Roe Jan Watershed Community Celebrates Early Success
Kaare Christian speaks at the first annual meeting of the Roe Jan Watershed Community. (Photo by Dan Shapley / Riverkeeper)
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It was less than a year ago that Kaare Christian called Riverkeeper with a concern: His creek wasn’t “on the map” – the map of Hudson River tributaries where Riverkeeper and our partner are sampling water quality.
Within weeks, Kaare had put the Roeliff Jansenkill – the Roe Jan – on the map. Consulting with Water Quality Program Scientist Jen Epstein, he scouted sampling sites, researched past monitoring results, assembled a sampling crew, and started collaborating with the new Bard Water Lab at Bard College to process monthly samples from 14 locations. More than that, he created a new organization, the Roe Jan Watershed Community.
Funding for monitoring came from Trout Unlimited’s Columbia-Greene chapter, the Town of Ancram Conservation Advisory Council and several individuals.
The group is off and running, with more than 30 people attending its first annual meeting at the Suarez Family Brewery Oct. 16 (highlighting that you can’t make great beer without clean water).
Kaare Christian speaks at the first annual meeting of the Roe Jan Watershed Community. (Photo by Dan Shapley / Riverkeeper)
True to the spirit of our community monitoring project, the Roe Jan Watershed Community is already acting as a watchdog, and a voice for the Roe Jan. It has spoken out on the proposed use of herbicides to control aquatic weeds, and raised alarms about a notorious scofflaw operating an illegal landfill. Future projects may include assistance with Trout Unlimited’s plans to remove a barrier to trout spawning on a Roe Jan tributary, stream walks to identify pollution and erosion concerns, expanded monitoring in collaboration with Bard Water Lab, and other projects. The Roe Jan Watershed Community’s name is apt: residents from throughout the watershed, as well as representatives of towns and other organizations are now actively working on the creek’s behalf.
Congratulations to the Hudson River Watershed’s youngest water protection groups!