PNWWATER 122: Targeted Watershed Initiative Grants: Success Stories from the PNW

Fall 2007
PNWWATER 122

6th Annual Satellite Conference:

Targeted Watershed Initiative Grants: Success
Stories from the Pacific Northwest

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On October 17, 2007, approximately 1,400 people around the Pacific Northwest gathered in Extension offices or clicked on the WSU Information Department’s web site to participate in this year’s workshop. With the waning use of satellite technology, most of the participants connected to the Pullman, WA based program via video stream. If you missed the broadcast, click on http://eces.wsu.edu/video/stream.html to watch the archived program. In a few weeks, a DVD will be available from http://pubs.wsu.edu/cgi-bin/pubs/index.html.

The production team traveled the PNW to gather information from watershed groups who had received funding under the US EPA’s Targeted Watershed Initiative Grant (TWIG) program to learn how people had come together in partnerships watershed-wide. The TWIG is a highly competitive program requiring that grant seekers have projects on the ground prior to funding, a well-developed collaboration that crosses jurisdictional lines, and the ability to manage the grant requirements and reporting functions. Three case studies were chosen from different years of the grant offering. The Clark Fork–Pend Oreille received funding in the first year, Siuslaw Estuary and River followed two years later, and the awardee for 2006 was the Skagit River Estuary partnership. Each of the three studied areas depends heavily on natural resource extraction and consequently, the watersheds bear the scars of less than ideal logging, agriculture, or mining practices.

Clark Fork-Pend Oreille river The Clark Fork–Pend Oreille watershed is very large. The Clark Fork River rises in the Rocky Mountains near Butte, Montana and runs westward into Idaho as the main source for Lake Pend Oreille, then into Washington State as the Pend Oreille River, flowing north to a confluence with the Columbia in Canada. The partnership here includes organizations from each of the major tributaries as well as the cities, counties, and two tribes. We spoke with and filmed ranchers, dairymen, and grazers who all saw the efficacy of protecting the waterway as a component of protecting a way of life. A major focus is nutrient reduction in the river and lake. Clark Fork River bisects the city of Missoula as well as running through grazing areas and large numbers of newly developed areas serviced by on-site septics, all of which contribute to the overall nutrient count in the water. Among other compelling stories, a rancher in the Blackfoot sub-basin tells how he and his neighbors met to plan restoration of tributaries and artesian springs by fencing cattle from the streams to deliver cool, clean water to the river, in an effort to revive the fishery.

The Siuslaw River and the associated estuary served the early settlers in Oregon well. Riverside timber traveled down the river for use in San Francisco and ports beyond. Dikes built to hold the water back from former estuary flats have harmed the habitat severely for salmon and eels. Before the settlers came, the tribes harvested salmon, eels, clams, and oysters to add to their dietary needs. All of this bounty dwindled with development until in the 1980s the federal government shut down all logging in the Siuslaw forest because the practices had degraded the fishery to near extinction. Now a partnership that includes the National Forest, the Watershed Council, Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, Conservation District, the Siuslaw Institute, and Ecotrust has had some success in restoring streams in formerly drained fields, offering transitional habitat for the anadromous fishery.

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

Now small private forest owners practice sustainable forestry and sell value-added products to a growing market of aware customers. New metrics to assess watershed health are being tested in the Siuslaw. Freshwater mussels share the same water quality needs as salmon. Over several years, the mussel population has dwindled. A study in a Siuslaw tributary shows that the mussels’ shells are thinning and perforating, causing premature death. The theories for this center on the lack of calcium in the water along with increased lead levels due to fishing weights.
The Skagit River farmers and Indian fisherman are building important partnerships. For generations, the two life styles have diverged over fish habitat and crop requirements. The ditches and dikes that make farming possible, act as traps for migrating salmon. Years of lawsuits have given way to constructive discussions between the farmers and fishermen. These discussions highlight the common needs of crops and fish, and the communities who harvest both. TWIG funds are allowing implementation of new ideas and technologies that may well bring an end to conflict.

Through the agreements stated in the Drainage and Fish Initiative and the Tribal Agriculture Accord, farmers tend their drainage ditches during times when salmon are not present, ending years of conflict by generating trust-based relationships. Farming for Wildlife is an experiment by The Nature Conservancy and a few farmers. The farmers have allowed that around seventy acres of agricultural land is rotated from grazing to crops, with a portion left under water. The plan will benefit migrating wild fowl with the by-product of allowing the farmer to certify that land as organic after the three-year rotation. Opening lines of communication may close years of dissension between parties with differing needs.

A panel of representatives from the three highlighted watersheds answered questions about the grants, the funding cycles, and particulars about how people were formed into cohesive collaborations. The participants at the two and one-half hour workshop gave good marks to the case studies as useful to their goals and communities. Many of the attendees requested to see more about protecting salmon habitat with the twist that the focus should be on how urban growth patterns affect the habitat and what methods can be applied to mitigate those affects.
Breaking waves

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.

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 December 15, 2007