Meg Kerr earned a BS in aquatic biology from Brown University and an MS in environmental biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has extensive experience working with community activists and state and local governments on watershed management issues. Before coming to URI, she coordinated nationwide volunteer-based monitoring programs for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water. P eople are key to the success of watershed management initiatives.
Most people support watershed initiatives.
But some are actively involved, serving on committees or working on specific projects such as a stream bank restoration, a watershed festival, or an historic watershed tour. Those who have a personal relationship with the watershed are often the ones who ensure that attention and action is focused on problems and issues important to the future of the area. Without constituent support, even the best management plans may never be implemented. All CRC projects place an emphasis on building constituencies for improved resource management, both at the local level and within government agencies. The watershed has emerged as a natural unit of management as researchers and resource managers realize that it is the ecological rather than the political boundaries that determine how resources respond to change.