Watershed Volunteer Stewards

Thank You for your interest in being a watershed steward! Vital watershed work is being done through the support of generous community members like you.  Volunteer stewards are crucial to the health of our waters by removing litter, assisting with vegetation management, monitoring the health of our waterways, and reporting areas of concern.  
 

Watershed Steward Teams  

Steward teams can adopt specific reaches of the river or arroyos, or develop specialized skills that are applicable and initiated watershed-wide. 
 

Responsibilities of Steward Team Leaders 

• Arrange clean-ups in your reach roughly 6 times a year (If a place based team) 
• Attend trainings and cultivate skills like appropriate pruning, thinning, planting, watering that can be applied throughout our watershed (optional)  
• Make sure everyone on your team has filled out a safety waiver  
• Alert SFWA in advance of clean-ups to arrange trash/debris pick up with the City  
• Fill out a Steward Report after each clean up  
• Send photos of your team (for social media and newsletter features) to amara at santafewatershed.org  

 Recognition 

In order to minimize contributing to extractive mining, shipping, labor and production processes, we’ve opted to transition away from signage as a means of appreciation and public recognition.   

Instead, stewards will receive:  

• listing on digital SFWA map of river and arroyo reaches  
• acknowledgement in announcements about clean-ups or other activity in your sponsored reach  
• social media and e-newsletter features   
• website listing with linkable logo  

SFWA provides trash bags for your clean up efforts, and can lend gloves by request.  

Let us know what you’re looking for and we can discuss available reaches and other details.  In addition to great community visibility and recognition, you are supporting work that is crucial to the health of our collective water future.   

2023 Adopt Steward Agreement 

Angel Volunteers 

Don’t want to commit to stewarding a specific reach? That’s okay, too! If you sign up to be an “Angel Volunteer” we’ll alert you to larger community clean ups, special events, and other volunteer opportunities. You can organize clean-ups of your own and SFWA will help with promotion and provide trash bags. And, you can participate in training opportunities to learn better watershed stewardship.  

Education/training opportunities:  

SFWA will work with community experts to provide training and educational opportunities to learn more about appropriate stewardship activities. Stay tuned for details!

For more information, please contact Amara May at 505-820-1696 or  amara at santafewatershed.org