Restoration of stream flow in the Ipswich River has long been a central mission of our work. To this aim, we began a partnership project in the spring of 2016 with the Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) and local communities to explore an innovative technique being used elsewhere in the country. This new approach, Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM), integrates psychology with social marketing concepts to gain a better understanding of what barriers prevent behavior changes, and to improve how we articulate the benefits of the desired behavior change (in this case, reducing non-essential water use in the summer).
In 2016, we worked with the towns of Topsfield and Wenham, analyzing their water use data and taking resident surveys. You can learn more about this in the report of this effort, Ipswich River Watershed Summer Water Conservation Actions: Community-based Social Marketing Benefit and Barrier Research.
In the summer of 2017, we then piloted an outdoor water conservation campaign with the towns of Wenham and Middleton, using the recommendations from research conducted in 2016. The project tested two strategies to motivate residents to stop or reduce summer lawn watering, with a third no-program control group for comparison. Each strategy was evaluated for effectiveness and lessons learned were noted. A summary and evaluation of the project along with copies of the conservation materials can be found in the 2018 report, Summer Water Conservation Community-Based Social Marketing Pilot Project.
State-wide groups and other agencies have noticed the results of this project, and will be implementing the successful strategies in three other communities this summer: Hingham, Concord, and West Springfield.
Meanwhile, we will be continuing to work with DER to explore further implementation efforts in our own Ipswich River watershed. Non-essential use of water, such as excessive lawn watering, is a leading cause of spiking water usage in the summer. If we can encourage citizens to take action in their own backyards and reduce lawn watering, we will go a long way towards restoring stream flow for our river.