The signs will be placed throughout Clark County where a named stream crosses a road
VANCOUVER — Officials from Clark County Public Works, the Clark County Council and Stormwater Partners of SW Washington gathered Friday at Klineline Pond at Salmon Creek Regional Park to unveil new, publicly chosen designs for watershed signs.
“Someone in our office had mentioned the watershed signs, and how old they are,’’ said Eric Lambert, Clark County Environmental Outreach specialist. “I think everyone noticed that a lot of them are faded or disappeared. They’re about 25 years old, and quite frankly, it was their time to be replaced.
“And so, we wanted to engage the public about replacing these signs,’’ Lambert told Clark County Today. “We wanted help from the public in choosing the signs and we put it out to a vote. The public voted on this sign here, with over 50 percent of the public voting that this was their favorite sign.’’
Lambert said the signs that were chosen by the public, “will be going up around the county throughout 2020 to help people identify with the streams that they’re driving over, and the bodies of water in Clark County that really makes this place such a great place to live.’’
The signs will be placed where a named stream crosses a road in the Burnt Bridge, Lacamas, Whipple Creek, Gee Creek, Columbia Slope and Washougal River watersheds.
Lambert indicated the project was funded by a $120,000 grant from the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board and in-kind donations from all the stormwater partners. Stormwater Partners of SW Washington is an independent coalition of jurisdictions, agencies and nonprofit organizations working together to protect water quality and watersheds in southwest Washington.
“Together, we all pledged about $10,000 of in-kind match,’’ Lambert said. “So, it was a great leverage for this grant, about 12 to one.’’
The signs were unveiled Friday in a ceremony featuring Councilors Temple Lentz, Julie Olson, and John Blom and Public Works Director Ahmad Qayoumi and others.
The sign was designed by Leigh Radford, Clark County’s senior graphic designer.
“When I first got this project, I was really excited,’’ Radford told Clark County Today. “I’m a new Vancouver, or Clark County resident, and was excited about having an opportunity to combine design and preservation of the watershed.
“So I tackled the design with trying to kind of accomplish educating people about both the waterways that they might be walking towards and what their overall watershed was, so that they would have an opportunity to maybe learn a little bit more about that,’’ Radford said.
Also revealed Friday was a new interactive watershed map that will allow residents to explore their watershed, virtually. The map is a tool to discover recreational opportunities, learn about fish, wildlife, stream health and pollution, and most importantly, simple actions everyone can take to prevent pollution and protect watershed health.More information about the watershed signs project can be found on the Stormwater Partners website www.clarkwatersheds.org.
