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Dakota cony Since she began the position in October 1994, Shover has been working closely with a coordinating committee com- posed of representatives from the. County Department of Environmental Management, the County Office of Planning, the Dakota Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), and the Minnesota Extension Service. The plan designated one of those member agencies as the "lead" agency in ad- dressing each of the priority issue areas, and also identi- fled how the other agencies could help, Shover said. The committee is important because each of its members have different areas of exper- tise; together, they can provide a balanced approach to an issue, she said. "I do think that. the cooperation with these other agencies is what's going to make the educational activities success- ful," Shover said. Another key to the plan's success will be the level of participation by local govern- ments, particularly cities, Shover said. A majority of her job will consist of providing information and materials for cities to use in reaching their specific audiences. Cities can use the material to target specific areas, she said. "I think basically we want to make this as grassroots as possible...we aren't doing this TO the cities, we want #hem to see the coordination efforts as a resource," Shover said. Since she began, Shover has pulled together a list of education resources for each of the priority areas and has met with representatives from the watershed management organizations to explain the opportunities available to them, she said. In addition, a great deal of her time has been devoted to administering a $100,000 grant the county received from the Metropolitan Council for education on urban lawn care (see related story). Because the position is a pilot, the county will judge its effectiveness at the end of its two-year period. "Clearly, we're all looking to make sure this position is producing some measurable results," Shover said. r n r t r l r A major focus of implement- ing the Dakota County water resowces education plan has been administering a $100,000 grant from the Metropolitan Council for sensible wban lawn care, according to Charlotte Shover, environmental education coordinator for the county. The grant targets four differ- ent areas: •Funding of up to 25 productions of "Toadilly Turtle," a play teaching grades K-3 about water quality. The city of Eagan and the Gun Club Lake Watershed Management Organization spon- sored development of the play by CLIMB Theatre of St. Paul last year. •Lawn care. The watershed management organisations (WMOs) within the grant area have identified sensitive surface water areas and. are working to distribute lawn care information to those areas. Lawn care companies in the area have also been invited to join the discussions about how to best protect water quality. Funding is also being used to sponsor some of the University of Minnesota's "master gardener" workshops on low maintenance gardening. •Waterquality. Underthe grant, high school students will actually do water quality testing, and their teachers will receive training on the practical aspects of the testing and interpreting the results. This portion of the pro- gram is patterned after the national River Watch Program. •Public awareness. The county is developing media kits, for use both by the media and by the individual local units of gov- ernment. The kits will contain basic information on water quality and the physical characteristics of Dakota County. The county is also working with the Science Museum to develop a portable display. Since grant dollars must be Grant cony p. 6 5