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DEP has a team of educators and other professionals to provide residents and teachers with presentations, materials, workshops and other opportunities to learn about the significance of watershed protection to upstate communities as well as to consumers of the water supply. Specific outreach efforts are conducted to help locally-based groups and individual citizens understand the links between land use activities and water quality.


Education

DEP environmental educators and agency specialists are available for presentations at schools, colleges, and community groups in the watershed. DEP offers hands-on workshops, science enrichment programs and other activities that integrate environmental priorities into some of other academic subject areas, including the arts. Watershed education staff have a variety of materials to encourage and stimulate environmental education skills and awareness. These resources are user-friendly and are effective in helping young people and adults gain the knowledge and skills as well as the commitment to protect and respect the environment.

DEP continues to design and implement watershed education programs, including symposiums for children, young people and teachers; watershed forestry institutes for educators; and programs related to specific waterbodies. DEP also works to improve public awareness of water resources, water quality and watershed protection through exhibitions in museums, libraries and educational institutions in and near the watershed.


Outreach

DEP's watershed public affairs staff and specific program experts visit communities throughout the watershed, bringing information and offering assistance on environmental issues. Outreach teams often include scientists and other environmental specialists who give watershed residents information and ways to help prevent and reduce pollution. Programs include collaboration with other environmental organizations, including the county Cornell Cooperative Extension Offices and the Kensico Environmental Enhancement Program.

Kensico Environmental Enhancement Program
If you’re one of the nine million residents of New York City or dozens of communities in Westchester, Putnam, Orange or Ulster Counties, the Kensico Reservoir is a vital part of your drinking water supply system. KEEP is the Kensico Environmental Enhancement Program, a commitee formed to protect the Kensico Reservoir. more >


Community Events

DEP's outreach and education programs include participation in major community events in the watershed, including county fairs. Staff give visitors information about watershed protection programs and water conservation; offer demonstrations, answer questions and explain DEP's role as a partner with its upstate neighbors and local environmental groups and agencies. A variety of materials for children and adults are distributed, including booklets, pamphlets and fact sheets about the City's water supply system, drinking water quality, the Whole Farm Program, land acquisition and conservation easements, watershed recreation, stream management and related programs. During the summer months, thousands of watershed and City residents visit the DEP booth. At the Delaware County Fair, DEP shares a booth with its partners, the Watershed Agricultural Council and the Catskill Watershed Corporation.

Regular stops for DEP during the summer and fall festival seasion include: the Ulster County Fair, the Delaware County Fair, the Grahamsville Little World's Fair in Sullivan County, the Dutchess County Fair, the Catskill Mountain Festival in Greene County, the Muscoot Farm Fair and the North Salem Library Fair in Westchester, the Putnam County 4-H fair, and Meredith Dairy Festival in Delaware County. New for DEP in 2003 is the Greene County Fair.

DEP joins with other organizations in Earth Day celebrations, including IBM's annual Earth Day Event at Yorktown and Hawthorne in Westchester County. In addition, DEP co-sponsors the Croton Students Annual Watershed Symposium at Teatown Lake Reservation and the KEEP Annual Art & Poetry Contest in Kensico watershed middle schools.