Delaware Nature Society – Making Big Waves in a Small State
Since its founding in 1964, almost a decade before the federal Clean Water Act, the Delaware Nature Society (DelNature) has had a strong history of environmental advocacy through watershed stewardship, land preservation, and wildlife protection. An affiliate of the National Wildlife Foundation in the nation’s second smallest state, DelNature works to connect people with the natural world to improve our environment. Through education and camps, small grants, and active and passive conservation action from tree plantings to webinars, DelNature strives to inspire everyone to be environmental advocates while supporting environmentally focused local, state, and federal legislation.
The pillars of DelNature’s mission are conservation, education, and advocacy, with all departments and sites contributing to each other’s goals. Like many environmental nonprofits over the past few years, the organization is experiencing new growth, change, and revitalization. Operating out of four sites in Delaware: Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin, Coverdale Farm in Greenville, DuPont Environmental Education Center in Wilmington, and Abbott’s Mill Nature Center in Milford, DelNature currently has more than 30 full-time staff, 1,000 volunteers, and thousands of members.
DelNature’s work has changed with the needs of the environment in Delaware and the region, supporting many efforts from buffer ordinance updates to environmental justice. Having worked for the passage of the Clean Water for Delaware Act (2021) and the Plastic Carryout Bag Ban in Delaware (2021), it supported the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program since its earliest stages. With such a vested interest in the region’s watersheds, it comes as no surprise that DelNature was a founding member of the Choose Clean Water Coalition (CCWC) and the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed (CDRW), which together cover the state’s main watersheds.
As a nonprofit, DelNature relies on funding opportunities and donations for much of its work, and is currently a grant recipient of the William Penn Foundation (WPF). The WPF has generously funded many programs and capacity building efforts over the years, and DelNature currently is in the final phase of a multiyear grant surrounding its clean water work—including activity in the CCWC and the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW). It also acts as the Delaware State Lead for CCWC, sits on its Steering Committee, and participates in all of its active work groups.
Though most of the state lies within the Delaware River watershed, the southwestern third of the state has portions of the CBW headwaters, mainly from the Nanticoke River. However, the entirety of Delaware is within the airshed of the Chesapeake Bay. Delaware has its own Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan and is part of the six states (and D.C.) in the Chesapeake Bay TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) for nutrients and pollutants in the bay.
DelNature and CCWC have been involved at the state and federal levels since the TMDL’s inception in 2010. DelNature was also a main supporter of the aforementioned Clean Water for Delaware Act and, with CCWC, held Clean Water Rallies, supported citizen advocates called Water Warriors, and created the Clean Water Alliance for Delaware, consisting of both for- and nonprofit organizations across the state that are committed to securing funding for clean water initiatives.
DelNature is focused on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) actions, both within and outside of the organization. Through its partnership in the Delaware Environmental Accountability Coalition, The Nature Conservancy, and several water coalitions, DelNature holds webinars and shares information throughout the watershed on DEIJ-focused topics. In November 2022, DelNature collaborated with DEIJ partners to hold a webinar on the proposed Cumulative Impacts bill (HB 466) in Delaware, which focuses on stopping the increase of pollution in overburdened Black and Brown and low-income communities. This bill aims to allow state regulators to consider existing pollution in planning decisions.
Today, DelNature and alliance members across the state celebrate the 2021 passage of the act and advocate for the continued funding of its Clean Water Trust for water quality projects, such as infrastructure upgrades. DelNature is focusing on expanding its work within the CBW and its network of CCWC members moving into 2023 and beyond. It will continue to maintain its seat at the table for all environmental actions across the state, advocating for human health, functional environments, and thriving native wildlife populations. Together with the support of stakeholders and CCWC, DelNature will continue to make waves in Delaware’s environmental community—no matter how big or small.
Robin Glazer is Delaware Nature Society’s Environmental Advocate and the Choose Clean Water Coalition’s Delaware State Lead