The Schuylkill Action Network (SAN) has a new plan with ambitious environmental goals for the next five years.

By 2025, the group hopes to preserve 5,000 acres within the Schuylkill River Watershed, remove 5 million pounds of trash, and have $500 million in infrastructure investment in the watershed, and that’s just a few of the plan’s many goals.

The newly published plan, which took two years to develop, is a significant step for the group. Although the SAN has had a strategic plan since its inception in 2003, this is its first strategic action plan. The plan identifies a clear set of values and overarching progress targets for its main focus areas — agriculture, abandoned mine drainage, stormwater, land, point source pollution, and engagement and stewardship. Values fall under the categories of action, collaboration, resilience, leadership, equity, and science, which will permeate through all SAN planning, processes, and projects through 2025 and beyond. Goals all fall under a set of overarching categories, protect and restore, educate and engage, collaborate and finance.

SAN will evaluate its progress by reviewing the progress of annual workgroup and committee plans and producing a yearly progress report that it will share among partners and the public. To learn more about the new Strategic Action Plan, visit www.SchuylkillWaters.org/about-us/strategic-plan or contact SAN Coordinator Erica Rossetti at erossetti@delawareestuary.org.

The Schuylkill Action Network is a collaborative network of over 100 partner organizations working together to improve water resources in the Schuylkill River watershed, all of which participated in the strategic planning process for the next five years.