WA BANG! The watershed big bang has happened-affording both opportunities and risks.. Things reached a critical mass, then exploded. The result is a sort of cosmic chaos. Highly- energized fragmentary approaches to watershed problems are flying out from the center of the explosion in every direction.
The fragments include new reports and studies urging watershed management approaches, new programs and policies prescribing watershed management approaches, and new laws and regulations mandating watershed management approaches. Examples of these fragments abound. EPA's short publication "The Watershed Management Approach" is one example. The number and geographic diversity of entries in the Watershed Registry, sponsored by WMC and EPA, shows that interest in watershed approaches is nationwide. Focusing on the far west, Washington State's Forest Practice Board has published a manual entitled "Standard Methodology for Conducting Watershed Analysis" and adopted some new forest practice rules to go with it. The state-sponsored Oregon Watershed Health Program is very active, as are private groups like the Pacific Rivers Council. California has been pushing the efficacy of watershed-based approaches, including Coordinated Resource Management Plans and more ad hoc watershed management groups. Separate external reviews of California's water quality program and its forest practices program have both arrived at the same recommendation: a watershed management approach would work better than current approaches based on programs and regulations focused on solving problems one at a time.
A myriad of interagency efforts have been launched to explore watershed management as an alternative concept. A few space-station-like interagency watershed centers are developing-some in physical space, some in cyberspace, some in both. Buzz phrases like integrated watershed management, river basin assessment and interagency watershed analysis abound, flying around like so much cosmic dust. Expectations are high. Will order emerge from this chaos? I believe it will. How will the new watershed management universe be ordered? It's anyone guess. Here's my best guess.
I believe watershed analysis will emerge as the centerpiece of the new watershed management universe. The intent of watershed analysis is to develop and document a common scientifically-based understanding of the processes and interactions occurring within a watershed. The concept of managing a watershed based on a shared set of information is a massive idea with mass appeal. The advent of the information age makes shared information practical and irresistibly attractive. I expect to see programs, regulations and management decisions orienting towards and then orbiting around watershed analysis, like the planets now orbit around our star, the sun.
Watershed analysis does appear to be a star and capable of shining the light of knowledge on everything we do in watershed management. Here is one caution. Watershed analysis has the potential to become overly massive. We need to guard against this. In astronomical terms, a star that becomes too massive collapses under the force of its own gravity and becomes a black hole, consuming all the energy and matter within its gravitational reach. Nothing, not even light, can escape. We need to guard against heaping so much expectation on watershed analysis that it becomes a black hole for time and money.
Watershed analysis fails if it becomes an end in itself. It succeeds if it orders and enlightens all the diverse array of activities that are done under the name watershed management.
This issue of the WMC newsletter focuses our gaze on watershed analysis, a massive celestial body, emanating from the recent BIG WA BANG, with great promise, but an unknown fate.
And as the sun rises on watershed management, don't forget that the Watershed Management Council is an all-volunteer organization. Become active in "promoting the art and science of watershed management." There are lots of jobs that need doing, most of which can be done from even the remotest of locations. So if you'd like to take charge of one of these tasks or help out in any way, please contact me. Also, let me add that the WMC quarterly executive board meetings are open to any member who would like to attend or address the board via conference call. Call me at (916) 227-2663 (work), write me at Clay Brandow, 1528 Brown Drive, Davis, CA 95616, DG me at C. Brandow:R05K or e-mail me at clay@frrap1.cdf.cd.gov.
Please, don't forget to vote when your WMC ballot arrives in the mail this fall.
Finally , mark your calendar for WMC's next conference, "Watersheds '94: Respect, Rethink, Restore" to be held in Ashland, Oregon, November 16-18, 1994. Program Chair Richard Harris, Technical Workshop Chair Barbara Machado, Poster Chair Tom Myers , and Local Arrangements Chair Sari Sommarstrom have put together a great conference for you. Special thanks also to Hannah Kerner, Conference Director. If you have questions about conference registration please call Hannah Kerner at (510) 642-2360.
