Editor’s Note: Many experts see watershed planning and management as being an effectiveway to deal with water and wastewater issues. In On Tap during 2007, we are presenting a four-part series about watersheds that will provide an overview about how to start a watershed

initiative, how to assess problems, how to develop a workable plan, and how to implement thesewatershed efforts. This article is the third of the series; the first two installments are available on the

National Environmental Services Center Web site at www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/ndwc_watershed.htm.

18 On Tap Summer 2007

Getting Started • Assessing Your Watershed • Crafting a Plan • Putting the Plan to Work

www.nesc.wvu.edu 19

he previous article in this series exam-ined different ways to evaluate thehealth of a watershed. Whether through

existing studies or field assessments or, morelikely, a combination of the two, your groupshould have a pretty clear understanding ofthe problems you face and which merit themost attention.

If, for example, you live in an area withmany farms, you may have to deal withexcess nutrients such as nitrogen and phos-phorous in the water. (See the article “AMarket-Based Approach to Improving WaterQuality” on page 25 in this issue for moreinformation about nutrient and water qualitytrading programs.) In other regions, failingseptic systems are the number one issue.Elsewhere, the legacy of industrial pollutionmay be causing most of the problems.

Whatever the challenges your watershedfaces, the next task is to describe the overar-ching issue that is to be rectified and developa list of projects that will directly benefit theeffort. Most groups cannot tackle an entirewatershed and its multiple problems all atonce. Rather, they start with the most press-ing concerns or those that can be quickly andeasily resolved, and then move on to thenext project on the list.

Involve StakeholdersThe core group of dedicated individuals

has already performed much important workdelineating the scope of the project andassessing the challenges ahead. Now, it’s timeto involve a larger group, usually referred toas stakeholders. Ideally, these stakeholdershave both a vested interest in the health ofthe watershed and the resources to helpimplement solutions.

“Before building your stakeholder group,spend some time researching the key interestgroups in your community,” the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)advises in the publication Getting in Step:Engaging and Involving Stakeholders in YourWatershed. “If the community will be respon-sible for implementing the managementstrategies developed, it is vital that a cross-section of the community participate in theprocess.”

Identifying stakeholders can be tricky andother groups or individuals may have startedsimilar work. “A way to spearhead this effortis to talk with local government or agencyofficials who are already working in the fieldor on streams with landowners, or with othercommunity groups,” says Adam Webster, con-servation director with the West VirginiaRivers Coalition. “These folks can usually rec-ommend a contact, or may be interested inthe project themselves.

By Mark Kemp-Rye,On Tap Editor

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20 On Tap Summer 2007

“Community or informationalmeetings about the project oreffort—advertised in local papers,grocery stores, post offices, andother outlets—are useful ways toget people’s attention, as well asa way to get more peopleinvolved,” he says. “Initial out-reach efforts can be limitedsimply by time or by lack ofknowing how many people inthe community may be interestedin a watershed issue.

“It’s often a good idea to stepoutside of your own boundariesand comfort levels to solidify adiverse group,” Webster contin-

ues. “If you know someone whois affected by something you aredoing, that automatically makeshim or her a stakeholder. Not toomany folks are opposed to theidea of a watershed group. But,there will certainly be differingopinions about projects andother group-related efforts. If youfeel a group or individual mayhave an opposing position toyour group’s interests, it doesn’thurt to invite them to the table.From a community perspective, itis only fair to at least allow themto express their concerns at aninformational meeting.”

Hold Public MeetingsEPA’s guide Getting In Step

advises, “Once you’ve developed alist of stakeholders, invite them toparticipate in writing. If someonein the community recommendedthem, be sure to include that per-son’s name in the letter. Toincrease the chances of participa-tion, tailor each letter with thereasons why they need to beinvolved in the project. Forexample, if you’re trying to getrepresentation from the buildingcommunity, you might want tohighlight the fact that no onefrom the building community isinvolved with the watershedplanning process.”

“Follow up your letter with apersonal phone call to answerany questions and confirm theirparticipation,” EPA’s guide contin-ues. “Be prepared for resistance.If the potential stakeholders saythey can’t participate in the kick-off meeting, make sure you sendthem any information that comesout of the meeting and ask ifthere is someone from theirorganization who could attend intheir place.”

Webster notes three commonpitfalls that watershed groupsoften encounter as they work toinvolve the community: (1) notdoing enough outreach, (2) beingtoo complicated, and (3) beingnaive about how issues areunderstood in the community.“Not putting enough initial efforttoward reaching out to variousstakeholders can nip at yourheels down the road,” he says.“Make an effort—through flyers,or even a local news story—[toexplain] exactly what your groupis trying to do. That way, thecommunity can at least have it intheir head that they have heardabout your group or project. Thelast thing you want to happen inthe future is to start a project andsuddenly receive opposition. Alot of times this opposition maynot be grounded in the fact thatpeople actually oppose what youare doing; rather, they want toknow what is going on and how

Before involving potential stakeholders in watershed planning efforts,it’s useful to get a sense of what they know about the watershed:

What is their knowledge of watershed issues?

What are their attitudes and opinions about their community?

How do they use the watershed?

What language and messages motivate them?

Where do they get their information?

Who do they trust?

What do they value in the community?

What are the key local activities in the community?

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Getting In Step: Engaging and Involving Stakeholders in Your Watershed.

www.nesc.wvu.edu 21

it will affect them before it actuallystarts happening. Opposition mayhappen regardless, but if youmake an effort to educate thecommunity about your project, theodds are reduced.”

Similarly, presenting too muchinformation or complicating theissue can alienate people. “Don’tfeed people too much informa-tion at once,” Webster suggests.“Give them time to digest whatinformation is provided. Defineyour goals and explain your inter-est in having them as astakeholder. Make progress onestep at a time.”

It may be useful to think ofinformation about your watershedin layers. You should have gen-eral information that can bepresented to the media or in pub-lic forums. A second layer providesmore detail that may be useful toindividuals who want to becomeinvolved in the effort or for morespecialized publications. A thirdlayer is the all-the-details, scien-tific data that may only appeal tospecialists.

Keeping it simple doesn’t meanthat your information should bedumb. After all, Albert Einsteinmaintained that you should beable to explain your ideas to a six-year old. By knowing youraudiences, you can present infor-mation that is easily understood.(See the sidebar on 20.) The sim-pler the message, the harder it isto misconstrue.

“At times, watershed efforts canget framed as an attack on a par-ticular group or individual who ispolluting a watershed,” Webstersays. “Whatever the case, don’tpoint fingers in any one directionwhen initially seeking stakehold-ers. Remain open: the person orentity polluting the watershed mayactually want and/or need help tostop their violations. If the rest ofthe community perceives that yourwatershed efforts somehow pose arisk to jobs or businesses, youmay receive negative feedbackfrom the start. Control your mes-sage and be sensitive tocommunity issues.”

Access to the process,

The ability to influence the plan and its outcomes,

Access to information,

A structure that promotes constructive interaction,

Adequate analyses, and

The option for future processes.

Source: Social and Environmental Research Institute.

According to researchers at the Social and EnvironmentalResearch Institute in Massachusetts, participants in publicinvolvement efforts want:

Strategic PlanningOnce you’ve held public meet-

ings and gotten initial stakeholderinvolvement, it’s time to turnideas into action. Strategic plansprovide a way to not only iden-tify the issues but to map a wayto get to an agreed-upon solu-tion. Four questions are commonto most planning endeavors:

1. Where are we now?

2. Where do we want to be?

3. How do we get there?

4. How will we measure ourprogress?

To answer these questions, thestrategic plan should determinecommunity needs, create projectsto fulfill those needs, determinewhat the projects will cost, andfigure out a way to pay for them.

“Good watershed plans do notneed to be long or complex,”notes the Users Guide toWatershed Planning in Maryland.“Instead, they should be writtenwith the punch of a newspaperarticle, and clearly specify the‘what,’ ‘why,’ ‘when, ‘where,’‘how much,’ and ‘by whom’ ofthe recommended projects. Themain body of a good watershedplan should be no more than 20to 40 pages long, with a table ofkey recommendations and awatershed map showing specificproject locations.”

Looking AheadAs you build your watershed

group and begin implementingplans, you may feel like you’remaking stuff up as you go along.You are not alone.

According to the Users Guide,“Much of the watershed planningfield is so new that each plan isbasically its own watershedexperiment. As a result, it isimportant to institute tracking andmonitoring systems. These sys-tems include the internal trackingof the delivery of restoration proj-ects, monitoring of streamindicators at sentinel monitoringstations, or performance monitoring

of individual restoration projects.Information gathered from track-ing systems is then used to revisethe plan over a five- to seven-year cycle.”

“Stakeholders can contribute tostrategic planning by helping toseek grounded solutions that pro-tect the interests of various partsof a community,” Webster says.“Stakeholder groups provide anopportunity for various interestgroups to voice their concernsand gain perspectives. They arean invaluable way to spreadideas and share resources. And,individual stakeholder groupmembers can also serve a dele-gate role. A farmer, for example,can carry messages about awatershed effort back to otherfarmers, a business owner cancarry information to other busi-ness owners, and similarly for theother members of the group.”

For More InformationThe National Environmental

Services Center has a section ofits Web site devoted to watershedissues. Go to www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/ndwc_watershed.htm for alisting of watershed resources andarticles. NESC Training SpecialistCraig Mains may be reached at

22 On Tap Summer 2007

The fourth and final article inour watershed series—comingin the Fall 2007 On Tap—dealswith the implementation of awatershed plan.

Photo by Scott Bauer, www.ars.usda.gov

For more informa-tion aboutstrategic plan-ning, see thearticle “Running

Your System Like aGood Business” on theNational EnvironmentalServices Center Web site atwww.nesc.wvu.edu.

(800) 624-8301 ext. 5583 to dis-cuss watershed planning andrestoration efforts.

NESC also has hundreds of free and low-cost products onwatersheds and related topics.Check the NESC Web site atwww.nesc.wvu.edu to find the latest information concerningwatersheds.

The U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency has a manualabout profiling communities. Itprovides examples, worksheets,and a variety of methods for cre-ating a detailed picture of acommunity. DownloadCommunity Culture and theEnvironment: A Guide toUnderstanding a Sense of Placefrom the EPA Web site atwww.epa.gov/ecocommunity/pdf/ccecomplete.pdf.

www.nesc.wvu.edu 23

On Tap EditorMark Kemp-Rye lives in theDeckers Creekwatershed,part of the

Monongahela River sub-basin, in turn, part of theOhio River basin.

For many years, the NationalDrinking Water Clearinghouse has

provided products at no charge. Now,we’ve implemented a fee structure for

some of our products.

Of course this seems like bad news, but insome ways it isn’t. Here’s why:

We still offer dozens of free products.

We’re not getting rich on this, we’re onlyrecouping the money we spend obtain-ing and distributing the products.

We’ll be able to expand our product offer-ings because we can now provide items thatwould’ve been rejected due to their cost.

View the complete products list on the NDWC Web siteat www.ndwc.wvu.edu.

If you don’t have Internet access or you’d like to discussyour particular situation, please call us toll free at (800) 624-

8301 and select option 3 to talk with one of our technicalassistance specialists.

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