The Great Swamp Watershed Association marked its 20^th anniversary earlier this month with a Founders’ Luncheon at the Cross Estate in Bernardsville, part of the Morristown National Historical Park.

The luncheon commemorated the March 31, 1981, incorporation of the Watershed Association as a non-profit organization.

Listed on the incorporation papers as the organization’s first trustees were local residents Selena (Sally) Dudley, Abigail Fair, Helen C. Fenske, Anne Gralla, Paul Hammann, Anne Lagos, W. Thomas Margetts, Anne Morris, Paul Wehn and Florence Zuck.

The luncheon honored these founders, as well as all others who have served as Watershed Association trustees during its 20-year existence. Of the 60 individuals invited, some 30 attended, including the board’s first chair, Douglas Wheat, now of Northampton, Mass.; and two of the earliest trustees, Nancy Cunningham of Green Village, and William Matthews of Millington.

According to the Watershed Association’s Executive Director Julia M. Somers, the organization from its beginning was concerned with alerting its members, and local communities, to the impact of development on the watershed’s fragile ecosystems.

Among its early accomplishments was the hosting in 1985 of a Great Swamp Wetlands Conference, which brought together federal, state and local office, as well as scientists, lawyers and planners from across the country. That conference was instrumental in shaping the state of New Jersey’s approach to environmental conservation, according to Somers.

The Association’s focus broadened in the late 1980s with the sponsorship of a "Design Study of the Future of the Hickory Tree Center" and "Designing our Future," both aimed at preserving the character of local communities.

The Association also participated in the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s Great Swamp Watershed Advisory Committee, which proposed regional approaches to local environmental issues. Much of the Watershed Association’s work today – its technical services, community services and educational services – is shaped by the Advisory Committee’s recommendations, Somers said.

The work of the organization was carried on entirely by volunteers until Lisa Butera, now the Association’s finance director, became a project director in 1991. At that time, there were fewer than 500 members and an annual operating budget of about $5,000.

Today, there are six paid staff members (five of whom are part-time), about 2,500 members, and an annual budget approaching $450,000.

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