AN ENDURING MISSION: The Watershed Institute’s dedication to keeping water clean, safe, and healthy dates back decades. Education Director Jeff Hoagland, celebrating his 40th year with the organization, is among those working to protect and restore water and the natural environment in central New Jersey through conservation, advocacy, science, and education.

By Anne Levin

The year 2024 marks a momentous anniversary for The Watershed Institute. Founded 75 years ago as the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, the Pennington-based nonprofit has been fighting to preserve the environment since long before the cause became so universally embraced.

The year-long birthday celebration is ongoing. The seventh annual Watershed Conference, held at The College of New Jersey on February 23, drew state leaders and environmentalists concerned about the issue of catastrophic flooding. On April 12, author and Princeton University graduate Leila Philip will appear at the Institute to discuss her bestseller Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America. And at the organization’s annual meeting on May 13, Tim Palmer will talk about his book Seek Higher Ground: The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis.

“It’s very humbling to have played a role in an organization that has been around for 75 years,” said Executive Director Jim Waltman. “I’m the 11th executive director. And 360 men and women have served on our board. There have been some real highs, and some tough times. We couldn’t be more grateful to the people who have supported us over the years. They were visionaries.”

In preparation for the anniversary year, Waltman read through a lot of meticulously typed meeting minutes, notes, and correspondence in the archives. The organization had been active for almost 25 years before the Clean Water Act was established in 1972.

“To imagine a band of mostly volunteers, trying to protect and restore the environment without the architecture of federal legislation, is pretty amazing,” he said. “When they started out, the concern was that this area was mostly farmland. And most of the farms were experiencing a lot of erosion and sedimentation of the streams. A lot of that landed up in Lake Carnegie. They set out before there was any kind of technology, and estimated there were around 450 individuals and other entities that owned at least five acres of land in the Stonybrook

Watershed. They were going to talk to them, and get them to plant trees, to help the situation. It was as hands-on as you can envision. There were no big pots of money from the government, and they just went after it.”

Climate change, flooding, and stormwater are the organization’s focus. Equally concerning is the loss of connection between people and nature, and the need to keep inspiring and fostering those connections. “There is a growing body of literature about this,” said Waltman. “When people have exposure to the environment, they are more likely to do things to protect it. We have almost 1,000 acres here, and we want that to be an exemplar for stewardship.”

The issues of justice, equity, and diversity figure prominently in the Institute’s new strategic plan. Educational programs for schools, especially in Trenton, are another focus. “We want to give them the scientific understanding, teaching them the skills, but also how to make change,” said Waltman. “Teaching the practice of advocacy, how decisions get made in your town, is new work for us. And it has been really rich. Young people today don’t want to be talked at. They want to save the world.”

Waltman is looking forward to the upcoming appearance by Philip, whose book is focused on the remarkable role that the Castor canadensis, more familiarly known as the North American beaver, plays in the preservation of the environment. While both were members of Princeton University’s Class of 1986, they didn’t cross paths until recently.

“Leila and I were on a panel together last fall,” Waltman said. “She’s a very much sought-after speaker. She’s from a different perspective of the climate problem. Though we think about the same issues, we think about them in different ways. The story she tells is interesting, and a part of our natural history that I think has not been told very much.”

Philip’s book takes readers on a tour of the beaver’s important role in ensuring that the world’s waterways function the way they should. Beavers create dams that store and cleanse water, so that it moves gradually through the watershed and sinks through soil. The transatlantic fur trade between 1600 and 1900 nearly wiped out beaver populations, causing huge loss of wetlands. But efforts have been made since then to restore them to watersheds.

“The light bulb is turning on,” Philip said. “People are realizing that with beavers, there are so fewer problems with water. Even in the crowded Northeast, there are areas where they can do good work — helping with flooding, and helping stream systems become more resilient when droughts come. We’re facing more heat, and beavers are incredibly valuable. People are starting to put a dollar figure on the work they do, and they work for free. It just makes sense to harness them.”

Waltman regards the February conference, which included speakers from across New Jersey discussing “Regional Collaborations for our Watersheds,” as a major success.

“It’s an example of what we aspire to do more of,” he said. “Even though we were founded with a very specific geographic focus, what’s interesting is that even back in the early days, we were working on state policy and helping elsewhere. Now, we’re really being more explicit in our aspirations for learning and leadership on watershed issues for the State of New Jersey. We’re committed to the local region, but we aspire to have an impact beyond that.”

Philip’s talk at the Institute, 31 Titus Mill Road in Pennington, is at 6 p.m. Admission is free. Visit thewatershed.org for more information.