Watershed Planning
Your Roadmap to Improved Water Quality
What Is a Watershed Plan?
Watershed plans are roadmaps for improving water quality. They also reduce flood risk and can have bonus impacts like increasing wildlife habitat. Watershed plans typically involve the following steps:
Evaluate the health of a body of water and its surrounding land
Identify water quality issues
Create a strategy for addressing issues with clear goals and measurable outcomes
Identify priority areas to address
Incorporate tools like the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) to help identify suitable sites for conservation practices
Estimate the resources needed
Implement the plan
Continue evaluating water quality and effectiveness of project activities
Why Do We Need a Watershed Plan?
All communities—urban and rural—reside in a watershed. Our daily actions and how we manage the land directly impacts the quality of water that drains into a stream, lake, river, wetland, aquifer or even the ocean.
Watersheds supply drinking water, provide recreation and create diverse natural habitats for a variety of species. Nationwide, it’s estimated that more than $450 billion in food, goods and tourism depend on healthy watersheds.
Watershed plans are essential for safeguarding these economic and public health benefits that watersheds provide.
Who Writes Watershed Plans?
Watershed Advisory Council: The Passion and Perspectives Behind a Plan
Watershed planning is as much about people as it is about natural resources. Your watershed plan needs to meet people where they are and lead them to where they need to be for improved water quality. The best way to understand the social dynamics in a watershed is to bring together a team of local representatives with various perspectives to the planning table. This team is often referred to as a Watershed Advisory Council or Committee.
Potential Advisory Council Members
This list only scratches the surface of who you could include. Ask colleagues and partners who else would be a good fit. Including individuals who are well respected in the community will give your plan and project additional credibility.
Keep in mind — the advisory council is there to provide input and perspectives. When it comes to actually writing the plan, limit the number of authors to keep it manageable.
- Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship (IDALS), and Conservation District (CD) staff have decades of experience working with farmers and know the practices that work, don’t work, and why.
- Including member associations and local ag businesses gives insight into big picture priorities regarding research and the business of operating a farm. Building your plan with their perspectives in mind ensures a practical approach and may help identify potential fiscal barriers.
- Inviting individuals from a local college, university or extension is a great way to gain insight for incorporating educational and demonstration components in your plan. These partners often bring additional resources to the table that aren’t always available at the local level.
- Most importantly, including local farmers is a crucial part of the watershed planning process as their hands-on experience is invaluable, and it’s the first step towards your project building trust in the local farming community. Their inclusion in the planning process develops ownership and interest in the project.
How Is the Planning Process Done?
Gather Public Opinion and Identify Project Partners
This is an opportunity for farmers to connect local needs and align the goals of the project with the statewide Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (INRS). It is important to have a basic understanding of the human dynamics and attitudes of local stakeholders in an effort to craft a practical watershed plan. Assessing these dynamics will also lay the groundwork for cultivating local ownership in the project down the road.
A great place to begin the process would be to take advantage of the Watershed-Based Community Assessment Toolkit on the Iowa Learning Farms (ILF) website. You’ll also find examples of community outreach and assessment programs from other Iowa watershed projects.
Identify Funding Needs and Potential Sources
Once you know your community is on board, you can begin building additional components of your plan. This process can be time consuming, and if your team lacks capacity or expertise, securing a watershed planning grant is a great option. Planning grants can help reimburse planners for their time and travel, pay for meeting spaces, and other costs associated with development of the plan. State and federal agencies have grants designated for watershed planning and improvement, but local organizations and foundations may also be willing to fund your effort. Learn these sources and regularly check in to see if a new opportunity is available.
Even though project implementation is on the distant horizon, now is the time to build your plan in alignment with state and federal natural resource legislative priorities. This ensures that your project is competitive in the Request for Proposal (RFP) process when that time comes.
Funding will always be the instrument that turns your plan on paper into action on the ground, so maximizing every dollar through a targeted approach is a good strategy.
Target Your Efforts
Water monitoring in the early stages of a project helps to identify the areas of highest concern to target for improvement, so be sure to include this in your plan.
Tips
- Tools like the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) do the heavy lifting for you when it comes to precise site selection, so you know exactly who to contact and what practice to promote.
- Focus your efforts on one targeted area at a time, at a HUC12 scale or even smaller.
- Focusing on one section of stream or tributary at a time can ensure efforts like Batch ‘N Builds (BNB) and acres seeded to cover crops produce measurable results to not only improve water quality but encourage more adoption over the life of the project.
Evaluate, Engage & Educate
A practice might be complete once it’s certified and paid, but a good watershed plan includes a strategy to evaluate the efficacy of the implemented practices and the overall experience of the farmers who adopted them. Taking time to evaluate gives you the data to substantiate your efforts and educate your community.
A strong education and outreach strategy is a vital component to your watershed planning efforts. Here are some tips:
- Collect farmer testimonials through writing, photos and video. This provides valuable content for your website, social media, and traditional media to promote your project and achieve your plan’s goals.
- Identify and use the communication methods that work best for your community and be open to trying new methods as you learn what they prefer.
- Leverage partner networks and outreach materials to extend the reach of your message and grow credibility with your community. Also, ask partners if they have information they’d like to share through your platforms.
Reach out to a water quality initiative coordinator to learn more about watershed planning and get started on your own goals.
Cost-Share Options
State, federal, and private financial assistance programs can help you implement watershed planning:
Check with INRS for more cost share opportunities in your area.
Getting Started
To learn more about watershed planning, visit nutrientstrategy.iastate.edu and talk with a water quality initiative coordinator about getting started.
More Resources
Here are more helpful resources on watershed planning:
Center for Rural Affairs provides a fact sheet on watershed planning.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources has a guidebook for creating a watershed management plan.
EPA lists further resources to help with watershed planning.
The Watershed Academy, hosted twice per year, offers in-person training. You can also browse past years’ resources, presentations, and handouts.