Watershed management recognizes that the water quality of our streams, lakes, and estuaries results from the interaction of upstream features. CSREES programs unite social, economic, and environmental concerns with research devoted to “scaling-up” the cumulative effects of site-specific actions on rangelands, forests, agricultural lands, and rural communities.

Activities of all land uses within watersheds impact the water quality of down gradient water bodies. Point and nonpoint sources of pollution in a watershed contribute nutrients, bacteria, and chemical contaminants to US waterways. Watershed management encompasses all the activities aimed at identifying sources and minimizing contaminants to a water body from its watershed.

The federal Clean Water Act requires each state to conduct water quality assessments to determine whether its streams, lakes, and estuaries are sufficiently “healthy” to meet their designated uses, i.e., drinking, shellfishing, or recreation. A water body that does not meet its designated use is defined as “impaired” and added to a list of impaired waters, also known as the 303(d) List. Each state is required to develop TMDLs, the maximum amount of a specific pollutant a water body can accommodate without causing the water body to become unable to serve its beneficial use, for all water bodies on its 303(d) List. The TMDL process is just one component of watershed management. Effective watershed management is an on-going process that must be flexible enough to adapt to the unique characteristics of different watersheds as well as changing circumstances within a single watershed. It results in reduction of contaminants within watersheds and improvement of water quality.

The PNW Regional Water Quality Program provides a broad range of research-based educational materials devoted to watershed management. These have been compiled and published in a 4-page informational flyer. View an HTML version of the educational materials here, or download the 4-page PDF version here.