Lake Berryessa

Lake Berryessa Watershed

Partnership

Lake Berryessa provides drinking water for nearly 500,000 people and provides year-round recreation opportunities for more than a million people each year. Lake Berryessa water also serves farmers and businesses downstream. Even the local Budweiser Brewery and Jelly Belly factory contract for Lake Berryessa water!

To protect this important resource, the Lake Berryessa Watershed Partnership formed in the early 1990s. Facilitated by Solano RCD, the partnership is a voluntary group of agency representatives, NGOs and private citizens who work together to educate boaters, campers, day visitors and other lake users about the importance of water quality and good personal stewardship practices.

We work to achieve this with a three-pronged approach:

1. Summer Boater and Visitor Education Program: Every summer weekend, from Memorial Day to just beyond Labor Day, the partnership runs a summer boater and visitor education program. Staffed by two interns, this program provides person-to-person water quality stewardship education to boaters and shore visitors. The interns work at locations all around the lake, greeting visitors and sharing good stewardship information.

Highlights of this program include our free bilge pad dispensing and exchange program; our Larger-than-life mascot, Bilgee, the Protector of Clean Waterways; informational kiosks located around the lake; and the annually-revised Lake Berryessa User’s guide, full of good stewardship tips, and useful lake visitors’ information.

WED 2011

2. Hands-on education and restoration events: The partnership sponsors annual lake clean-up events to support World Environment Day in June and Coastal Clean-up day in September. These events focus on clean-up activities at specific lake sites, and are usually combined with post event celebratory picnics or BBQs.

3. Regular planning and strategizing meetings: The partnership sponsors quarterly meetings for stakeholders to plan program activities, refine program goals and strategize program funding.

World Environment Day 2011 Clean-up Event

Ways to get involved at Lake Berryessa

Next Lake Berryessa Watershed Partnership Meeting:

10:00 am, Tuesday, March 27 at Markely Cove. Check out the Agenda or contact Coordinator Marianne Butler for more information

2012 World Environment Day Clean-up Event:

9:30 am, Sunday, June 3, meet at Markley Cove Resort. Group lake clean-up from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, Picnic lunch at 12:pm.

LBWP meeting Lake Berryessa Watershed Partnership Members