9. Public Participation

As stated elsewhere in this report, the involvement of watershed residents and property owners is vital to achieving our stated goals. Also, after current funding sources have been exhausted, there needs to be in place a diverse, active nucleus of local involvement. The proposed network of public participation options allows for a wide variety of people to become actively involved in the project. Activities range from simply attending public meetings to direct involvement in implementing structural best management practices.

Among the many options for watershed residents and others to participate in the implementation process are the following:

• Attend public meetings.
• Contribute articles to the watershed newsletter.
• Join an Adopt-A-Stream group to conduct stream cleanups, drain stenciling, and monitoring
• Create a citizen advisory group to summarize concerns and suggestions of local residents for the York Creek Advisory Committee. Two watershed residents currently sit on the committee and may be valuable in the initiation of the citizen group.
• Create the York Creek Yacht Club or similar group as a common interest for various watershed residents to share their particular skills. This group could also serve to seek out additional funding sources for site specific projects within the watershed.
• Contribute to the documentation effort of the project, particularly the implementation period.

Evaluation procedures could be included in many of these activities to monitor the project's progress from a public perspective.