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03/02/2022

Lessons in Collaboration from the Goose Creek Association

Working together can grow organizations' effectiveness

When an association is faced with a yearslong project, it needs to harness not only its own internal resources but also the resources of partners with related goals. That’s the tactic the Goose Creek Association (GCA) is taking with its goal of restoring the Goose Creek watershed, located in Virginia’s Fauquier and Loudoun counties, which is currently designated as “impaired” by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

The “Goose Creek Watch” project, which started in August 2021, brings together conservation organizations from across the region to monitor the stream to test water quality, remove litter from the creek, plant stream buffers to filter the water, and advocate against inappropriate development in the area. The coalition includes GCA, the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, The Downstream Project, and the Friends of the Shenandoah River Laboratory.

“We’ve had some great [individual] successes along the way, but we also work with partner organizations who may have a different or bigger jurisdiction in terms of the environment out here,” said Lori Keenan McGuinness, the Fauquier County chair on GCA’s board of directors. “We work as a group to do the right thing for our communities.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.

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