Satterberg Foundation

Friends of the Cedar River Watershed (FCRW) is a grassroots organization that engages volunteers in habitat restoration and environmental education activities that support the health of the watershed, and builds colaborative relationships within the regional conservation community.

An Open Grant from the Satterberg Foundation funded FCRW's Watershed Report. The Watershed Report is an educational program that engages high school student leaders in systems thinking in science, civics and communications by designing sustainability projects, restoring critical habitat, analyzing sutainability policy and reporting on annual trends to mass audiences.

Direct engagement projects such as building demonstration rain gardens on school sites, participating in river habitiat restoration actions and supporting the activities of school green teams, help ground the students in local environmental issues. From this foundation students collaborate with professionals to produce a series of short video reports that track sustainability trends across multiple sectors within the geographic template of the Cerdar River/Lake Washington Watershed.

“Being part of the Watershed Report gives me adult responsibilities like public speaking and developing projects like rain gardens. We think we can use the Watershed Report as a big megaphone for positive news.” - Jordan Walley, Class of 2012

“I had a chance to preview all of the short video segments on the Watershed Report DVD and was incredibly impressed with the quality of the presentations provided by the young narrators, our future citizens and decision makers. The goal of the Friends of the Cedar River Watershed in measuring positive sustainability trends matches the City of Maple Valley’s NPDES program implementation goals. Stormwater is the common thread. It’s a big issue and we are all going to need to work together, so it’s inspiring to join forces with the next generation.” - David Casey, City Engineer, City of Maple Valley

“I love being part of the Watershed Report Leadership Team because it gives students like me the feeling that we can make a difference. The ability to use real solutions to solve real problems is not always given to young adults.” - Cassandra Houghton, Class of 2013

UPDATE: FCRW Program Manager, Peter Donaldson, received recognition by the Environmental EducationAssociation of Washington with their "2010 Award of Excellence."  This award recognizes Mr. Donaldson as the "Outstanding Non-formal Environmental Educator".  Peter is recognized for his work with the Watershed Report as an example of creative teaching and presentation methods that provide a pathway to empower students and teachers to educate citizens about current trends that are the cornerstone of local efforts to develop sustainable communities. Peter also currently serves as adjunct profession at Antioch University to develop a new teacher endorsement and certification program for Environmental and Sustainability Education. He was recently appointed Distinguished Scholar to the Dan Evans Chair for the Liberal Arts at The Evergreen State College.