Watershed Protection: A Statewide Approach

The Watershed Protection Approach is a strategy for effectively protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems and protecting human health. This strategy has as its premise that many water quality and ecosystem problems are best solved at the watershed level rather than at the individual waterbody or discharger level. The Watershed Protection Approach has four major features: targeting priority problems, a high level of stakeholder involvement, integrated solutions that make use of the expertise and authority of multiple agencies, and measuring success through monitoring and other data gathering.  The state experiences on which this document are based reflect different levels of integration. Thus, although the document is based on their experiences, it does attempt to identify opportunities for incorporating a truly comprehensive approach.

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