INTRODUCTION

This is a report of the Clean Water Action Plan Workgroup for Reinvention Opportunities, a subset of the Watershed Framework team. The Group implemented Key Action 110, Reinvention Opportunities.

Reinvention is an appropriate heading for actions that Federal agencies take to orient Federal programs and regulatory processes on a watershed basis and make these programs more collaborative and innovative. In 1934, Aldo Leopold, our most famous spokesman for conservation, asserted that the taxpayer will expect more teamwork between the various conservation dollars before sending more down the same old rut. In an essay titled, "Conservation Economics," he said, "Take, for example, a hypothetical farm, and count the geeings and hawings which result from having a dozen drivers for a single horse." "These bewilderments, of course, extend far beyond the conservation field. .....hindsight is better than foresight, and always will be; sincere public servants disagree on what is sound public policy, and always will." He concludes the paper; "...conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest. Perhaps the cerebration induced by a blanket challenge may still enable us to grasp our opportunity."

When Hugh Hammond Bennett became the Director of the Soil Erosion Service in 1933, he led the "conservation movement" by his commitment to demonstrate the benefits of conservation in watershed size projects. Bennett was committed to educate the public - not just the farmer, experiment with new solutions to conservation problems, and demonstrate success. When Bennett toured local projects, local newspaper headlines announced, "Hugh Bennett tours the Scantic River (as the case may be) Watershed." Yes, these early leaders expounded teamwork, voluntary conservation with rewards, watersheds, experimentation, education, and demonstration. They invented the guidelines for this current challenge to meet reinvention opportunities.

Federal, state, and local agencies, supported by Congress, legislatures, and local taxpayers, have developed new programs and strengthened the content and administration of existing programs to meet current conservation challenges. The most recent achievements have been in the rediscovery of the "watershed approach" and in demonstrated Federal interagency collaboration.

This report presents opportunities for new Federal agency watershed reinvention and features some "blueprints" based on case studies of successful innovative and collaborative efforts. Appendix B includes selected agency highlights of current watershed reinvention activities and plans for improvements. This is an internal report for consideration of the Federal agency staff working on the Clean Water Action Plan. The reinvention opportunities presented in this report are not intended to represent current Federal policy.