combination of research, education and advocacy aimed at promoting state-of-the-art conservation practices and science-based conservation policy.
For More Information:
Clare Lindahl, CEO
Soil and Water Conservation Society
clare.lindahl@swcs.org
515-289-2331, ext.113