Welcome to the State Water Resources Control Board Welcome to the California Environmental Protection Agency

Watershed Management


WATER BOARD INVOLVEMENT WITH WATERSHEDS

The State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards are responsible for protecting California’s water resources. California is divided into nine regions based on major watersheds. The Regional Boards are located within these regions. Over the past ten years the State and Regional Water Board has shifted towards looking at entire watersheds when addressing water pollution. With the input and involvement of local stakeholders, unique and effective solutions can then be created. The Water Board adopted the Watershed Management Initiative (WMI) to further its goals.

Visit the Water Board's Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Programs (SWAMP's), CWT "Community Based Watershed Programs" web page for further information about community-based watershed programs, volunteer monitoring programs, watershed groups in California, an inventory of watershed projects and more !

Contents of this Web Page:

WHAT'S NEW !

  • New ! The California Coastal Commission, Center for Water and Land Use at UC Davis Extension, USC Sea Grant, and local partners will host four workshops for local and state government staff, building and landscaping professionals, and the public: Reining in the Rain-- Watershed-Friendly "Low Impact Development" Site Design & Permeable Pavements for Stormwater Management.

    Low Impact Development and Permeable Pavement Workshops:
    • Ventura - April 21
    • Newport Beach - April 22
    • Oakland - April 23
    • Santa Cruz - April 25

    For agendas and more information, see http://www.coastal.ca.gov/nps/lid_workshops.html.

  • New ! Invasive Eurasian Mussel Early Detection Monitoring Workshops
    The California Sea Grant Extension Program, University of California Cooperative Extension is conducting four workshops for citizen monitoring groups, lake and marina managers, and boating and fishing club members who would like to participate in a training program for early detection monitoring of Eurasian (Quagga and Zebra) mussels. Registration is now open.  All workshops are from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm.

    Ventura: May 1, 2008 U.C. Cooperative Extension
    El Cajon: May 6, 2008 Ronald Reagan Community Center
    Escondido: May 8, 2008 San Diego County Farm Bureau
    Riverside: May 12, 2008 U.C. Cooperative Extension, Highlander Hall

    If you have any questions or need more information, please contact Valerie Borel at 323-260-3851, or by email at vtborel@ucdavis.edu.”

  • 2007 Watershed Coordinator Grant Program - Request for Proposals
    The California Department of Conservation is accepting proposals for their Watershed Coordinator Grant Program.  The purpose of this grant programs is to fund watershed coordinator positions that facilitate watershed improvement efforts affecting the CALFED Solution Area, which includes watersheds that contribute to or import water through the Bay-Delta system.  To ensure that grants are distributed throughout the CALFED Solution Area and cover as many watersheds as possible, no more than two full-time coordinator positions will be awarded within a watershed.  Local, nonprofit groups with 501(c)(3) status, special districts, and local governments, with watershed-related goals as part of their current long-range or strategic plans, are eligible to apply.  The program is not open to federal or state agencies.  Proposals must be received by January 4, 2008.

  • New !  Ecosystem Restoration On Agricultural Lands Grant Funding
    The Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has grant funding specific to Ecosystem Restoration on Agricultural Lands (ERAL).  Under Proposition 84, the WCB received $5 Million in bond funds to Assist Farmers in Integrating Agricultural Activities with Ecosystem Restoration and Wildlife Protection.  Project types to be funded involve restoration and enhancement projects that provide long-term, durable habitat benefits to wildlife on working agricultural lands, with a special focus on private farms.  Eligible funding applicants include agricultural and conservation related non-project groups, and public entities involved in working with private agricultural landowners.  Applications are being accepted on a continuous basis.

  • New ! Release of California Watershed Assessment Manual (CWAM) Volume II
    The California Watershed Assessment Manual Team has announced the release of the new CWAM Volume II, which goes in depth to provide the watershed community with watershed assessment guidance, including information on how to incorporate water quality, benthic macroinvertebrates, periphyton, fire ecology, and river processes.

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WATERSHED MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE (WMI)

The WMI was approved as part of the 1995 Strategic Plan and remains a part of the current Strategic Plan  (Note: The Strategic Plan is currently being updated). The WMI establishes a broad framework overlying the numerous federal and state mandated priorities. As such, the WMI helps the Water Board to achieve water resource protection, enhancement and restoration while balancing economic and environmental impacts.

  • Goals and Objectives
    The integrated approach of the WMI involves three main ideas:

    1. Use water quality to identify and prioritize water resource problems within individual watersheds. Involve stakeholders to develop solutions.

    2. Better coordinate point source and nonpoint source regulatory efforts. Establish working relationships between staff from different programs.

    3. Better coordinate local, state and federal activities and programs, especially those relating to regulations and funding, to assist local watershed groups.

  • WMI Chapters
    The Regional Boards have developed watershed management strategies that consider local conditions and pollution sources for their priority watersheds. Each Regional Board’s WMI Chapter contains these strategies and identifies priorities, where baseline resources will be spent, and where more resources are needed. Each WMI chapter is updated as needed by the Regional Board or by a directive from the State Water Board. The combined Regional WMI Chapters comprise the Integrated Plan to view a particular Regional Board chapter:

    RB 1 - North Coast Region
     RB 2 - San Francisco Bay Region
     RB 3 - Central Coast Region
     RB 4 - Los Angeles Region
     RB 5 - Central Valley Region
     RB 6 - Lahontan Region
     RB 7 - Colorado River Basin Region
     RB 8 - Santa Ana Region
     RB 9 - San Diego Region

  • Integrated Plan
    The original Integrated Plan described statewide priorities that were developed collaboratively by the State Water Board, United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.EPA) and the Regional Boards. The plan also identified the integrated planning process developed by these agency partners to ensure funding of the highest priority activities. The Integrated Plan served largely as an internal planning document to support local watershed management efforts. Updated annually, it consisted of nine Regional WMI Chapters, a State Water Board Chapter and a U.S.EPA Chapter. The combined Regional WMI Chapters, now updated when necessary, comprise the current Integrated Plan. The State Strategic Plan superseded the State Water Board Chapter and the U.S.EPA Chapter is no longer part of the Integrated Plan.
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WATERSHED MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU)

Revised on November 30, 2004, this MOU replaces the April 28, 2003, Watershed Management MOU required by the Watershed, Clean Beaches, and Water Quality Act.

  • What it defines: a cooperative process for improving watershed health in California
  • The focus: Agency programs within the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and Resources Agency (Resources)

  • Implementation efforts overseen by: Secretaries for Cal/EPA and Resources

  • What it was designed to implement:
    • The California Agency Watershed Strategic Plan
    • Coordination of the Integrated Watershed Management Program with other Watershed Programs
    • Stakeholder advisory processes to assist in setting priorities and allocating funds
    • Watershed protection objectives in the Governor's Environmental Action Plan and Ocean Action Strategy
  • View the MOU.
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ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES

CALIFORNIA WATERSHED INFORMATION

  • California Watershed Portal is a joint web site created by the Cal/EPA and Resources Agency to provide on-line tools, data, information, and links to the California watershed communities.  (The website, currently, is not maintained. However, there are active links to pertinent resources.)

  • The Information Center for the Environment (ICE) is a cooperative effort of environmental scientists at the University of California, Davis and collaborators at over thirty private, state, federal, and international organizations interested in environmental protection.

    • The Natural Resource Projects Inventory (NRPI) is a comprehensive, searchable, electronic database that houses information on thousands of conservation, mitigation and restoration projects being developed and implemented throughout California. NRPI contains an especially vast amount of information on water quality, watershed protection, fisheries habitat and exotic species removal.

    • The Global Invasive Species Team (GIST) is associated with The Nature Conservancy, and helps to ensure that The Nature Conservancy and other organizations can succeed in protecting native plants, animals and natural communities by assessing and preventing invasions of non-native species in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems.  GIST contains updates on new invasive species, and several searchable, electronic databases to help identify current exotic species in your area.

  • The California Watershed Assessment Manual (CWAM) provides information and guidance to assist watershed assessors. The CWAM is a procedural guide that should be useful to a variety of watershed stakeholders. The mechanics for conducting a watershed assessment are described in detail in the CWAM. One of the ultimate goals of the CWAM is to provide some standardization among watershed assessments, to allow for cross-watershed comparisons.

  • The California Watershed Network (CWN) is a non-profit organization formed in 2000, with the mission to help people protect and restore the natural environments of California’s watersheds while ensuring healthy and sustainable communities. CWN works to develop a coordinated network of community-based watershed management in California.

  • Joint Task Force on California Watershed Management is the web page of the former Joint Task Force on California Watershed Management. The task force assisted in the planning and execution of the State's Watershed Management plan. Included on this web site is the 2002 Final Report of the Task Force on the current status of watershed management in California. Links to other valuable California watershed information can be found on this page.

  • The CALFED Watershed Program, funded by Proposition 13 and Proposition 50, was established in 1998 as an aid to achieving the overarching goal of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program to restore ecological health and improve water management by working with the community at a watershed level. The goals of the Watershed Program are to provide financial and technical assistance for watershed activities that help achieve the mission and objectives of CALFED, and to promote collaboration and integration among community based watershed efforts.

    • The BDPAC Watershed Subcommittee (formerly known as the Watershed Work Group) was formed in 1998 to assist in the development and implementation of CALFED'S Watershed Program Plan. As of December 2006, the subcommittee is no longer under the jurisdiction of the CALFED Program as it transitions to a statewide approach managed under the Department of Conservation.

    • The California Department of Conservation provides grants toward beverage container recycling, agricultural land conservation and watershed restoration and management.  The Watershed Coordinator Grant Program is a collaborative effort between the Department of Conservation and the CALFED Bay-Delta Program to improve watersheds within the CALFED Solution Area by providing support for coordinating watershed improvements. These areas include watersheds that contribute water to or receive water from the Bay-Delta system.

OTHER RESOURCES

  • Calflora provides information on wild California plants for conservation, education, and appreciation. What Grows Here is a new Calflora application which emphasizes what plants have been observed growing near a particular place. Through this interface, users can pick a place in California by any of several different approaches (e.g., by watershed, town, zip code, park, etc…)

  • The Watershed Management Council is a non-profit organization whose members represent a broad range of watershed management interests and disciplines. Find information here on watershed topics such as Sierran Ecosystems, Salmon Recovery and Watershed Monitoring in addition to links to other watershed and geoscience sites.

  • The Surf Your Watershed provides assessments of watershed health, environmental information, and other drinking water information by searching through geographic units.  By visiting this U.S. Environmental Protection Agency web page, you can find local and national watersheds, and search information on citizen based groups that are active in your watershed.  

    • The  Watershed and Wetland Protection Information Kit For County Officials is a collection of electronic resources to assist county and local officials with efforts for protecting and restoring the multiple benefits of their community’s water resources.

    • The Draft Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters is intended to help communities, watershed organizations, and state, local, tribal and federal environmental agencies develop and implement watershed plans to meet water quality standards and protect water resources. It was designed to help any organization undertaking a watershed planning effort, and it should be particularly useful to persons working with impaired or threatened waters. EPA intends for this handbook to supplement existing watershed planning guides that have already been developed by agencies, universities, and other nonprofit organizations.

  • Social Marketing Guide for Watershed Programs
    A free guide for using social marketing to further watershed program goals is now available, courtesy of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.  The book is titled “Getting Your Feet Wet with Social Marketing: A Social Marketing Guide for Watershed Programs” and is available online as a 7.3 MB PDF.

    Successful social marketing campaigns can inspire watershed residents and stakeholders to engage in and sustain actions that will save water, improve the condition of the watershed and reduce pollution. Overall watershed protection and restoration goals and fundraising efforts will be furthered through measurable results achieved through communications-based approaches. Social marketing can be an efficient and cost-effective way to improve and restore environmental conditions.

    The first eight chapters of this book guide the reader through the social marketing process using water examples from Utah and throughout the country. The final four chapters offer short case studies of successful water-related social marketing efforts. The appendices are filled with worksheets, checklists, lists of additional resources and samples of audience research documents.

  • Western Collaborative Assistance Network Announced
    The National Forest Foundation and the Sonoran Institute are working in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and others to offer the Western Collaboration Assistance Network (WestCAN), a program that provides short-term expertise to help collaborative efforts get started or to work through challenging issues. [Note: the Red Lodge Clearinghouse collaboration handbook, developed as a "building capacity" tool and stemming from the original Red Lodge Workshop.]
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Contact Information


( updated 5/28/08 )