Life At The Water's Edge (LATWE) is a collaborative effort between a number of governmental and nongovernmental partners.  The goal is to educate homeowners on landscape techniques that reduce stormwater runoff and protect Georgia's streams and rivers. 

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Whose water is it anyway?

No matter where you live, you live in a watershed.  Everything you do in your backyard affects the water quality of your nearest stream and the humans and wildlife that depend on it.  The condition of any stream is the cumulative result of what happens to it as it crosses all the parcels of land along its way.  We may own the land but not the water.  Water is considered a public good and belongs to all of us. 

Why should you care?

If you have a stream running across the land you own, you are blessed with a gift and a responsibility.  Before we knew better, it became common practice to tidy up property around streams and creeks, replacing native plants with lawn and mowing right up to the water’s edge.

What we know now:

By tidying up our streamsides, the streams are dirtier and we are losing more of the land along the streams as it is scoured away by increasingly powerful surges of stormwater from upstream development (roads, parking lots, homes, offices, golf courses, and farms).

What we are learning:

A diverse mix of grasses, flowering plants, shrubs and trees growing along the water’s edge provides a treasure of benefits to the landowner and the neighbors downstream.  When it works the way it is supposed to, land along the stream is a natural buffer between land and water.

                                 A healthy, working streambank……

v                 Soaks up runoff to help prevent floods and erosion

v                 Filters out pollutants

v                 Provides a haven for fish, birds and other wildlife

v                 Increases property value