PNWWATER 007: Living on the Edge: Grassroots Watershed Planning in the PNW

Fall 2002
PNWWATER 007

Living on the Edge: Grassroots Watershed
Planning in the Pacific Northwest

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On May 31, 2002 at 38 Cooperative Extension sites across the Pacific Northwest, people gathered to discuss and learn about collaborative processes for watershed restoration and protection. The centerpiece of the meetings was a two hour live satellite broadcast downlinked to each of the meeting locations. The program introduced techniques to bring together diverse community interests, approaches to contentious water resource issues, and offered real world advice on collaborative planning styles.

Conference attendees at an evening banquet. Watershed management has emerged as an intense political, environmental, and social issue throughout the country. The Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts have increased pressure on communities to improve water quality and protect salmon populations. Fulfilling these mandates and meeting competing demands for water use requires innovative watershed-scale management approaches and cooperation. In the Pacific Northwest, watershed councils and planning units have been developed to address watershed issues. These groups are each in a different stage of development — from long standing vigorous groups to withering ones. This program was developed to energize and inspire participants by demonstrating how other successful groups have organized and worked together to address specific issues.

Rounding out the program that utilized excerpts from the video, Living on the Edge: Watershed Planning in the PNW, was an interactive question and answer session with the representatives of the featured watershed planning councils and environmental agency department personnel from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. After the broadcast portion of the program, many of the locally facilitated meetings focused their discussions on identifying ways they could work more effectively as a group.

Photo of stream draining. Creating Effective Groups to Address Pressing Local Problems: A Resource Guide for Watershed Councils in the Pacific Northwest, written as a companion piece to the video by rural sociologist Emmett P. Fiske, Ph.D. was included in conference attendee packets. The Guide was designed as a tool to improve consensus-based decision making skills. Conference attendees also received web-based resources on environmental project assessment and evaluation as well as state specific funding sources.

The program rated highly in participant evaluations and enthusiasm was expressed for a future satellite conference on a related subject. Living on the Edge: Grassroots Watershed Planning in the Pacific Northwest and Creating Effective Groups to Address Pressing Local Problems are available from WSU Bulletins at http://pubs.wsu.edu.

Pacific Northwest Regional Water
Quality Coordination Project
Partners
Land Grant Universities
Alaska
Cooperative Extension Service
Contact Fred Sorensen:
907-786-6311
http://www.uaf.edu/ces/water/
University Publications:
http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/
Idaho
University of Idaho
Cooperative Extension System
Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025
http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html
University Publications:
http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html
Oregon
Oregon State University
Extension Service
Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/
University Publications:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/
Washington
Washington State University
WSU Extension
Contact Bob Simmons:
360-427-9670 ext. 690
http://wawater.wsu.edu/
University Publications:
http://pubs.wsu.edu/
Northwest Indian College
Contact Dan Burns: 360-392-4328
dburns@nwic.edu or
http://www.nwic.edu/
Water Resource Research Institutes
Water and Environmental Research
Center (Alaska)
http://www.uaf.edu/water/
Idaho Water Resources
Research Institute
http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/
Institute for Water and Watersheds
(Oregon)
http://water.oregonstate.edu/
State of Washington
Water Research Center
http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/
Environmental Protection Agency
EPA, Region 10
The Pacific Northwest
http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/
Office of Research and Development,
Corvallis Laboratory
http://www.epa.gov/wed/
For more information contact
Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or
seago.jan@epa.gov

National Water Quality Program Areas
The four land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest have aligned our water resource extension and research efforts with eight themes of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
1. Animal Waste Management
2. Drinking Water and Human Health
3. Environmental Restoration
4. Nutrient and Pesticide Management
5. Pollution Assessment and Prevention
6. Watershed Management
7. Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management
8. Water Policy and Economics

Watershed drainage from mountain snowmelt.

The Project
Land Grant Universities, Water Research Institutes and EPA Region 10 have formed a partnership to provide research and education to communities about protecting or restoring the quality of water resources. This partnership is being supported in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
Our Goal and Approach
The goal of this Project is to provide leadership for water resources research, education and outreach to help people, industry and governments to prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems. The approach to achieving this goal is for the Partners to develop a coordinated regional water quality effort based on, and strengthening, individual state programs.
Our Strengths
The Project promotes regional collaboration by acknowledging existing programs and successful efforts; assessing program gaps; identifying potential issues for cross-agency and private sector collaboration, and developing a clearinghouse of expertise and programs. In addition, the Project establishes or enhances partnerships with federal, state and local environmental and water resource management agencies, such as by placing a University Liaison within the offices of EPA Region 10.

NIFA is the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a sub-agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, and is the federal partner in this water quality program.

Download the informational PDF flyer here

A cooperative program consisting of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
and
the Land Grant Colleges and Universities.

- a Regionally-Based National Network -

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture

NIFA National Water Quality Program

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734.

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page last modified on August 27, 2006