ANS works to conserve land and water in the Washington, DC metro region to ensure all our communities have healthy environments. We own and conserve 108 acres of natural habitat in the heart of our heavily urban and suburban area. Learn more about our nature sanctuaries.

Our goal is cleaner streams in every neighborhood in the Maryland, Virginia, and DC metro region.

WHY do we protect the streams?

Because they matter.

Our families’ health matters, and clean water is essential to our health. Healthy streams support healthy people by giving us beautiful, safe places to splash, swim, and play in nature. We get the water we drink from the streams and rivers of our region, and clean drinking water is essential to all of us. We must make water a priority, because our health is a priority.

Healthy streams also mean that nature is healthy, because streams support life—from fish and the aquatic insects and other organisms they eat, to birds that eat the fish, to the trees and plants that grow on the water’s edge.

Ensuring that clean water flows through our rivers and streams is an important part of making our community a place we are proud to call home. We can preserve what makes the DC region great for our children, grandchildren, and plant and animal neighbors if we invest in protecting our water supply, preventing pollution, and restoring and protecting our rivers and streams.