What is LEAPE?
Locally-led Education and Action for Protecting the Environment (LEAPE) is an educational program for local governments interested in protecting water resources in their communities. LEAPE offers basic education about pollution of surface and groundwater, the relationship of water resources protection to traditional local government responsibilities, actions local government can take to protect and improve water quality, and sources of technical and financial resources.

LEAPE was developed by Cornell Cooperative Extension, in collaboration with New York Sea Grant, Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the Vermont Local Roads Program. The program uses resource information technologies (including geographic information systems software) and the latest thinking on nonpoint source management to provide education and policy options for local government officials. The core of the LEAPE program is custom software that offers an interactive, easy-to-understand format. A number of management options are provided to assist local officials in developing effective policies for protecting water resources while meeting their other management goals.

Who is the target audience?
Local government is the primary audience for LEAPE because of its:

• Traditional responsibilities that are related to water resources, including public health and safety, roads, and economic vitality.


• Role in land use planning.
• Potential to influence individual actions that impact nonpoint source (NPS) pollution.

• protect public health by protecting drinking water quality.
• improve quality of life, for example by improving opportunities for recreation.
• protect and increase property values, for example by preventing streambank erosion and preserving open space surrounding development.
• improve infrastructure, such as by reducing roadbank erosion.
• improve the local economy by enhancing tourism.
  
• LEAPE can increase local capacity for environmental management by:
• providing education on stormwater management, NPS pollution control, and watershed management.
• using visual methods of understanding the community.
• making referrals to sources of technical assistance.

What will local governments gain by participating in this program?
The participants will be able to identify NPS issues in their community and will learn about the role that local government can play in controlling NPS pollution and protecting water resources. Management options for taking action on the following specific issues are described:

• stormwater
• on-site wastewater treatment systems
• turf
• local roads
• streamsides
• marinas
• Stormwater management is being added to the program this winter and education for small water system operators is being added during the next year.
  

• understand NPS pollution and watershed management.
• recognize the NPS issues in their community.
• develop enhanced capacity to capitalize on educational and technical resources and funding opportunities.

How does LEAPE work?
LEAPE introduces the basic concepts behind stormwater management, nonpoint source pollution control and water quality protection and leads the learner through an aerial exploration of the learner's community. The municipality will participate in identifying nonpoint source (NPS) issues themselves and LEAPE describes some actions that local government can take to protect water resources. The procedures make use of resource information technologies, including resource inventory, remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS). The education is built around a profile of the community based on existing publicly available data.

Piloting
LEAPE was piloted with three New York towns in 2001: Essex, Marcellus, and Porter. Educators from CCE in Essex, Onondaga and Niagara counties recruited the pilot towns, assisted in identifying local issues on which LEAPE materials could focus, and participated in workshops and evaluations. The pilot experience resulted in a new interface, new and modified slide presentations, and more user-friendly software. A stormwater management component is being developed for LEAPE, and will be piloted in the winter of 2002.

Program status
Version 1.1 of LEAPE is being released through train-the-trainer workshops being held in four locations throughout the state beginning in September, 2002. The trainers are teams of local educators and technical assistance providers, including Cornell Cooperative Extension, county planning departments, and soil and water conservation districts. Two workshops will be held in the Hudson River basin, to complement the NYS Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy effort.

Two teams of educators have received funding to use LEAPE with communities in their counties. Anita Deming, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County, and Megan Murphy, Executive Director of the Ausable River Association, received Lake Champlain Basin Management Program funding to work with communities throughout Essex County. A second team of educators, with funding from the Tompkins County Foundation, a team of educators is implementing LEAPE in four towns in the county each year for the next three years (a total of twelve of the sixteen towns in Tompkins County). Leaders of this effort are from the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network, the Tompkins County Planning Department and the Center for the Environment at Cornell University. Three towns participated in workshops in 2002.

Funding:

• US Environmental Protection Agency/NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Section 319 Program funds
• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Smith-Lever funds

Other Resources:

Land and Water Management Extension Program

Deborah G. Grantham is Senior Extension Associate, Water Resources/Geophysics, USDA State Extension Water Quality Coordinator