This winter, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation would like to spotlight grantees working to improve conditions in the Anacostia River watershed.

The Anacostia River watershed encompasses 176 square miles in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties and the District of Columbia. The Anacostia and its tributaries suffer from the effects of stormwater runoff from the region’s roofs, roads and parking lots, which result in flooding, erosion and pollution. Each year, several hundred tons of trash, industrial waste and raw sewage are dumped into the river, posing significant public health concerns to the local community.

Over time, the Cafritz Foundation has supported the Anacostia River through community-based efforts related to conservation, restoration, public policy, advocacy, citizen engagement and environmental education. Recent activities of several Foundation grantees are highlighted below:

• The Anacostia Riverkeeper www.anacostiariverkeeper.org works to protect and restore water quality in the Anacostia River through a wide range of monitoring efforts, service projects and educational campaigns. The organization is primarily focused on identifying and eliminating illegal river pollution; preventing the destruction of the river’s parks, wetlands and green spaces; and ensuring citizen engagement from the communities that surround the river.

• The Anacostia Watershed Society www.anacostiaws.org increases awareness of the Anacostia River through educational and recreational activities, restoration projects and advocacy. During school-based programs, youth connect to their natural environment through Anacostia history lessons, hands-on experiments, and lessons about current problems facing the watershed and possible solutions. Students are then invited to participate in a river tour via canoe or pontoon boat, or on a related restoration project.

• The Clean Water Fund www.cleanwaterfund.org/washingtondc (CWF) is dedicated to developing strong grassroots coalitions, organizations and community leadership to address water-quality issues. Through community-based campaigns, CWF promotes specific actions to resolve concerns in multiple sub-watersheds by engaging local residents in restoration and advocacy projects. These activities include conducting stream assessments, watershed clean-up efforts and advocacy during the State of Maryland budget process.

• Natural Resources Defense Council www.nrdc.org (NRDC) is a national organization that monitors the development of both federal and state clean water policies. Through the Anacostia River Cleanup Initiative, www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/fanacost.asp NRDC partners with local nonprofits to preserve open space; create user-friendly access to the waterfront; and implement effective methods for managing rainwater runoff, including low-impact development for projects along the river. NRDC recently secured federal funding to support a long-term plan that will remove 98 percent of the sewage from the river, with the goal of having a trash-free Anacostia by 2013.

In 2010, the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership, a project of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, released the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Plan, www.anacostia.net/plan.html a long-term regional strategy to dramatically improve the conditions of the Anacostia River and its tributaries.

This plan delineates tangible goals to reduce pollution, protect and restore ecological integrity, support fish and wildlife, expand wetlands and forest cover and engage public and private participants in environmental advocacy. To achieve these goals, the plan identifies specific restoration strategies, such as constructing stormwater retrofits that provide effective controls to manage the damaging effects of runoff.

For more information about the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Plan and the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership, please visit www.anacostia.net.