The Main Street College Series will present “Water, Water Everywhere: Will There Be a Drop to Drink in 20 Years in Bloomington-Normal?” at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 2, at the Illinois State University Alumni Center. The event is free and open to the public.
Professors Joan Brehm, Ph.D., and Bill Perry, Ph.D., will lead the talk which will explore societal relationships with water and attitudes towards this unique resource in the rural and suburban communities. It will then explore the ways that people are trying to protect the availability of clean water in the streams and lakes.
A faculty member in the ISU Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Brehm’s current research focuses on understanding how knowledge and use of best management practices (BMPs) can be influenced by outreach and educational activities designed to improve stewardship of water quality and at a watershed scale. Her research has appeared in numerous scholarly journals such as Society and Natural Resources and Environmental Management, and her research has been funded by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Perry is a faculty member in the ISU School of Biological Sciences, and his work seeks to better understand how our use of the land affects lakes and streams in the suburban and rural regions. Perry has worked for several years with local organizations to explore how we can change the ways we use the land to improve water quality in a sustainable manner and maintain agricultural production. Currently, he is working with Professor Catherine O’Reilly in the ISU Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment to better understand the potential use of cover crops in the Lake Bloomington area.
The ISU Alumni Center is located at 1101 N. Main St., in Normal, Illinois. For more information about this event, please contact Deborah Fox at djfox2@ilstu.edu or 309-438-2021. The Main Street College series was created four years ago by CAS Dean Greg Simpson to showcase the extraordinary work being done across the College.
