The states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington comprise a region known as the Pacific Northwest. This region consists of 920,000 square miles or 26 percent of the USA’s land area. The population is approximately 12,000,000 or 4.5 percent of the USA’s population. Within the region are five land grant institutions: Northwest Indian College, Oregon State University, University of Alaska, University of Idaho, and Washington State University. Surveys have repeatedly shown that water is considered to be the most important natural resource issue in the region. Over 90 percent of the adult population considers clean drinking water, clean rivers, and clean drinking water extremely important. The Pacific Northwest regional water quality coordinating team has been active for over 100 months. We have developed a tradition of working together well. We realize that as individual states we cannot meet all the water research, Extension, and educational needs that exist. Each state has lost several water-related positions in the last 15 years. However, working as a region we can pool our efforts, minimize redundancies, set regional priorities based on thematic areas, and efficiently and effectively meet the needs of people in the region. Our regional team has forged a strong working relationship with EPA Region 10 and improved working relationships with USDA-NRCS, state, and local agencies. Our philosophy is to provide science-based information so that people can make decisions in their lives that will improve and/or protect water quality. Perhaps our most important accomplishment is that we think as a region instead of as separate states when it comes to Extension water quality programming. In the research area we are beginning to think more like a region—much more so than before this project began. Table 1. General geographic and demographic characteristics of the three ecoregions in the Pacific Northwest states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Ecoregion Population Description Annual precipitation Temperature regime I 7,000,000 western WA western OR southeast AK 35 to 200 inches Cool, wet winters; Mild summers II 3,000,000 eastern WA eastern OR Idaho 8 to 30 inches Coor or cold winters; Hot, dry summers III 450,000 Alaska (excluding the southeast) Less than 40 inches Cold winters; Cool summers

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.
	Ecoregions For programming we have eliminated state boundaries and targeted our programs to be delivered on an ecoregion basis. We have divided the Pacific Northwest into three ecoregions (Table 1). Ecoregion I consists of Washington and Oregon west of the Cascades and southeastern Alaska. Approximately 7,000,000 people live in this wet ecoregion that is characterized by high annual precipitation (>35 inches), cool, wet winters and mild summers. Ecoregion II consists of Idaho and all of Washington and Oregon east of the Cascades. This ecoregion is relatively dry as annual precipitation ranges from 8 to 30 inches. Approximately 3,000,000 people call this region home that has cool or cold winters and hot, dry summers. Alaska, excluding the southeastern panhandle is ecoregion III. This region is relatively dry and has cool summers and cold winters. Water resource programming by ecoregion is an efficient use of land grant institution resources. For instance, when we develop a programming effort on the use of rain gardens to reduce storm water runoff, this program can be delivered throughout the wet ecoregion I. All the costs and infrastructure involved in the development and delivery of a single program effectively meets the needs in parts of three states (Washington, Alaska, Oregon). In addition, a web page developed about effective irrigation management in agriculture can be effectively targeted at people in ecoregion II. Thus, we can deliver educational information at one time to people managing the 6,000,000 irrigated acres of farmland in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Programming on an ecoregion basis will allow us to more effectively reach a larger percentage of the public in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington with out increasing the need for additional resources.
	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 September 30, 2008