GOUVERNEUR — The St. Lawrence River Watershed Plan Project held its first of three public planning meetings at the community center in Gouverneur.

Chasity Miller, Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District, and Liz Moran, EcoLogic consultant, facilitated on behalf of the project. There were 20 people in attendance including Indian River Lakes Conservancy's Executive Director, J. Wylie Huffman, and Black Lake Association President, Larry Hollister.

Representatives were also present from Department of Environmental Conservation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Algonquin to Adirondacks (A2A), Franklin County Soil and Water, St. Lawrence County Planning Department, NY Department of State, Jefferson County Planning Department, and Thousand Island Land Trust.

Topics presented included natural and built characteristics of the watershed, which included a breakdown of sub-watersheds and land use, and local laws and programs affecting water quality. Watershed maps were displayed.

One of the takeaways, Wylie Huffman noted, was that, “many of our rivers and lakes are unassessed and citizen science is needed to gather more data.”

Liz Moran strongly recommended that watershed residents fill out the survey. Over 700 people have responded so far.

Survey responses will determine the project ideas in the final report. The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GNQZCDZ .

Watershed residents may speak to J. Wylie Huffman jwhuffman@indianriverlakes.org or Liz Moran lmoran@ecologicllc.com about project ideas.