Water is Life
Our Matching Funds Watershed Education and Community Science Initiative strengthens community-based learning, observation, and stewardship across local watersheds. Each contribution is matched to expand access to hands-on education, ecological awareness, and community science participation. The initiative supports collaborative learning through schools, libraries, and local partners, inviting people of all ages to engage with water systems as living relationships while building shared knowledge, care, and long-term stewardship.
💧 Water is life
Help more people connect with their watershed and share their story through community science
Hi, I’m raising support to expand access to nature-connected, watershed-based learning through NatureConnect New York
People are ready to participate
Programs are ready to be offered
Support right now opens access
🌊 Why This Matters
Water moves through everything
Across land
Through streams and rivers
Into harbors, lakes, and oceans
Weather shapes this movement
Rainfall, wind, and seasonal change influence how water flows
Through direct experience, people begin to notice
• how water moves across land
• how soil, vegetation, and weather interact
• how human activity influences these systems
At the same time, conditions are shifting
Stronger storms
Changing rainfall
Flooding and drought
This awareness supports climate resilience
the ability to notice, understand, and respond to change
🌱 What This Supports
This fundraiser opens access for
• students
• families
• community members
Learning happens across generations
Youth, adults, and elders engaging together
sharing observation, experience, and perspective
Support provides
• no-cost participation
• stipends that support engagement
• materials for observation, mapping, and creative practice
• programs in schools, libraries, and community spaces
🗺️ Community Science in Action
Participants document what they notice
• photos
• field notes
• seasonal changes
• patterns of water, land, and weather
They also observe how human activity shapes these systems
These observations are shared through a public StoryMap
creating a living record of place
Community science becomes a shared process of noticing and contributing
🌿 What Becomes Possible
Participants
• spend time in shoreline, stream, and watershed environments
• follow how water moves through the landscape
• learn how land, weather, and human activity interact
• engage across generations
• contribute to shared, place-based knowledge
Experience deepens
Understanding grows
Connection supports resilience
🌱 Join Me
Your support opens space for people to engage
to notice
to learn
to contribute
Sharing this with others helps extend this opportunity
💚 Thank You
Thank you for supporting access to watershed learning, community science, and nature connection
NatureConnectED 