Implementation

A plan is just a plan until it's implemented! Successful Watershed Plans outline how the plan will be executed, including the who, what, when, how and with what financial resources. While not all recommendations may be funded at the plan implementation "outset", good plans prioritize recommendations and outline short-term or long-term actions. Even better, Watershed Plans involve recommendations for capacity building or enhancing local knowledge and resources to investigate, assess, and steward local resources for the long-term.

See the Wisconsin Watershed Network page to learn more about local projects and plans in your area!

USEPA Tips on Implementing Your Watershed Plan

Implementation activities should follow the road map developed in your plan.

Prepare Work Plans

It is helpful to develop an annual work plan that is derived from the overall watershed plan. Your annual work plan outlines a timeframe of usually two to three years. Work plans can be used to apply for grant applications to fund many of the implementation activities.

Implement Management Strategies

Implementing the watershed management plan involves a variety of expertise and skills, including: project management, technical expertise, group facilitation, data analysis, communication, and public relations. The management practices you identified in your plan will probably include a combination of structural and non-structural controls. Be sure to set and track the milestones to measure the rate of progress in implementing the management strategies.

Conduct Monitoring

As part of the development of your watershed plan, you should have developed a monitoring component to track and evaluate the effectiveness of your implementation efforts. You can conduct your own monitoring program or piggy-back onto other monitoring efforts that might be occurring in the watershed. EPA, states, and tribes conduct intensive monitoring, assessment, and watershed planning activities to track water quality and identify polluted waters.

Conduct Information/Education Activities

Although it is important to let people know about the water quality problems in the watershed, sometimes simply informing and educating people on the issues is not enough to initiate behavior change. Keep in mind that behavior change occurs over time. First, audiences should be made aware of the issue. Then they should be educated on the problems facing the watershed. Finally, they should know what actions they can take to help address those problems. If you are going to measure behavior change in the watershed make sure you get a baseline measurement before implementation.

Share Results

Continuous communication is essential to building the credibility of and support for the watershed implementation process. As part of your information/education activities you should be highlighting key activities and results to the stakeholders and the larger community. This helps to keep them engaged and to show how their participation is making a difference.

Results and Next Steps

At the end of this step you should have completed the following:

Prepared an annual work plan
Initiated the implementation of management activities
Conducted monitoring and analyzed samples
Implemented information/educational activities to create awareness and change various behavior patterns within the watershed
Share results from implementation activities throughout the watershed
Next steps
As part of implementation you will continually evaluate the progress of your efforts and determine if you need to make any changes to your watershed plan.