Local, grassroots conservation organizations work throughout the Narragansett Bay watershed to protect and restore rivers and streams, conserve critical lands and balance development with watershed protection. NBEP helps lead the Land and Water Partnership and works with other partner organizations to provide technical and organizational support to strengthen and empower grassroots organizations.

Workshops and Conferences

• Land & Water Conservation Summit.  NBEP is a lead organizer of the annual RI Land & Water Conservation Summit, which attracts grass-roots conservation leaders from throughout the state and region. The 2009 Summit will be held on Saturday March 21 at the URI Memorial Union. Planning is underway, so watch for updates! The 2008 Summit was held on March 15 at the URI Memorial Union. Approximately 300 people attended, participating in 30 workshops. Presentations from the Summit can be viewed at the Land & Water Partnership web site.

• Workshops.  The Land & Water Partnership organizes workshops to provide land trusts and watershed organizations with the technical and organizational tools they need to be successful. On October 7, the Partnership will provide an introduction to our Salesforce template. Salesforce is a free donor/member tracking package that we have updated for use by small land trusts and watershed organizations. Materials from last years very popular workshop, Designing and Implementing Trails, are posted on the Land and Water Partnership web site.

Administrative Support Systems:

• Volunteer Management – Volunteers are essential to small conservation organizations. NBEP collects volunteer job opportunities from land trusts and watershed organizations that are then publicized through e-news. The lists are also distributed by Save the Bay to their volunteer lists. Volunteer management tools are provided in the Land and Water Partnership's resource library.

• Donor/Member Support services. We are developing donor member management systems that will be simple and affordable for watershed organizations and land trusts to implement. We have been working with the nonprofit Salesforce program and have developed a template specifically for small watershed groups and land trusts. The template is being implemented by several organizations in RI.

Blueways. NBEP is working with partner organizations to create a water trail network, or blueway, for Rhode Island. Our mission is to develop a water trail network linking rivers, lakes and ponds with Narragnasett Bay and to use the trail to promote safety, conservation, recreation and economic development.  We have recently incorporated the RI Blueways Alliance as a non-profit with the State of Rhode Island.

• PaddleRI. In June and July of 2008, the RI Blueways Alliance will promote paddling trips on rivers and the bay to celebrate the launch of the Blueway system. A schedule of trips and a map showing where they are happening around the state can be downloaded from the ExploreRI web site.
  

• ExploreRI.org, provides a web portal to information on paddling throughout Rhode Island. The interactive mapping system provides detailed information on access sites for paddling on rivers, lakes and Narragansett Bay. 

Coalition for Water Security . NBEP is working with partners throughout the state on sustainable water management policies for Rhode Island.