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Healthy Watersheds Workshop - Altadena, CA - November 2004 On Saturday November 6th, 50 people gathered in the Altadena Community Center to participate in a free workshop entitled, "Healthy Watersheds: A homeowner's guide to taking care of your bit of the watershed." The event was organized by the Watershed Committee of the Altadena Town Council to help people understand where their water comes from, how the watershed works, and ways to conserve water at the household level. The echoing theme of the day was: "We need to protect local water sources and decrease dependence on imported water through conservation," and participants took home lots of water-wise printed information as well. Dan Sharp of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works gave an overview of how a watershed functions and how various elements (especially human behavior) affect it. Jeff Chapman, Arroyo Seco Foundation, discussed the Best Management Practices (BMPs) to conserve water inside and out of the home. Local landscape architect Barbara Koenig talked about ways to decrease paving and lawns, and to increase groundwater recharge. Terry Huntsberger, a local homeowner, told the story of how he took out his lawn and replaced it with a water-wise garden. Taya Cummins of the Theodore Payne Foundation shared the the beauty of California heritage plants that use 2/3 less water than other ornamentals. Wrapping it up was landscape architect Mark Goldschmidt, who discussed a design approach to thinking about outdoor space. After the presentations the speakers gathered and fielded questions from the audience. Michele Zack, organizer, stated, "It is invigorating to pull so many different people together and to do such a positive thing. Some people might actually change their behavior because of things they picked up at our workshop. At the very least, we all had a little consciousness raising!" This workshop was sponsored by Altadena Town Council, Altadena Foothills Conservancy, Arroyo Seco Foundation, County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Foothill Municipal Water District, Metropolitan Water District, Pasadena Department of Water and Power, and the Theodore Payne Foundation. Watershed Committee members include Ron Carter, Bev Huntsberger, John Zoraster, Sue Dadd, Jeff Chapman, Barbara Koenig, and Michele Zack.

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