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Wisconsin Watersheds

Watershed Planning

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Watershed Planning Guide/Checklist (2007)

Adapted from Putting Together a Watershed Management Plan: A Guide for Watershed Partnerships, Purdue University Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC)

Resource Vision/Goal Setting:

  • What is the long term vision for your watershed?
  • What is the overarching goal?
  • What are general goals for your watershed? (These will be more obvious when your inventory/analysis is conducted).

    • Inventory and Assessment

  • List the water condition related concerns or problems.
  • For each concern or problem area, list the future desired condition (resource objectives).
      • What is different between the current condition and the desired condition?
      What needs to be done to correct this or make this change?
      Which areas are most degraded?
      Which areas are critical areas for protection?
      Are there endangered or threatened resources?
      Are there special opportunities for partnerships or projects?

    Recommendations/Strategies/Action Plans:

    Generating meaningful recommendations involves designing a game plan for addressing the objectives:
  • Generate a list of possible actions (include agency, partnership, watershed group)
      • List all the possible restoration actions (in progress or future).
      Prioritize each one (High, Medium, Low) based on criterion important to the watershed team.
      Put all items in a table with: Who, What, When, How, and Funded/Unfunded.
  • Select the best watershed management alternative(s)
  • List ways (strategies) to implement the selected alternative(s) and
  • Determine how to measure progress.

    • Do the Work/Evaluate the Results:

  • Put in place a mechanism to track your projects.
      • Tracking processes, check in meetings, email flows.
  • Ensure that your project managers are accountable.
      • Planning and not doing wastes resources and time.
  • Build into your work plan measures to ensure that your actions are evaluated.
  • Measure your successes and need-to-do-betters and share them with your watershed.
  • Build improvements into your next watershed update!