2023 Volunteer Statistics Announced

Each year ACWA tallies annual statistics of our efforts to document our progress and volunteer engagement. In 2023, ACWA is proud to report volunteers have donated 674 hours in environmental stewardship activities which included tree plantings & care, water quality monitoring, invasive plant removal, educational blog posts, outreach events, and litter cleanups. This number is an increase from last year’s recorded 526 hours. Thank you volunteers for logging your hours and helping our watersheds!

The largest effort from last year was coordinating, planting and caring for 181 large-caliper urban trees in two Williamsport parks and throughout the Hagerstown Community College campus. These trees were funded by a 2022 Chesapeake Bay Urban Tree grant and will be continued to be cared for in 2024.

ACWA’s Community Science volunteers were also very active in monitoring water quality sites, collecting aquatic insects, and maintaining temperature loggers throughout the watersheds. This data is shared with the State and also with the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative’s Data Explorer to help track the health of the streams and tributaries.

We would also like to highlight the creation of Wildlife Wednesday educational blog posts this year. Coordinated by our student board member Zander Hine, each post highlights a “critter” from our watersheds on our website and social media sites.

Congratulations volunteers for all your hard work in 2023!

Next month, ACWA’s Board of Directors will be setting goals for the upcoming year with high hopes our volunteer engagement will continue to grow and projects will expand throughout the watersheds.

We encourage ACWA members to continue to be “boots on the ground”, identifying project locations, and offering their time and talents to protect the health of the Antietam & Conococheague watersheds. If you are interested in helping coordinate projects for ACWA, or simply have an idea to share, please contact us at info@acwamaryland.org