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Watershed Programs and Activities in New Jersey

Lower Musconetcong Watershed

A public meeting regarding the issues, alternatives and impacts of restoring fish passage on the lower Musconetcong River, focusing on the Finesville area, was held on Tuesday, December 2nd from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. Public input will help identify local concerns regarding the restoration to assist in the preparation of an environmental assessment.

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Helping Communities Manage Water (270 kb)  - This brochure describes services that NRCS may be able to provide to communities to help manage chronic problems in their watersheds.

Introduction

Mercer Lake, Mercer County ParkUSDA Natural Resources Conservation Service works with groups, local, county and state units of government, watershed associations and others in the development and implementation of watershed plans with a variety of objectives. A multidisciplinary approach utilizes the expertise of numerous technical specialists including engineers, soil scientists, wildlife biologists, geologists, economists, landscape architects, plant materials specialists, and GIS specialists among others. NRCS uses a locally-led approach in which all project planning and implementation is driven by the local sponsors and other stakeholders. Local sponsors are those entities which are willing to provide the funds for their share of the project cost implementation (these may represent up to 35 percent of project cost), obtain any necessary land rights and to perform any operation and maintenance required during the life of a project.

  • Oxford Lake Recreation AreaProject objectives may include one or more of the following: flood damage reduction, water-based recreation development, water quality improvement, wildlife improvement, groundwater recharge, and agricultural enhancement.
  • Project planning involves several steps, including problem definition; inventory, forecast and analysis: formulate, evaluation and comparison of alternatives; and, with the help of the locally-led sponsors, choosing an alternative for implementation.

PL83-566 - Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act Program establishes the role of NRCS in watershed planning, operations and rehabilitation.

NRCS and the Watershed Approach

"Every one of us lives in a watershed." You may have heard this, but are wondering - what exactly is a watershed? Think about an area that collects rainfall and snow. The rain and snow run across the slope of the land or sink into the soil; this collected water eventually finds its way into a small creek, which joins with other creeks to become a river. The land and water bodies that share this same flow endpoint comprise a watershed. The people, plants, animals and wildlife, soil, water and air within a watershed are all connected in a delicate balance. The decisions each of us makes about use of these resources within our watershed affect its overall health.

NRCS, like many natural resources agencies, plans and carries out its work on a watershed basis. NRCS works through a locally led process which may involve Soil Conservation Districts, watershed associations, environmental commissions, and local and county planning boards and others to develop and implement watershed management plans.

NRCS uses a natural resource planning process which includes identification and definition of the problem, determining the objectives, inventory of the resources, analysis of resource data, development of alternatives, plan implementation and evaluation. Watershed management plans on which NRCS provides assistance include one or more of the following purposes: flood prevention, water quality improvement, water conservation, water supply and recreation.

Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program is 50 Years Old

The Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act ( PL83-566) was passed in 1954 due to the serious damages being sustained by our nation’s streams and flood plains from erosion and sedimentation and economic losses caused by severe flooding. In New Jersey NRCS has assisted local sponsors in the development and implementation of nearly twenty watershed plans. Over the years, as national priorities changed, the program was amended to include a wide variety of purposes and objectives, so that today almost any water-related issue may be addressed through the program. Under the program the Natural Resources Conservation Service along with county Soil Conservation Districts, units of government, watershed associations and others, develop and implement watershed plans throughout New Jersey. The purpose of these plans may include:

  • Watershed protection
  • Flood prevention
  • Groundwater recharge
  • Water quality improvement
  • Recreation development
  • Wetland enhancement and protection

Conservation Effects Assessment Project

In 2003, ARS in cooperation with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and other Federal and State agencies began to develop a national effort to assess conservation practices on watersheds named the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). The purpose of CEAP is to provide the farming community, the conservation community, the general public, the Office of Management and Budget, legislators, and others involved with environmental policy issues an accounting of the environmental effects or benefits obtained from USDA conservation program expenditures.

The centerpiece of the watershed assessment program is the ARS "benchmark" watersheds. The term benchmark is used to distinguish the ARS watersheds from other non-ARS watersheds, where watershed assessment research is being initiated under CEAP. Also, the concept of benchmark watersheds is used to differentiate the larger scale ARS watersheds from field scale ARS research activity. ARS identified approximately $14 million of its current research under this National Program that contributes to the goals and objectives of the CEAP program. ARS received $1.35 million dollars from NRCS in late FY 2003 to initiate the following activities related to CEAP: the 12-benchmark watersheds ($1.0 million), the national assessment activities directly contributing to the NRCS requirements ($240 K), and a review and synthesis of current of literature ($75 K). Nine ARS locations are managing the research activity on the 12-benchmark watersheds. The location is: Ames, Iowa, Tifton, Georgia, El Reno, Oklahoma, Temple, Texas, Oxford, Mississippi, University Park, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Missouri, West Lafayette, Indiana, and Columbus, Ohio. In addition to these locations, ARS scientists from Ft. Collins, Colorado, are coordinating a portion of the modeling activities. The 12-benchmark watersheds represent primarily rain fed or non-irrigated cropland.

The research assessments on the ARS benchmark watersheds are intended to determine an optimal selection and placement of conservation management practices to achieve specific water quality and other environmental goals, as well as provide initial information important to assessing the economic and social factors that facilitate or impede implementation of these conservation practices. ARS is developing plans to partner with ERS, NRCS, and several universities to enhance the economic and social science efforts within the CEAP program. To guide the research assessments, ARS has held a coordination workshop for all ARS scientists and many of the partners participating in CEAP in Irving, Texas, on December 2-4, 2003. An ARS project plan for the 12-benchmark watersheds has been tentatively scheduled for peer review in the fall 2004, and a revised project plan is scheduled for completion by the end of the year. The first report from NRCS, with the assistance from ARS, to the Office of Management and Budget that quantifies environmental benefits for implementing conservation practices at the watershed scale is due in October 2005.

Other Activities in New Jersey Watersheds

Contact: David Lamm, State Conservation Engineer, 732-537-6071

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Last Modified: December 04, 2008