The Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit that was born out of a reorganization of the Green Valley Coalition, a non-profit organized in the late 1990s by a group of concerned citizens working to advocate for green infrastructure and smart development. In 2009, the Green Valley Coalition Board voted to rename the group and shift its focus to water and natural resource conservation.
The WCLV was a founding partner of the statewide Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward program, training community members in the basics of environmental conservation science — empowering them to actively engage in practical on-the-ground conservation projects as well as public advocacy and education.
Restoration and demonstration projects are at the core of our work. See completed examples from the past decade in our Project Gallery.
We meet monthly, usually at Illick’s Mill in Bethlehem,
at 5:00 pm on the first Wednesday of the month. Special meetings dates and times are announced on our website and our Facebook page. At this time, our winter meetings are being held remotely due to COVID.
The Coalition also hosts the Lehigh Valley Watershed Conference, which has been held 8 times since its debut in 2004. The ninth conference – originally scheduled for 2021 – has been moved to 2022 due to pandemic considerations. Look out for speaker and sponsorship opportunities coming next year!
Besides our member associations, WCLV also works closely with the Wildlands Conservancy, the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward program, and Northampton and Lehigh County Conservation Districts. We also work with many other organizations, municipalities, and state and county agencies.
The WCLV has developed a series of conservation publications that are available for download; limited supplies of hard copies have been printed. These publications can be re-branded for other organizations to use with permission.