Watershed Planning Handbooks
February 24, 2006
EPA’s Office of Water has published a draft guide to watershed management to help organizations develop and implement watershed plans. The Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters is aimed at communities, watershed groups, local, state tribal, and federal environmental agencies. The 414-page handbook is designed to take the user through each step of the watershed planning process. The handbook is intended to supplement existing watershed planning guides that have been developed by agencies, universities, and other nonprofit organizations. This handbook is more specific than other guides about quantifying existing pollutant loads, developing estimates of the load reductions required to meet water-quality standards, developing effective management measures and tracking progress once the plan is implemented.
The handbook is available online at or you may order a free copy from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications by calling 800-490-9198 or e-mail ncepimal@one.net. When ordering, please refer to EPA document number: EPA 841-B-05-005. EPA is making the draft available so that it may be used and tested prior to the final version, and is seeking comments by 6/30/06.
EPA has another new handbook on a similar topic, Community-Based Watershed Management: Lessons from the National Estuary Program. While it focuses on estuaries, its principles and examples are relevant to any organization involved in watershed management and include managing pollution runoff, increasing wildlife habitat and controlling invasive species. The 98-page handbook describes innovative approaches developed and conducted by the 28 National Estuary Programs, which are community-based watershed-management organizations that restore and protect coastal watersheds. Topics covered range from starting a program, identifying problems and solutions to plan development and action steps. The handbook can be downloaded from the EPA web site.
[The preceding article appeared in "Conservation Commission News", Vol. 37, No. 3 Fall-Winter 2005-2006 by the NHACC] |
