Tippecanoe Environmental Lake & Watershed Foundation Inc

Education & outreach: activities on the land ultimately affect our lakes and streams, so water quality is ultimately about people. It's the choices they make and the actions they take that truly make a difference; therefore, education and engagement are key to our efforts. We directly reach more than 3,000 people through events and programs annually, including river school & watershed tours and workshops. We communicate with the public via our website, social media, print and e-newsletters. We won the 2012 governor's award for environmental excellence for our www.clearchoicescleanwater.org campaign. More than 6,800 people have taken a pledge to make clear choices for clean water. In 2021 we hosted the smithsonian water ways exhibit and engaged 2,200 visitors.

Water monitoring: testing water quality is important for showing improvement or decline and finding new problems and sources. We conduct a monthly stream monitoring program for water chemistry and flow, and we intend to maintain this data collection long-term. Every 5 years, we conduct a biological assessment of the inflowing streams in the watershed. Nine of the 10 sites have shown significant water quality improvement in the last 15 years. In addition to these monitoring efforts conducted by staff and scientists, we train and support a network of volunteer stream monitors and conducted a snapshot water monitoring day at 100 sites each year since 2017.