Aside from focusing on promoting healthy waters in our area, we want to acknowledge and advocate how precious the resource of just having water truly is. Since watersheds generally cross multiple political boundaries (town, county, state borders), our goal is to unite as an entire watershed to conserve water. This can be achieved by having the initiatives promoted by town and county planners, soliciting cooperation with local businesses, but also actions to be embraced by the individual.

One of the main thrusts of this program has been the sale of rain barrels and workshops to teach others how to build rain barrels. Whether you have Town water or use your own well, water supply is limited and doing all you can to save water just makes sense. A rain barrel is the simplest water collection device. It is placed under your downspout to collect the rainwater off your roof. About .6 of a gallon of water can be collected per square foot of roof surface in a one inch rain. That’s 600 gallons off a small 100 sq. ft. roof! With even 35 inches of rain per year, half of our average, that would be 21,000 gallons of water!

While collected water is not pure enough to use for drinking without extra filtration, it is great for landscape and vegetable garden watering, for washing cars (or pets!), for watering livestock or for swimming pools. A rain barrel or two will provide you with water for easy outdoor watering without worrying about running your well or Town water supply dry. LTWA provides printable rain barrel building instructions free to the public.

Humans rely on water to sustain life, as do most organisms. Money in the form of currency, is not essential for life, but many times serves as a status of wealth. Corporations devote considerable time in evaluating expenses, what their money is used for, and the efficiency of their purchases. Economically savvy individuals manage household finances is a related manner. Why is it that water, an essential element of life, is not managed in a similar fashion? Education about water conservation is important for us, as well as everyone downstream that relies on the same life-giving water.