Stream Partners Program

A clean, flowing stream against a background of forest.
 

Overview

The West Virginia Stream Partners Program is a cooperative effort among multiple state agencies and is housed within the WVDEP's Division of Water and Waste Management. In 1996 the West Virginia Legislature passed HB 4497. This action amended 60CSR4 of West Virginia Code and created the Stream Partners Program (SPP).

SPP is a grant program created to support the efforts of local stream partners known as watershed groups. A Stream Partner is a community-based organization comprised of local community members, industry, environmental groups, outdoorsmen, government, landowners and more. These stakeholders come together to improve the quality of life in and around their streams and throughout the watershed.

The Legislature appropriates an annual $100,000 from general revenue funds to be distributed as $5,000 seed grants to these organizations to complete watershed improvement projects. These grants are awarded when an application is submitted and approved by participating agencies' leadership.

Story Map

West Virginia is known as the Mountain State, but it is the rivers and streams that carve the topography. As it pours off hillsides, cascades down mountain streams, meanders through valleys and sleepily flows on rivers, water is the sustaining lifeblood of our communities, our identity and our way of life.

Read more...



West Virginia Conservation Agency

It is the purpose of the Stream Partners Program to encourage citizens to work in partnership with appropriate state agencies so that the state's rivers and streams:

  1. Are safe for swimming, fishing, and other forms of recreation

  2. Can support appropriate public and commercial purposes

  3. Can provide habitat for plant and animal life.

Learn More

More information about the Stream Partners Program can be found with the West Virginia Conservation Agency.


Contact Us

Tomi Bergstrom (She/Her)
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
DWWM - Watershed Improvement Branch
601 57th Street SE,
Charleston, WV 25304
Phone: (304) 926-0499 x43862
Email: Tomi.M.Bergstrom@wv.gov

Callie Cronin Sams (She/Her)
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
DWWM - Watershed Improvement Branch
47 School Street, Suite 301
Philippi, WV 26416
Phone: (304) 314-6095
Email: Callie.C.Sams@wv.gov

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