Spring has sprung and almost flung by before getting this issue out. So many things for watershedders to do these days with "watershed" being such a favorite word (noun, adjective; even as a verb "to watershed" and as an adverb "watershedingly"?). You find it everywhereas policy and research topics, conference themes, and even local shop talk. I was in a bakery in Gold Beach, Oregon last month and was surprised to overhear customers casually using the word watershed in their conversation. Of course, it helped to have a local watershed council (South Coast Coordinating Council) being very active in the area doing cooperative monitoring, implementing restoration projects, and holding monthly forums - not just one, but nine (9) for each of the sub-basins in that area. Wish we could bottle up that type of watershed energy and sell it. It was also a pleasant surprise to run into a WMC member there (Bruce Follansbee, Lower Rogue Watershed Council Coordinator ) who had been to our 1998 Conference in Boise. I hope the probability of bumping into fellow members will continue to increase.
You may have heard that the California Legislature had 29 bills (plus 2 budget bills) submitted this session that included the term "watershed management" (look under //www.leginfo.ca.gov/ and search under that term). While WMC is an apolitical organization that does not take positions on legislation, a few of our California members have called attention to some of the bills. What struck me first is the many different ways the term is being used - with no definition offered. Separate bills related to flood control and protection, parks, nonpoint source pollution, beach enhancement, safe drinking water, timber harvesting, salmon and steelhead restoration, wetlands mitigation, prescribed burning or "watershed resources improvement" have each added "watershed management" to the purpose or text. While this diversity reflects how encompassing the subject is, my sense is that the bill authors (and their constituents) are not using the term synonymously. As a result, we may not really be communicating clearly about our expectations of "watershed management", or explicitly recognizing the interrelationships involved. More on this subject in the next issue...
Take a look again at the WMC website - watershed.org/wmc! It is updated and the homepage has a new improved look, thanks to volunteer webmaster Mike Furniss and his very talented son, Liam. All of the newsletters up through the last issue (Winter/Spring 1999) are now available on-line. Getting the Networkers onto the website takes hundreds of steps right now, so this task is not a small one (hopefully in a few years it will only take a push of a button or two). We hope you find the website useful. If you have any suggestions to make it even better, please let Mike know (furniss@watershed.org). The Board is looking for ways to increase the amount in our budget for the website beyond the mere pittance of $1,000 per year that WMC can afford now. Any ideas out there??
Please put October 6‚8, 1999 on your calendar for our Fall Field Trip. John Cobourn, Board member and hydrologist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension in Incline Village, is the volunteer Coordinator of the Field Trip in the Truckee River Watershedwhere we'll cover from the headwaters in the Lake Tahoe Basin, to the urban and agricultural flood plain near Reno, and on to its terminus at Pyramid Lake. There should be enough issues for everyone's interest. See John's article in this Networker for the details. Flyers should be sent to members in Augustso check your mail and the website for registration information.
Rick Kattelmann, Board member and research hydrologist at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL), was kind enough to volunteer as Guest Editor of this Networker issue. You might remember his last guest editorshipthe Summer 1997 issue on the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP). Rick is another one of these high energy people that can be in New Zealand doing research one week, giving a paper in Europe the next, and guest editing for WMC the following week. Now if he could only get his e-mail to work reliably up there in that shaky Mammoth Lakes country.
Watershedingly yours, Sari
sari@sisqtel.net or sari@watershed.org
