Go with the FLOW: Citizens come together to protect watershed

by Janet Davis, updated August 2004

A small group of local citizens first met in summer 2002 to discuss their concerns about potential threats to our watershed: how growing development pressures in and around the county would affect our groundwater, how a prolonged drought could affect the health of our rivers, how incidences of sedimentation and erosion are increasingly silting our streams and degrading water quality, how development and construction will continue to destroy valuable riparian buffers along waterways, and how the valuable and much-loved water resources in Rappahannock County need the attention and protection of the county's citizens.

As one discussion followed another, this initial group realized the importance of forming an organization and joining forces with other interested stakeholders in the quest to protect our streams and rivers, ponds and wetlands, and ground and surface waters. And so the group evolved into RappFLOW—Rappahannock Friends and Lovers of Our Watershed.

RappFLOW is a diverse, community-based organization made up of citizens from all walks of life, interests, and experiences, who care about water quality: farmers, educators, business owners, conservationists, local government and Shenandoah National Park employees, volunteers, landscapers, transportation officials, artists and musicians, riparian landowners, interested residents, and others.

Many Rappahannock citizens have limited knowledge and differing ideas about the threats to water resources. So, RappFLOW decided to engage the community in a continuing dialogue about water-quality issues, and to raise awareness among the citizens about how what we do affects the watershed. To meet this goal, RappFLOW began holding a series of workshops beginning in 2003: