The sixth annual Watershed Issues workshop will be celebrating the Pacific Northwest Water Program’s long partnership with Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10. When US EPA developed the Targeted Watershed Grants (TWG) in 2002, the environmental community hailed the concept as a profound break-through in funding mechanisms by recognizing that to restore or protect a watershed to its proper function – the entire watershed should be included in planning and implementing projects. The TWG offer larger dollar amounts and run for longer periods of time than many grants. TWG also requires some big things from the watersheds. Grant applicants must satisfy several conditions before becoming eligible, such as the scope of the project, multiple jurisdictions working in coalition, and the ability to produce on-the-ground successes quickly. This goal anticipated that political boundaries were to be crossed. The Governor of the lead entity’s state needed to sign off on the grant proposal. Native governments, if the area contained usual and accustomed hunting and fishing grounds, were highly desirable partners along with county governments, non-profits, and soil and water conservation districts. The three TWG groups the PNW Water Team will visit are ideal case studies to illustrate different stages of implementation of the grant objectives. The Clark Fork – Pend Oreille was among the first year’s awards, Siuslaw followed in 2004, and the Skagit River project received the award in 2006. The Clark Fork River rises in the Rocky Mountains near Butte, Montana and flows west through Missoula into Idaho as one of the main water contributors to Lake Pend Oreille. It then continues into Washington state joining the Columbia River in British Columbia. The 26,000 square mile watershed is home to trout fisheries, including the endangered bull trout, and is an important economic base for the people of the region. Tri-State Water Quality Council, based in Sandpoint, Idaho, is the lead entity of a coalition including nine federal agencies, eight state governments and agencies, three tribes, 17 non-profits, and thousands of landowners throughout the region. Tri-State works closely with the Watershed Restoration Coalition of the Upper Clark Fork, Blackfoot Challenge, Bitterroot Watershed Partnership, and Flathead Basin Commission. In the video segments of the work being done in the Clark Fork watershed, you will have the opportunity to see how this massive collaboration of effort works and hear from some of the main partners. Some of the water quality issues the partnership is working on include nutrient reduction in the river and lake, grazing management plans to minimize erosion and protect streams, and riparian and stream bank restoration projects. Clark Fork river photo by Vern Rogers. Used with permission.

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 Siuslaw Basin, located midway on the Oregon shoreline, is historically one of the most productive timber producing areas on the west coast. The watershed’s rivers are renowned for their prolific salmon runs. Over time, the mistakes of old-style timber cutting impacted the productivity of the salmon streams. Since 1980, researchers, agency specialists, and community members have worked to develop an integrated system-based plan to restore the watershed and to continue to harvest timber using sustainable forestry practices. An alliance of Ecotrust, Siuslaw Watershed Council, Siuslaw Soil and Water Conservation District, Siuslaw Institute, and the Siuslaw National Forest are managing this Targeted Watershed Grant project and collaborating with the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, Bureau of Land Management, several other agencies, and private landowners and community members. The Watershed Issues workshop will take you to the Siuslaw watershed to meet with the planners and workforce of the ecosystem-based restoration work that is in progress. The Skagit River flows from its headwaters in the North Cascade Mountains and empties into Puget Sound’s eastern shoreline. The river’s forested upper reaches sustain a healthy timber industry. The Skagit Valley is famous for tulip and daffodil fields as well as other row crops and pasture land. The valley is an important resting and feeding place to migratory birds and the streams abound with threatened salmon stocks. There is so much to preserve that an historic agreement was struck by the area’s agricultural producers and Indian tribes that entailed working together to protect farmland and restore salmon streams. The Nature Conservancy accepted the challenge as lead entity for the Targeted Watershed Grant for the Skagit Delta. The grant was awarded in 2006; however, the work had already started in many areas of the watershed. The Watershed Issues workshop’s cameras will capture members of the partnership working on restoration projects, tilling the fields, preparing equipment for fishing, and working together to preserve a way of life that is described as endangered in the quickly developing Puget Sound area. Mark October 17, 2007 on your calendar to attend a site hosting the satellite/video stream workshop on Targeted Watershed Grants: Pacific Northwest Success Stories. County Extension offices throughout Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington will serve as hosting sites. Call your county Extension office and ask them to reserve a seat for you for this October morning. For more information, please call 206-553-0038 or e-mail 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. Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Agricultural 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 March 31, 2007