All of us -- thank God -- have a watershed to call home.  The health of our watersheds is vital to the health of every animal, plant, and human who lives within a particular watershed's embrace.   For the sake of healthy watersheds and the lives they support, it's time to prepare for excess* precipitation that this season brings to the PNW.  When it comes to "stormwater runoff," the  Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) offers these insights:

"Stormwater runoff occurs when precipitation from rain or snowmelt flows over the land surface. The addition of roads, driveways, parking lots, rooftops and other surfaces that prevent water from soaking into the ground to our landscape greatly increases the runoff volume created during storms. This runoff is swiftly carried to our local streams, lakes, wetlands and rivers and can cause flooding and erosion, and wash away important habitat for critters that live in the stream. Stormwater runoff also picks up and carries with it many different pollutants that are found on paved surfaces such as sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria, oil and grease, trash, pesticides and metals. It comes as no surprise then that stormwater runoff is the number one cause of stream impairment in urban areas."

According to the CWP, water quality begins to degrade when 10 percent of the watershed contains impervious surfaces.  Think about your own home or church grounds: what percentage of the land is covered by impervious pavement, rooftops, roads...?

This current issue of Creation-Care, 365 is inspired by one church -- Trinity United Methodist (Seattle) -- who has taken great steps to make sure that this season's precipitation is more of a blessing than a curse to God's waterways and groundwater.  Wherever you live in the PNW -- in a western "rainshadow" or on the drier "East side" -- may this issue help you prepare for the coming season.

Grace and Peace be with you,

Creation-Care Project Coordinator

PNW Office of Connectional Ministries     

Footnote

*The use of the word "excess" is a recognition of the increasing impacts of global climate change in the PNW; for example, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service states, "Changes in temperature and precipitation will continue to decrease snow pack, and will affect stream flow and water quality throughout the Pacific Northwest region. Warmer temperatures will result in more winter precipitation falling as rain rather than snow throughout much of the Pacific Northwest, particularly in mid-elevation basins where average winter temperatures are near freezing."

Psalm 65     

(from verses 5, 7, 9-13)

God, you are the hope of all the ends of the earth  

and of the farthest seas.

You silence the roaring of the seas, 

the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.

You visit the earth and water it,  

you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. 

You water its furrows abundantly,  

settling its ridges,

softening it with showers, 

and blessing its growth. 

The pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills gird themselves with joy, 

the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, 

the valleys deck themselves with grain, 

they shout and sing together for joy.

• "Care for Creation Weekly Text Reflections" by Dr. Dennis Ormseth, Lutherans Restoring Creation 
• Eco-Justice Ministries' Reflections by topic and church season 
• "Environmental Reflections, Lectionary Year B" from the Environmental Stewardship Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of MN
• "Green Pointers for Preachers" from Christian Ecology Link
• "Radical Gratitude" ("whole-life stewardship") archives from the Northwest United Methodist Foundation 

• September 22 (Seattle, WA): "Walk on the Wild Side: Connecting the Wild within to the Wild without" retreat  
• September 23 (Seattle, WA): Fauntleroy Church UCC's "Recycle Roundup"  
• September 30 (Seattle, WA): Trinity UMC's Rain Garden Celebration 
• October 4 (Seattle, WA): University Temple UMC/Common Good Cafe's "Leaps and Bounds" eco-justice performance by Tevyn East 
• October 4 (Seattle, WA): Earth Ministry's Celebration of St. Francis, "Hope, Anger, and  Courage: Faithful Witness in a World of Climate Change"  
• Monday evenings, October 8, 15, & 22 (Seattle, WA): University Temple UMC's film-discussion series on "The Great Global Warming Swindle" with Mike Wallace   
• October 13 (Seattle, WA): Earth Ministry's Eco-Justice Colleague Consultation 
• October 15: Deadline for Cool Congregations Challenge, 2012 entries    
• October 16-18 (near Port Orchard, WA): Environmental Justice Workshop 

 Creation Keepers

• U.K. "Methodists commit to carbon reduction pledge"  
• New paragraph in UMC Social Principles: "Food Justice" 
• Amended UMC Social Principle: "Animal Life"   
• "United Methodist Women Members Deliver Climate Change Message to Washington"