What exactly is a RIVERKEEPER®?
A RIVERKEEPER®is a fulll-time advocate for a body of water and its surrounding community. Each RIVERKEEPER® is an affiliate of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a grassroots advocacy organizaation founded by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. A WATERKEEPER® can be a baykeeper, harborkeeper, coastkeeper, or lakekeeper: really any body of water.
Internationally, there are 162 non-profit, privately funded WATERKEEPER® programs.
Here, in the chesapeake Bay watershed, there are 14 , with five in Anne Arundel County alone: Baltimore harborkeeper, and Patuxent, Rhode/West, Severn and South RIVERKEEPER®s.
These skilled environmentalists are equal parts scientist, lawyer, investigator, educator and advocate.
They advocate compliance with environmental laws, respond tp citizen complaints, indentify problems that affect their watersheds and devise appropriate remedies to address these problems.
Each RIVERKEEPER® has a boat- ranging in size from a canoe to a research vessel - to patrol his or her waterway. In fact, RIVERKEEPER®s spend much of their time out on the water, monitoring water quality, surveying the shoreline or talking with citizens.
Excerpted from - Chris Trumbauer,
Tidewater Ecosystem Assessment
Maryland Department of Natural Resources "Ask an Expert"
