FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Weeks Bay Foundation is preparing to launch a new project that will bring environmental education to the masses. Watershed Wagon: A Rolling Watershed Education Classroom was made possible with a grant funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Services Center (NOAA CSC) in support of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA).

Using the funding, the foundation purchased a trailer they will use to visit area churches, civic groups, libraries and other organizations. They will take with them hands-on activities involving the connection between land uses, potential pollution sources and water quality. Among them is a coastal watershed model, also obtained through the grant, that will illustrate the effects storm water runoff and non-point source pollution have on the southwest Alabama ecosystem.

“It’s a relief model that shows the flow of water,” said Walter Ernest IV, foundation executive director. The coastal model by Enviroscapes enables the traveling educators to use water containing different tints to show how various pollutants reach our bays and rivers.

Ernest said the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve already uses such models as vital educational tools, and noted this new project will spread the word well beyond the reserve’s borders because there is no limit where this type of road show can go within the county.

“We’re going to take it in the churches as well,” he said. “There’s a huge movement of faith-based environmentalism.”

Ernest said the Watershed Wagon should be ready to visit groups within 30 days. Supplies are currently on order and are expected to arrive shortly.

The Gulf states each received a $45,000 grant from GOMA, and every qualifying educational project within the states collected between $5,000 and $20,000.

“It’s a grant for environmental education,” said Valerie Kleinschmidt, environmental education specialist of the Environmental Education Network, a GOMA component. The organization is a partnership of the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, with the goal of significantly increasing regional collaboration to enhance the ecological and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico.

She said the Watershed Wagon is an important project, adding, “The purpose is to reach communities and people they haven’t reached before.”

Environmental education is one of the six priority issues the alliance has addressed as being regionally significant. In order to address the issue, the Environmental Education Network, coordinated through the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, received a grant from NOAA CSC to fund Gulf-wide environmental education projects. The network in turn awarded funding to 17 projects this month.

According to GOMA, the alliance received many applicants from Alabama, but the Weeks Bay Foundation beat out the competition with their creative and mobile project that will easily reach communities. The foundation is working with the Baldwin County Planning and Zoning Department and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources State Lands Division and the Weeks Bay Reserve in implementing the project.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Baldwin County Planning and Zoning on this, too,” Ernest said. “We’re excited about the program because of the partners that are involved.”