On November 16, 2004 the third annual Watershed Issues Satellite conference aired at 38 sites across the Pacific Northwest. In addition, numerous people participated at their PCs, through the videostream technology offered by WSU Extension’s Information Department. Federal agencies, non-profit environmental organizations, and city halls opened their facilities to supplement the land grant universities’ satellite installations providing evidence of community support for this program. The themes of the Watershed Issues conference series are based on suggestions received at the previous year’s broadcasts. Last year’s Funding workshop attendees wanted to hear more about how groups get beyond friction and begin to achieve results both in the watershed and around the planning table. Three community groups’ members volunteered to stand before the cameras and describe the way their group works, how each has evolved over time, and strategies used to build strong community relationships through responsive communication. Three groups involved in watershed restoration were highlighted with video case studies — Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative in Boundary County Idaho, South Coast Coordinating Watershed Council of Curry County Oregon, the Walla Walla River Basin Watershed Council and the cross state boundary Walla Walla County Planning Unit for Water Resource Inventory Area 32. The video interviews with council members and community partners highlighted different strategies employed by the groups to sustain community involvement and increase understanding of the natural resource issues facing those communities.

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 Charlotte Clausing: 360-392-4319 cclausing@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
	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.
	Videoed case study interviewees offered nuggets of insight that were echoed by workshop participants in the evaluation forms. A participant, referring to the ‘deep-listening’ method introduced in the Walla Walla River Basin segment, wrote that their group must learn to practice the concept to rise above battles based in fear. Relating to the Walla Walla River groups, one person wrote “…made me realize our watershed planning group needs to develop concepts for more on-the-ground restoration activities.” On a scale of one to five (highest), the participants rated the workshop at 4.2. Attendees rated the three case studies very high. An archived videostream of Improving Community Involvement in Watershed Restoration is available at http://caheinfo.wsu.edu/video/satellite.html. A Chat Page with postings of questions about the program is at http://wawater.wsu.edu/pages/chatpage.htm. The first two in the Watershed Issues Workshop Series, Living on the Edge: Grassroots Watershed Planning in the Pacific Northwest and Funding Watershed Restoration are archived at http://caheinfo.wsu.edu/video/other.html.
		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. Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Ag. Water Management Water Policy and Economics
	This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No 2008-51130-4734.

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HOME | About | Calendar | Contacts | Links | PNW Water Updates | Sitemap 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. all external sites will open in a new browser window page last modified on August 27, 2006