Plaster Creek Stewards receive $58,500 toward stream restoration

The Plaster Creek Stewards have been selected by River Network and Groundwork USA (national organizations committed to watershed stewardship, and community and environmental renewal, respectively) as one of just five community organizations nationwide to help launch a new urban waters movement in the U.S.

Plaster Creek Stewards, a collaboration of Calvin faculty and staff working with local churches and community partners to restore health and beauty to the Plaster Creek Watershed, will receive $58,500 from the two organizations via a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The grant will support the outreach/education component of a three-year restoration plan and focuses on forging connections between the upstream agricultural communities and downstream low-income urban neighborhoods by working through their local churches. The grant also includes technical assistance from River Network and Groundwork USA, including assistance in developing a fundraising plan, better partnerships, and a public awareness campaign.

Nathan Haan '07, project manager for Plaster Creek Stewards and a staff member in Calvin's biology department, said that 112 organizations nationwide applied for this grant. He says he was pleasantly surprised, given the size of the applicant pool.

"We felt that it almost seemed as if the grant was written with Plaster Creek in mind," said Haan. "I thought we must have a good shot at this, because it fits our mission so closely."

This week, Haan and other Calvin faculty and staff will be hosting the Plaster Creek Stewards summer workshop. Local churches, businesses, students, environmental agencies and other community organizations will come together to learn more about Plaster Creek and identify actions that can be taken to improve the health of the stream.

The workshop will take place Tuesday through Thursday, June 14-16, at the Bunker Interpretive Center on Calvin's campus. On Wednesday morning, the group will tour a part of the watershed. On Thursday morning, the group gets hands on, planting trees to stabilize soil on an agricultural tributary to Plaster Creek.

"There's a lot of wonderful natural areas around west Michigan, and there's a lot of areas that people need to be advocating for. It's [Plaster Creek] polluted because of our behaviors here," said Haan.

He hopes this grant, these workshops, will help in continuing the community's work to restore the stream.

For more information about the grant and a more detailed schedule for the workshop, contact Haan at 616-526-6496.

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Matt Kucinski
Media Relations Manager
Calvin College
msk23@calvin.edu
616.526.8935 (office)
616.307.7429 (cell)
Received on Tue Jun 14 11:48:32 2011