Healthy
Watersheds
^-^^
Healthy Watersheds News
Issue 3: Winter 2012-2013 // EPA-841-N-12-002
In This Issue
This issue showcases assessments that are currently
underway across the country to evaluate one or more
of the six healthy watersheds assessment components -
landscape condition, habitat, hydrology, geomorphology,
water quality, and biological condition. EPA's Healthy
Watersheds Initiative is encouraging states to perform
integrated assessments of watershed health. These
assessments involve holistic evaluations of watershed
system characteristics, functions, and processes to obtain
a more complete understanding of aquatic ecosystem
condition, and allow for the targeting of management
actions to protect the health and resilience of watersheds.
As the examples featured in this issue demonstrate,
involving multiple program partners is critical.
EPA's technical document Identifying and Protecting
Healthy Watersheds provides
many examples of approaches
for assessing one or more
components of healthy
watersheds, as well as integrated
assessment options for
identifying healthy watersheds.
The technical document is
available for download at: http://
water, epa. gov/healthywatersheds
Massachusetts Looks to Develop
Statewide Fluvial Geomorphic
Assessment
Fluvial geomorphic assessments provide information that
helps improve our understanding of natural hydrologic
systems. This understanding is essential for protecting
and restoring watershed health. Fluvial geomorphic
assessments help answer questions about how land
use, climate change, and channel manipulation are
leading to changes in hydrology, sediment supply, and
channel stability and form. They also provide a way to
define equilibrium conditions and better understand
the watershed-scale processes at work. Understanding
these complex relationships helps aquatic resource
professionals manage toward dynamic equilibrium found
in natural fluvial systems.
River sinuosity. Photo: USFWS
Numerous groups are currently using different protocols
to collect fluvial geomorphic data across Massachusetts.
There is currently no single standard method for
performing fluvial geomorphic assessments in streams
and rivers in Massachusetts. In response to this need, the
University of Massachusetts Amherst hosted a one-day
fluvial geomorphic assessment workshop in October
2012 to discuss the development of an assessment
protocol for the Commonwealth. The workshop
goals were to: 1) share assessment methodologies
being used; 2) identify management objectives for the
Commonwealth; 3) propose an assessment protocol;
and 4) establish the next steps for developing and
implementing a statewide assessment.
Mike Kline of the Vermont Department of
Environmental Conservation spoke at the workshop
about work he and his colleagues have done to complete
a statewide fluvial geomorphic assessment in Vermont.
Winter 2012-2013
-------
The resulting assessments and subsequent planning
have provided water quality, habitat, and public safety
benefits, as well as important context for prioritizing and
implementing protection and restoration projects.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has already
laid significant groundwork by gathering data and
conducting analyses on the health of its aquatic
ecosystems. The Sustainable Water Management
Initiative (SWMI) Framework was released by the
Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental
Affairs (EEA) with the goal of maintaining healthy rivers
and streams and improving degraded water resources
over time. As part of the Initiative, staff from EEA
collaborated with other state agencies to develop an
interactive web-based map that displays the alteration of
fluvial fish habitat and groundwater withdrawal levels.
The Commonwealth has also developed indicators
of stream flow alteration, data on impervious cover,
and rigorous fish community assessments. A fluvial
geomorphic assessment will complement these and
other efforts to understand hydrologic systems in
Massachusetts.
All presentations from the Massachusetts Fluvial
Geomorphology Workshop are available online: http://
wrrc.umass.edu/fgm-presentations
Information on Vermont's Stream Geomorphic
Assessment Program can be found at: http://www.
vtwaterquality.org/rivers/htm/rv geoassess.htm
Information on SWMI can be found at: http://www.
mass.gov/eea/air-water-climate-change/preserving-water-
resources/sustainable-water-management/
EPA Supports State Healthy Watersheds
Assessments
A statewide healthy watersheds assessment characterizes
landscape condition, hydrology, geomorphology, habitat,
water quality, and biological condition at broad spatial
and temporal scales, with the understanding that many
variations will exist within individual watersheds and
across seasons.
A statewide healthy watersheds assessment is intended
to be used as a screening level assessment to:
• Increase our understanding of how landscape
structure and watershed processes drive aquatic
ecosystem health;
Prioritize individual watersheds for targeted and more
detailed assessments;
Increase communication among programs resulting
in common interests in protection priorities and
collaboration opportunities; and
Maximize use of limited resources by leveraging those
resources across state agencies and with other partners
to coordinate protection for high priority aquatic
ecosystems ultimately leading to statewide healthy
watershed protection strategies.
Hydrology
Assessment
Habitat
Assessment
Landscape Condition
Assessment
Geomorphologv
Assessment
Biological Condition
Assessment
Watershed
Ecosystem
Condition
Water Quality
Assessment
The six healthy watersheds assessment components.
EPA's Healthy Watersheds Initiative is providing
states with funding and technical support to complete
integrated assessments of watershed health statewide.
These assessments are currently underway in Alabama,
California, and Wisconsin, as well as in the Clinch Powell
Watershed in Tennessee and Virginia. The assessments
are being performed using the framework outlined in the
Healthy Watersheds technical document (http://water.epa.
gov/polwaste/nps/watershed/hw techdocument.cfm), and
are tailored to each state based on available data.
Partners: Mobile Bay National Estuary Program,
Alabama Department of Environmental
Management, Geological Survey of Alabama,
Alabama Department of Conservation of
Natural Resources, EPA Region 4, others.
o
mma,
'f.
Alabama and Mobile Bay Watershed
Mobile Bay is one of
the largest estuaries
in the Gulf of Mexico
and supports a diverse
collection offish and
wildlife species. The impetus for the Mobile Bay Healthy
Watersheds Assessment comes from the understanding
that effective conservation of Mobile Bay ecology will
benefit from management efforts throughout the entire
45,000 square mile Mobile Bay Watershed. The assessment
will help identify high-quality aquatic ecosystems in
the watershed for protection and identify opportunities
for restoration. In conjunction with the Mobile Bay
Watershed Assessment, Alabama is conducting a statewide
Healthy Watersheds Assessment.
Page 2 // Winter-2012-2013
-------
The Alabama and Mobile Bay Healthy Watersheds
Assessments will be conducted in coordination
with several ongoing efforts, including an update to
the Mobile Bay Comprehensive Conservation and
Management Plan by the Mobile Bay National Estuary
Program, the implementation of the Water Resource
Management Plan of the Alabama Department of
Environmental Management (ADEM), the development
of a Biological Condition Gradient model for the Mobile
Bay estuary, and the identification of strategic habitat
units by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, ADEM,
and Geological Survey of Alabama. The assessment is
currently in the planning phase, with data compilation
and a draft assessment methodology nearing completion.
The final assessments are expected to be completed this
summer.
100 Miles
I
partners: California's Healthy Streams
Partnership, California State and Regional
Water Boards, Department of Fish and
EpA ^
Mobile Bay Watershed.
California
The project partners
held a face-tO-face
c
meeting in San
Francisco in August
2012 to discuss and select indicators of watershed health
and watershed vulnerability across the state. At the
meeting, the partners decided that the assessment would
include both indicators of aquatic ecosystem health
and structural indicators of watershed condition. The
structural indicators, which come primarily from remote
sensing data, are being used to build landscape predictive
models that will be calibrated with the indicators of
aquatic ecosystem health. These indicators come from
high-quality field data collected at discrete monitoring
locations representative of California's nine eco regions.
Uncertainty associated with each of the landscape
predictive models will be quantified and communicated
to help ensure responsible decision-making and adaptive
management of California's freshwater ecosystems.
Structural
Indicators of
Watershed
Condition
Indicators
of Aquatic
Ecosystem
Health
,,T to~ _„_ „,„*_ Habitat
Condition II Condition II Condition
California healthy watersheds integrated assessment framework.
Watershed vulnerability is also being assessed through an
evaluation of available climate, land use, and water use
change projections. These include measures of hydro-
modification potential and projected changes in baseflow,
snowpack, surface runoff, and wildfire severity. The
adaptive capacity of California's watersheds to deal with
these stressors is being considered through measures of
groundwater dependency, presence of coldwater fisheries
habitat, connectivity of protected areas (e.g., national
forests, conservation easements, etc.), and the extent of
intact headwater areas.
California intends to use the results of the statewide
integrated assessment of watershed health to inform
the development of its biocriteria program, as a
communication tool on its new Healthy Streams Portal,
and to improve protection of aquatic resources through
local initiatives that build on the statewide assessment.The
final assessment is expected to be completed this spring.
Clinch-Powell Watershed, Tennessee and Virginia
The Clinch-Powell Watershed, historically home to one
of the most diverse fish and mussel assemblages in North
America, has experienced significant ecological degradation
associated with past and present coal mining, agricultural
activities, and runoff from developed areas. Nevertheless,
the basin still supports the largest number of threatened
and endangered aquatic species in North America; and the
Clinch and Powell Rivers upstream of Norris Lake are two
of the remaining free-flowing sections in the Tennessee
River Basin. In addition to strategic restoration of the
Clinch-Powell ecosystem, protection of its remaining
intact attributes is essential to a comprehensive watershed
management program.
Winter 2012-2013 // Page 3
-------
The Clinch-Powell Healthy Watersheds Assessment is
taking advantage of detailed field monitoring data to
evaluate the six attributes of watershed health. Stream flow
water chemistry, physical habitat, and aquatic life data
(mussel, macroinvertebrates and fish) from multiple
locations throughout the watershed are being used to
evaluate aquatic ecosystem health within the Clinch-Powell
system. The landscape and watershed characteristics that
drive physical (hydrologic and geomorphic), chemical, and
biological health at these sites will be identified through
the use of geospatial and statistical modeling methods to
select indicators of watershed health. The results of the
analysis will be used to make scientifically supported
statements about the health of the Clinch-Powell watershed
and its many subwatersheds to help prioritize future
resource protection.
Wisconsin
Clinch-Powell Watershed.
Partners: Wisconsin Departmen,
of Natural Resources, The Nature
Conservancy, EPA Region 5, others
The Wisconsin Healthy
Watersheds Assessment is
being designed to support
the state's program needs. It builds on previous work and
uses existing data to demonstrate links among aquatic
ecosystem components and their landscapes. The outputs
of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' (DNR)
instream flow modeling work will be incorporated into
the assessment. Another assessment component includes
an experimental approach to using remote sensing
data for evaluating stream geomorphic condition and
identifying groundwater-dependent ecosystems. The
Wisconsin project team held a face-to-face meeting in
October 2012 in Madison to discuss the assessment
approach and select indicators of watershed health and
vulnerability. During the meeting, the group identified
future partners for collaboration, highlighted existing
data and assessments, determined what the existing
assessments say about the location of Wisconsin's
healthiest watersheds, selected datasets to be used in the
assessment, and discussed uses for the healthy watershed
assessment outputs. The group identified the following
uses for the completed healthy watersheds assessment:
• Identify areas to target for site-specific protection
• Identify outstanding/exceptional resource waters
• Inform DNR and county land and water
management plan development
• Use vulnerability information to build public
support for protection
• Communicate economic benefits of protecting
healthy watersheds to market the importance of
environmental programs
• Prevent future impairments in vulnerable waters and
help target restoration
• Identify nutrient reduction needs in healthy
watersheds as part of statewide nutrient reduction
strategy
• Inform in-lieu-fee wetland mitigation
• Prioritize runoff management grants that protect
healthy watersheds
• Prioritize watershed monitoring
• Contribute to instream flow assessments
The final assessment is expected to be completed this
spring.
The Wisconsin Healthy Watersheds Assessment Project Team.
Left-top to right-bottom: Andy Stoltman (DNR), Andy Somor
(Cadmus), Tom Bernthal (DNR), Paul Thomas (EPA), Mike
Miller (DNR), Matt Diebel (DNR), Laura Gabanski (EPA),
Carroll Schaal (DNR), Corinne Billings (DNR), Nick Miller
(TNC), Corey Godfrey (Cadmus), Laura Blake (Cadmus),
Stephanie Truitt (Cadmus), Kristi Minahan (DNR).
Page 4 // Winter-2012-2013
-------
Chesapeake Bay Program Releases
Report on the Role of Natural
Landscape Features in the Fate and
Transport of Nutrients and Sediment
The Chesapeake Bay Program's Maintain Healthy
Watersheds Goal Implementation Team and its
Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee sponsored
a workshop in March 2012 to consider whether there
is a scientific basis for changing how the Chesapeake
Bay Program Watershed Model assigns nutrient and
sediment loading rates of natural landscape features
based on their ecological condition, management
status, and landscape position. Workshop participants
agreed that there is a scientific basis for adjusting
the model's nutrient and sediment processing rates
assigned to natural landscape features. Such adjustments
would better reflect the influence of landscape feature
attributes on actual nutrient and sediment loading rates.
Hydrologic retention time and water flow connectivity
were recognized as natural landscape feature attributes
that have an important effect on nutrient and sediment
retention. The workshop participants agreed that a better
accounting of the role of intact and healthy watersheds
in the landscape should be incorporated into the
Chesapeake Bay Program Watershed Model.
Read the full workshop report: http://www.chesapeake.
org/pubs/293 2012.pdf
Oregon's Resource Innovation Group
Incorporates Climate Change in
Watershed Assessment Guidance
Oregon's Resource Innovation Group recently developed
a guidebook titled, Toward a Resilient Watershed:
Addressing Climate Change Planning in Watershed
Assessments. The guidebook helps watershed managers
understand how future climate scenarios may affect their
management decisions and identifies proactive measures
for improving the resilience of stream habitat and water
quality. This guidebook provides suggestions for ways
to include climate change considerations in watershed
assessments, emphasizing systems-based approaches and
citing EPA's Healthy Watersheds Initiative as an example
of such an approach. By incorporating climate change
into healthy watershed assessments, results can be used
to project potential future conditions and the resulting
beneficial or negative consequences of those conditions.
As a result, watershed managers and stakeholders
can look across the systems and sectors within their
watersheds and, based on future projections, make
decisions now that will enhance the benefits and reduce
the risks.
The guidebook was released in early 2012 and is
available at: http://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/content/
toward-resilient-watershed-addressing-climate-change-
planning-watershed-assessments
Join the EPA Healthy Watersheds Online Forum
EPA's Healthy Watersheds Program launched a new online forum called HWI_info in
November 2012. This online forum is a place to share and discuss healthy watersheds
assessment, protection, and other activities around the nation. To join, visit https://
lists.epa.gov/read/all forums/ and subscribe to HWI_info.
For More Information
For more information or questions about EPA's Healthy
Watersheds Initiative, visit www.epa.gov/healthywatersheds
or contact Laura Gabanski: Gabanski.Laura(a)epa.gov
Disclaimer
Healthy Watersheds News is produced by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. Mention of commercial
products, publications, or Web sites does not constitute
endorsement or recommendation by EPA, and shall not be used
for advertising or product endorsement purposes.
------- |