At the 2025 Watershed Conference, we will discuss strategies and ways to work together so that communities can become more resilient towards climate change and hazards by restoring essential environmental services in degraded watersheds. Water-related impacts of climate change are expected to increase and have greater impacts on our communities in the future. This means more homes repeatedly flooded, more lakes rendered unusable due to harmful algal blooms, and so much more.

Planning for resiliency requires that we establish long-term, flexible, strategies. These strategies should not only address the current challenges we face, but also address future impacts of climate change, whether predicted or unpredictable. Restoration with nature-based and engineered solutions should be a key strategy to address the negative impacts. Such approaches should reduce the amount of stormwater running off impervious surfaces in our highly developed watersheds, increase groundwater recharge to support needs in times of prolonged drought and heat, and help us better achieve regulatory goals for clean water.

The event will be all virtual on February 20 and hybrid (in-person at The College of New Jersey) on February 21. We are applying for CEUs for planners, engineers, certified floodplain managers, attorneys, and more.