More than 230 guests joined Stroud Water Research Center, its board of directors and the presenting sponsor, Wilmington Trust, at the 17th annual Water’s Edge gala as they honored Chad Pregracke of Living Lands & Waters at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Chad Pregracke was presented with the Stroud Award for Freshwater Excellence in recognition of his dedication and determination to protect fresh water. Starting on the banks of the Mississippi River, where he grew up, he created Living Lands & Waters at the age of 23 to aid in the protection, preservation, and restoration of the natural environment of the nations’ major rivers and their watersheds, to expand awareness of environmental issues and responsibility encompassing rivers, and to create a desire and an opportunity for stewardship and responsibility for cleaner river environments.

“Working side by side over the past 21 years with more than 115,000 volunteers to clean up America’s rivers has been a huge honor. By no means did I ever expect to be rewarded for it, but I am extremely excited and humbled to accept the Stroud Award for Freshwater Excellence given who they are, what they do, and who the past recipients have been. I love the work that the Stroud Center does and it certainly is a great honor to receive their recognition!”

Executive Director David Arscott, Ph.D. commented after the event, “We are so grateful for the many sponsors and guests who support the Stroud Center and its mission, and who have helped us distinguish others in pursuit of freshwater excellence. We are fortunate to be able to recognize organizations such as Living Lands & Waters that work so hard to protect our nation’s freshwater resources. Chad Pregracke is a perfect example of how one person can make a difference in this world by inspiring others.”

Read more here!

On a sunny November morning last fall I was following the wooded bank of Rocky Run where it flows through the Beaver Valley unit of First State National Historical Park (FRST) near Wilmington, Delaware. Walking with me were Jeff Chambers and Rob Tuttle, two volunteer citizen scientists, and Matt Gisondi, the Watershed Restoration Program Assistant at Stroud Water Research Center.

The idyllic scene transformed abruptly as we trekked upstream, crossed the park boundary, and ventured through a culvert that carries Rocky Run under a busy roadway from its origin among a suburban cluster of buildings, concrete, and blacktop.

We have been using an EnviroDIY Mayfly Data Logger sensor station to monitor the water quality of Rocky Run as part of Stream Stewards, a partnership between The Nature Conservancy (TNC), FRST, and the Stroud Center.

For months, sensor data had been showing conductivity spikes in Rocky Run. High stream conductivity is caused by dissolved ions which can derive from pollutants that run off the adjacent land. To determine the cause, we needed to analyze stream samples that coincide with the conductivity spike.

Enter the Stream Stewards, a group of volunteers uniquely poised for the data collection required in this situation. As Stream Steward Chuck Wagner puts it: “I am ready to go out to the stream to take samples on a moment’s notice in all kinds of weather.”

Read more HERE

Please partner with us to secure the $1 million challenge grant with a gift that will be matched dollar for dollar thanks to the generosity of Rod and Alice.

We have been gathering support for the Bernard W. Sweeney, Ph.D., Executive Director’s Fund to implement new strategies to share our findings with peers in the scientific and educational communities and with businesses, landowners, policymakers, and individuals to help make informed decisions affecting global water quality and availability.

Advance Strategic Initiatives in Research, Education, and Watershed Restoration
While traditional research grants keep Stroud™ Water Research Center at the cutting edge of freshwater science, being a global leader in our field takes more financial agility and foresight than grant funding provides. The fund provides the executive director discretionary resources to advance strategic internal initiatives that may have narrow windows of opportunity for achieving high returns on investment in research, education, and watershed restoration.

Meeting the $1 million challenge match grant for the Bernard W. Sweeney, Ph.D., Executive Director’s Fund with an overall institutional goal of $5 million will ensure the Stroud Center retains global leadership in the rapidly advancing world of freshwater science.

Your Support Will Make a Difference
For more than 50 years, the Stroud Center has focused on one thing — clean fresh water — and we know that is only possible because of our friends. Your support will make a difference throughout our community, and a gift to this fund will provide an impact to our future endeavors to protect fresh water.

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To strengthen ongoing research and to expand community empowerment programs to protect clean fresh water regionally and around the world, Stroud Water Research Center today announced its Future of Fresh Water Initiative.

“Nowhere else in the world is there an organization like Stroud Water Research Center, which has spent 51 years focused on understanding, preserving, and protecting fresh water. In that time, our research has made significant contributions to policies that protect our nation’s streams and wetlands, storm water management systems, and drinking water sources. Our team of scientists continues to work hard on the critical questions of our time, including the relationship between land use, water quality, and climate change,” stated David B. Arscott, Ph.D., executive director and research scientist.

“Stroud Water Research Center continues to be a treasure for Chester County as an international leader in the study of streams, aquatic ecology, and river science,” Senator Andrew Dinniman, who serves on the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, stated.
William LaFond, chair of the Future of Fresh Water Initiative and a Stroud Center board member said, “We believe that this work must be shared, which is why cultivating a broad understanding of the issues, and teaching the skills to address them, is the core of our programs. With the world’s need for clean fresh water more pressing than ever, we must increase our capacity to pursue that mission. We invite others to join us as we lay the foundation for a more sustainable future. With financial support, we will continue to pursue groundbreaking research and broad-based education that will have a lasting value in our community and in communities around the world.”

For the past two years, the Stroud Center has been gathering support for the Future of Fresh Water Initiative that has a $20 million goal. To date, $8.87 million has been achieved. The Future of Fresh Water Initiative is needed to continue the Stroud Center’s research, environmental education, and watershed restoration programs.

“We must work together with landowners, local and regional planners, and decision-makers to protect and restore our freshwater ecosystems. Engagement and financial investments from the community in support of the Stroud Center’s mission are vital to our success and to the future of clean fresh water,” said Arscott.
Five major aspects have been identified for the Future of Fresh Water Initiative:

RESEARCH: Empower renowned scientists to further their work and recommend ways to deliver clean fresh water around the world for generations to come.

EDUCATION: Enable educators to utilize technology to enhance and expand science beyond the classroom. Create, refine, and explore new education programs and associated curricula.

RESTORATION: Implement collaborations and partnerships necessary to achieve the highest level of freshwater conservation and watershed restoration.

BERNARD W. SWEENEY, Ph.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S FUND: Provide funds for critical centerwide initiatives. This fund honors the legacy of Bern Sweeney’s more than 40-year career and dedication to research, education, and restoration for decades to come. Through the creation of a $1 million challenge match by Rod and Alice Moorhead, every gift received will double the Director’s Fund impact.

UNRESTRICTED: Affords institutional leadership the flexibility to apply funds where they are needed most, such as capital projects, conferences and meetings, and technology enhancements.

Click to Make a Gift to the Future of Fresh Water Initiative