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Schoharie Watershed Program
A program of Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District |
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The Importance of Watershed Planning |
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Please use the links provided to access information on the SWP, its projects, and watershed issues |
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PO Box 996, 6049 Main Street Tannersville, NY 12485 Phone 518-589-6871 Fax 518-589-6874 |
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GCSWCD Main Office 907 County Office Building Cairo, NY 12413 Phone 518.622.3620 Fax 518.622.0344
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Land Use Change
One of the driving forces for water management planning is development pressure. In order to allow sustainable growth in any municipalities, it is important to develop water management plans so future development can be allowed without significant harm to the environment. In assessing ecosystem system response to urbanization, the most logical planning boundary is the watershed. |
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Benefits of Watershed Protection Planning
Watershed plans use an integrated approach to minimize impacts associated with human land use and enhance the natural environment wherever possible. Ultimately, this approach protects the resource, allows for more informed planning decisions, involves stakeholders, speeds up approvals, and saves money to all involved. |
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What is a Watershed Plan?
A watershed plan is a document for the management of water, land/water interactions, aquatic and terrestrial life, and resources. It is often initiated either by local municipalities or conservation authorities who recognize either an existing or potential deterioration of the environment or resources. Funding may be shared between municipalities, conservation authorities, provincial ministries, and developers. The goal of a watershed plan is to protect, enhance, and rehabilitate water resources in relation to existing or changing land use. It provides management goals, objectives, control targets, and environmental constraints, and this information should be integrated with land use or rehabilitation planning decisions. |
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Important Watershed Planning Aspects
The whole watershed planning process should involve the public and stakeholders in every step so the final watershed plan can be acceptable to most people in the watershed. To maximize the overall achievement of a watershed plan, a number of different objectives relating to water quantity and quality, ecological health, sustainable development, and socio-economic enhancement may need to be considered during the planning process. Some of these objectives may be complementary or competitive. Thus, some compromises and tradeoffs may be necessary to find the best water management policies and strategies. |
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Text on this page is adopted from http://www.maine.gov/dep/blwq/watersh.htm and http://www.civil.ryerson.ca/Stormwater/menu_2/index.htm |
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Articles Related to Watershed Protection Planning
The Tools of Watershed Protection (436 Kb pdf)
Basic Concepts in Watershed Planning (1 Mb pdf)
The Economics of Watershed Protection (359 Kb pdf)
Understanding Watershed Behavior (45 Kb pdf)
On Watershed Education (327 Kb pdf) |
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Map of the Schoharie Watershed and its watershed programs Click map for a larger view |
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through monitoring and other data gathering. Watershed management activities may take place at the state, river basin, or individual watershed level. Most issues are best addressed at the individual watershed level. For example, identifying sources of pollution that are carried by stormwater to a reservoir is best carried out by people working within that reservoir’s watershed. Other issues are more appropriate at the basin level, such as determining appropriate discharge limits for wastewater licenses within the basin. Still others may best be operated at the state level, such as the operation of a statewide permit program. |
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Ashland Connector Stream Restoration Project volunteer planting |
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Introduction
A watershed is the geographic area where all water running off the land drains to a given stream, river, lake, wetland or coastal water. Watershed planning and management comprise an approach to protecting water quality and quantity that focuses on the entire ecosystem of a watershed. This is a departure from the traditional approach of managing individual wastewater discharges, and is necessary due to the nature of polluted runoff, which in most watersheds is the biggest contributor to water pollution. Polluted runoff is caused by a variety of land use activities, including development, transportation, agriculture and forestry, and may originate anywhere in the watershed. Due to its diffuse nature, polluted runoff has not been effectively managed through regulatory programs alone.
Watershed planning and management involve a number of activities, including targeting priority problems in a watershed, promoting a high level of involvement by interested and affected parties, developing solutions to problems through the use of the expertise and authority of multiple agencies and organizations, and measuring success |