By MIKE JAMES
from The Independent
September 13, 2008

GRAYSON — There’s a swampy area behind East Carter Middle School, down the slope next to the softball field.

A pool of ankle-deep water, clouded with algae, is surrounded by plantains, sedge and cattails. A couple of weathered tree trunks are wedged into the murky bottom.

Although it may sound unsavory, not only is there no plan to do anything about it, a crew of scientists, naturalists and students spent Thursday at the school creating a similar marsh right next to it.

Biologists refer to the marshes as wetlands and consider them valuable components of the natural world. Wetlands nurture native plant species and provide food and habitat for animals. They assist in filtering potential pollutants from rainwater.

And perhaps most important to the school, they provide a permanent, virtually maintenance-free outdoor laboratory for science classes....

"Energy versus Water: Solving Both Crises Together"
Water is needed to generate energy. Energy is needed to deliver water. Both resources are limiting the other—and both may be running short. Is there a way out?
Read more in this article by Michael E. Webber in the October issue of Scientific American.

The Center for Watershed Protection has issued a series of six Wetland & Watershed articles:

1. Direct and Indirect Impacts of Urbanization on Wetland Quality 
2. Using Local Watershed Plans to Protect Wetlands
3. Adapting Watershed Tools to Protect Wetlands
4. Model Ordinance for Local Wetland Protection
5. Urban Wetland Restoration Techniques
6. Local Tools for Protecting Vulnerable Wetlands and Aquatic Resources 

The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program released it's annual report, "State of Mobile Bay - A Status Report on Alabama's Coastline from the Delta to Our Coastal Waters." was released.  This report focuses on an area that includes both Mobile and Baldwin Counties, the Mississippi Sound westward to the Alabama-Mississippi State Line, and the Alabama State marine waters in the north central Gulf of Mexico extending three miles south of Dauphin Island and the Fort Morgan Peninsula.

Alabama Water Watch began in 1992 and has conducted more than 1,000 workshops in nine levels of physical, chemical and biological monitoring for about 4,000 citizen volunteers.  Monitors have cumulatively submitted over 40,000 data records from 1,800 sites on 700 waterbodies using EPA-approved protocols.  About 80 percent of data records are currently entered by monitors into a customized database via the Internet and all data may be accessed, analyzed, mapped and graphed online by the general public.

There are three ways in which AWW data have been used for watershed management:
1) solving water quality problems at the local level through education, neighbor-to-neighbor persuasion and local ordinances, 2) adding or removing streams from the 303(d) list, developing TMDLs and including the data in the 305(b) report to Congress by the state regulatory agency, and 3) development of watershed management plans on various scales by stakeholder groups.  Most AWW monitors do not seem to be deterred by the slow pace of using their data for watershed improvements, and about 80 citizen groups consistently test water because it is “the right thing to do,” personally enriching and enjoyable.

Here you will find guidance on local tools to protect wetlands. This website features: Wetlands & Watersheds Article Series, Wetland Slideshows, Wetland Web Resources, Wetland Research Bibliography, Upcoming Wetland-Related Events. The article series was developed by the Center for Watershed Protection in cooperation with the U.S. EPA.

Presentation given at the Southeast Watershed Forum's conference, Building Sustainable Communities for the 21st Century, held August 12-14, 2008 in Charleston, SC. 

Coastal Resiliance Planning Tools for Building Sustainable Communities - Lauren Long, NOAA Coastal Services Center

The Forest Legacy Program was established in 1990 to ascertain and protect environmentally important forest areas that are threatened by conversion to non-forest uses, and to promote the long-term sustainability of forest lands.  Most Southern States elected to join the program in the last five years and will hold title to lands and conservation easements purchased with these funds.  States and non federal partners commit to a 25% non federal cost share on each project.

Priority is given to conserve lands that can be effectively managed as working forests.  A goal of the Forest Legacy Program is to contribute to watershed based efforts to protect important private forests.  Thus many projects focus on riparian areas, forested wetlands, shorelines, and riverine systems.  Individual projects that center on watershed values will be discussed in this session.

• South Carolina Cooper River Corridor
• Town Creek Initiative, North Carolina
• Newnan’s Lake, Florida

The U.S. EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds publishes a monthly report, Nonpoint Source New-Notes, on "the condition of the water-related environment, the control of nonpoint sources of water pollution, and the ecological management and restoration of watersheds."  The September issue features an article about the Cumberland River Compact's (TN) Building Outside the Box program - a coalition that helps to educate the building and construction community, as well as the general public, about best management practices, erosion control and green building techniques and the positive effect they can have on our water quality.  To read the entire report, go to http://www.epa.gov/owow/info/NewsNotes/issue82/82issue.pdf

EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds is pleased to announce the launch of “Developing a Sustainable Finance Plan” to EPA’s Watershed Academy. This module, developed with the help of numerous partners over the course of two years, includes:

• A six-step, self-paced process for developing a finance plan
• Downloadable finance planning exercises and self-quizzes
• Sample finance plans and templates
• Case studies of successful finance mechanisms from other watershed organizations
• An extensive resources section

The module can be used to train new staff or board members, walk your organization through developing a finance plan, or simply find new finance mechanisms. You can access the module at: www.epa.gov/watertrain/sustainablefinance.

This National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change provides an overview of the likely effects of climate change on water resources and the nation’s clean water and safe drinking water programs. This final strategy also describes 40 specific actions the National Water Program intends to take to adapt program implementation in light of climate change.

EPA, NOAA and nine other federal agencies have announced the completion of an interagency report that guides the strategies of individual federal agencies and of the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee (IMDCC) to prevent and reduce marine debris. The report also discusses marine debris efforts, recent progress and innovative ways to reduce the problem in the future.

Presentation for the Southeast Watershed Forum’s conference, Building Sustainable Communities for the 21^st Century, held August 12-14, 2008, in Charleston, SC.

Fusing Smart Growth and Water Quality - Jane Fowler, Southeast Watershed Forum and Joel Haden, Tennessee Valley Authority

Raleigh, NC -January 13. 2009 - With support from a $3.7 million loan from the Open Space Institute, another significant segment of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail in western North Carolina will soon be open to the public with the Conservation Trust for North Carolina’s (CTNC) purchase of a 538-acre property on the Blue Ridge Parkway. CTNC is one of the larger regional land protection organizations in OSI’s Southern Appalachians focus area, and it has successfully protected 30,000 acres along the Blue Ridge Parkway corridor.

The Mississippi River Basin is the largest watershed in North America, draining 41% of the continental United States and discharging into the Northern Gulf of Mexico.  Aquatic ecosystems, and national and local economies, depend on healthy, oxygen-rich Gulf waters, which can be negatively impacted by excess nutrients (eutrophication). In 1997, a coalition of federal, state, and tribal agencies established the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force to understand the causes and effects of eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico and to coordinate activities to help reduce the area of oxygen-depleted water in the Gulf, also known as the hypoxic zone.

McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company announces several new books for citizens and professionals interested in protecting valuable land and water resources.

• A Handbook for Stream Enhancement & Stewardship and Handbook for Wetlands Conservation and Sustainability by The Izaak Walton League
• A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America by J. Reese Voshell
• Vernal Pools: Natural History and Conservation by Elizabeth A. Colburn
• Forests in Peril: Tracking Deciduous Trees from Ice-Age Refuges into the Greenhouse World by Hazel Delcourt
  

The NOAA Coastal Risk Atlas (CRA) project goals aim at aiding hurricane preparedness efforts by providing the data and methodology necessary to conduct vulnerability assessments for the coastal United States. Provided data include:

• Acquired hazard model outputs such as storm surge, maximum winds, and inland flooding to help locate vulnerable areas
• U.S. Census demographic data to help locate vulnerable populations
• Critical facilitites such as police and fire stations, emergency centers, and hospitals
• Base layers such as evacuation routes and other roadways, streams, water bodies, and land use data showing economic sectors within the community
• Boundary areas such as evacuation zones and populated places

Resources available through the CRA:

• Vulnerability Assessment Mapping
• National Observations and Vulnerability Mapping
• Downloadable ArcGIS Extensions
• Downloadable Data
• Links to GIS and Emergency Management Resources
   
  

The Wetlands Reserve Program is a voluntary program offering landowners the opportunity to protect, restore, and enhance wetlands on their property.  The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides technical and financial support to help landowners with their wetland restoration efforts.  The NRCS goal is to achieve the greatest wetland functions and values, along with optimum wildlife habitat, on every acre enrolled in the program.  This program offers landowners an opportunity to establish long-term conservation and wildlife practices and protection.

The Partnership for Land and Water Protection - a mapping project between the Southeast Watershed Forum and the Land Trust Alliance to encourage greater regional cooperation and coordination among land trusts, watershed groups, state agency staff for aquatic habitat protection.  To date, the partnership has mapped protected lands over eith southeastern states and cataloged more than 227,620 acres of land and 726 miles of streams.  Click here for a flyer (pdf) about the project.

The Carbon Footprint of Water explores the energy and carbon emissions embedded in the nation’s water supplies. In this report, River Network has developed a baseline estimate of water-related energy use in the United States, as well as a comparative overview of the energy embedded in different water supplies and end-uses. The report also includes numerous examples of how water management strategies can protect our freshwater resources while reducing energy and carbon emissions.

Presentation for the Southeast Watershed Forum’s conference, Building Sustainable Communities for the 21^st Century, held August 12-14, 2008, in Charleston, SC.

Sustainable Financing for Watershed Protection - Jeff Hughes, Environmental Finance Center UNC School of Government

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's Division of Natural Areas has produced two reports on Tennessee's Wetlands:

• An Assessment of Wetland Mitigation in Tennessee
• Tennessee's Wetland Conservation Strategy

EPA Report (pdf): The Use of Best Management Practices in Urban Watersheds. By Swarna Muthukrishnan, Bethany Madge Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Edison, New Jersey 08837 and Ari Selvakumar, Richard Field, Daniel Sullivan U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Edison, New Jersey 08837. 

• Chapter 1: Executive Summary
• Chapter 2: Types of Best Management Practices
• Chapter 3: Stuctural BMP Design Practices
• Chapter 4: BMP Monitoring
• Chapter 5: Effective Use of BMP's in Stormwater Management
• Chapter 6: BMP Cost

From River Network (Author: Bevan Griffiths-Sattenspiel) A new report released yesterday in the UK by the Environment Agency and the Energy Saving Trust explores the energy and carbon embedded in residential water use. Titled Quantifying the Energy and Carbon Effects of Water Saving, the report concludes, among other things that 6% of the UK's carbon emissions are related to water and that Britons could save 30% of the carbon emissions from heating water through some simple retrofits.  Click here to read more.

Presentation for the Southeast Watershed Forum’s conference, Building Sustainable Communities for the 21^st Century, held August 12-14, 2008, in Charleston, SC.

Waterfront and Coast Smart Growth - Susan Fox, NOAA Coastal Services Center

(Washington, D.C.-Jan. 6, 2006)  EPA's Office of Water has published a guide to watershed management as a tool in developing and implementing watershed plans.  The draft Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters is aimed toward communities, watershed groups, and local, state, tribal, and federal environmental agencies.

Wetland Factsheets from the Southeast Watershed Forum:

• Wetland Buffer Zones
• Riparian Buffer Zones
• Floodplain Management
• Urban Forestry
• Wetland Ordinances