Norman Events Scheduled for July 29 and July 31.

As part of Lakes Appreciation Month, the City of Norman is excited to participate in the Lake Thunderbird Watershed Alliance’s (LTWA) First Annual Love Your Lake Week from July 26 through August 1, 2021. Love Your Lake Week was created to highlight the importance of our water resources and how we can protect and improve them. “For the City of Norman, Lake Thunderbird is not only a valuable resource for wildlife habitat, scenic beauty, and recreation,” said Michele Loudenback, Stormwater Program Specialist, “It is also the primary source of fresh drinking water for our community. We hope residents will use this week to consider the importance of our water resources and ways they can help protect and improve them. Without clean water, our community would not exist.”

The LTWA has scheduled two events in Norman for Love Your Lake week:

• Low-Impact Landscapes for Your Lake on July 29 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm (Oklahoma Redbud Room, Norman Central Library, 103 W. Acres Street) – a workshop on various ways to use your landscape to help protect and improve your lake. Rain Gardens, Water Harvesting, and Integrative Pest Management will be discussed and tips to improve your impact will be provided.

• Griffin Park Disc Golf Course/Sutton Wilderness Clean-up Event on July 31 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am (Griffin Community Park, 1001 E. Robinson. Meet at pavilion near Dog Park near 12th Ave NE entrance) – volunteers will remove trash and other debris from the two park spaces that are located within the Lake Thunderbird watershed. All supplies, snacks and water will be provided.

Participants in the workshop will gain valuable and actionable information on reducing their landscape’s impact on our precious water resources, and participants in the clean-up event will make an immediately visible and measurable difference in the watershed.

The LTWA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to work collaboratively with residents, communities and stakeholders to protect the water quality and quantity of Lake Thunderbird and to serve as a clearinghouse for Lake Thunderbird watershed-related implementation projects, research and outreach. Additionally, LTWA will be able to apply for grants to help landowners implement best management practices by providing cost-share funds to those landowners, both rural and urban, that commit to a change in either agricultural practices or reducing stormwater runoff. LTWA board members include representatives from several cities that lie within the watershed boundaries or get their drinking water from the lake. These include Moore, Norman, and Midwest City. Additional board members represent the Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District, recreational users and watershed residents.

To ensure adequate supplies, participants are encouraged to sign up in advance by calling Michele Loudenback at 405-366-5435 or by email at michele.loudenback@normanok.gov.