Download or read book Watershed Condition Framework written by United States. Forest Service and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Strategic Plan for FY 2010–2015 targets the restoration of watershed and forest health as a core management objective of the national forests and grasslands. To achieve this goal, the Forest Service, an agency of USDA, is directed to restore degraded watersheds by strategically focusing investments in watershed improvement projects and conservation practices at the landscape and watershed scales. The Watershed Condition Framework (WCF) is a comprehensive approach for classifying watershed condition, proactively implementing integrated restoration in priority watersheds on national forests and grasslands, and tracking and monitoring outcome-based program accomplishments for performance accountability. In a 2006 review of the Forest Service Watershed Program, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) concluded that the agency lacked a nationally consistent approach to prioritizing watersheds for improvement (OMB 2006). The OMB also noted that current Forest Service direction for tracking watershed condition class (FSM 2521) was vague, open to varied interpretation, and insufficient to consistently evaluate watershed condition or track how the condition changes over time. To address these issues, the Forest Service formed a National Watershed Condition Team and tasked it with developing a consistent, science-based approach to classify the condition of all National Forest System (NFS) watersheds and to develop outcome-based performance measures for watershed restoration. The watershed condition policy goal of the Forest Service is “to protect National Forest System watersheds by implementing practices designed to maintain or improve watershed condition, which is the foundation for sustaining ecosystems and the production of renewable natural resources, values, and benefits” (FSM 2520). Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack reemphasized this policy in his “Vision for the Forest Service,” when he stated that restoring watershed and forest health would be the primary management objective of the Forest Service (USDA 2010). To help implement this new policy emphasis, the Forest Service developed the WCF. The WCF provides a consistent way to evaluate watershed condition at both the national and forest levels. Watershed condition assessments by individual national forests are critical because local national forest staffs are the closest to the ground and best understand existing conditions. The WCF consists of reconnaissance-level assessments by individual national forests, implementation of integrated improvement activities within priority watersheds, validation and monitoring of watershed condition class changes, and aggregation of program performance data for national reporting.
Download or read book Watershed Condition Classification Technical Guide written by U.s. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Strategic Plan for fiscal year (FY) 2010–2015 targets the restoration of watershed and forest health as a core management objective of the national forests and grasslands. To achieve this goal, the Forest Service, an agency of USDA, is directed to restore degraded watersheds by strategically focusing investments in watershed improvement projects and conservation practices at landscape and watershed scales. The Forest Service formed the National Watershed Condition Team and tasked it with developing a nationally consistent, science-based approach to classify the condition of all National Forest System (NFS) watersheds and to develop outcome-based performance measures for watershed restoration. The team evaluated alternative approaches for classifying watersheds (USDA Forest Service 2007) and developed the watershed condition classification (WCC) system described in this technical guide. The team designed the WCC system to—Classify the condition of all NFS watersheds; Be quantitative to the extent feasible; Rely on Geographic Information System (GIS) technology; Be cost effective; Be implementable within existing budgets; Include resource areas and activities that have a significant influence on watershed condition. National forests are required to revise the classification on an annual basis. The WCC system is a national forest-based, reconnaissance level evaluation of watershed condition achievable within existing budgets and staffing levels that can be aggregated for a national assessment of watershed condition. The WCC system offers a systematic, flexible means of classifying watersheds based on a core set of national watershed condition indicators. The system relies on professional judgment exercised by forest interdisciplinary (ID) teams, GIS data, and national databases to the extent they are available, and on written rule sets and criteria for indicators that describe the three watershed condition classes (functioning properly, functioning at risk, and impaired function). The WCC system relies on Washington Office and regional office oversight for flexible and consistent application among national forests. The WCC system is a first approximation of watershed condition, and we will revise and refine it over time. The expectation is that we will improve and refine individual resource indicators and that we will develop databases and map products to assist with future classifications. The WCC information will be incorporated into the watershed condition framework, which will ultimately be employed to establish priorities, evaluate program performance, and communicate watershed restoration successes to interested stakeholders and Congress. The watershed condition goal of the Forest Service is “to protect National Forest System watersheds by implementing practices designed to maintain or improve watershed condition, which is the foundation for sustaining ecosystems and the production of renewable natural resources, values, and benefits” (FSM 2520). U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack reemphasized this policy in his “Vision for the Forest Service” when he stated that achieving restoration of watershed and forest health would be the primary management objective of the Forest Service (USDA 2010). This Watershed Condition Classification Technical Guide helps to implement this policy objective by—1. Establishing a systematic process for determining watershed condition class that all national forests can apply consistently; 2. Improving Forest Service reporting and tracking of watershed condition; 3. Strengthening the effectiveness of the Forest Service to maintain and restore the productivity and resilience of watersheds and their associated aquatic systems on NFS lands.
Download or read book Interior Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2015 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Interior Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2018 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Federal Register written by and published by . This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Review of the New York City Watershed Protection Program written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2020-12-04 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York City's municipal water supply system provides about 1 billion gallons of drinking water a day to over 8.5 million people in New York City and about 1 million people living in nearby Westchester, Putnam, Ulster, and Orange counties. The combined water supply system includes 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes with a total storage capacity of approximately 580 billion gallons. The city's Watershed Protection Program is intended to maintain and enhance the high quality of these surface water sources. Review of the New York City Watershed Protection Program assesses the efficacy and future of New York City's watershed management activities. The report identifies program areas that may require future change or action, including continued efforts to address turbidity and responding to changes in reservoir water quality as a result of climate change.
Download or read book Interior Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2017 Justification of the budget estimates Related agencies written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Introduction to Forests and Renewable Resources written by Chad P. Dawson and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 2019-10-24 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The introductory course in natural resources is broader and more diverse than ever. Today's students need to know how to manage forest, wildlife, watershed, and range resources in a variety of environments and serving the needs of myriad stakeholders. To that end, Chad Dawson has built on the foundation established by him and the late John Hendee to bring Introduction to Forests and Renewable Resources thoroughly up to date. The Ninth Edition has been reorganized to better address content—for example, policy and the differences between managing federal, state, and private land—that applies to all resources. While forests continue to be emphasized, more coverage is provided to other resources and to achieving management goals for multiple resources when considering topics like fire and recreation.
Download or read book Department of the Interior Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2013 written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Making Transparent Environmental Management Decisions written by Keith M. Reynolds and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1997, the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system has been used around the world to support environmental analysis and planning in many different application areas, and it has been applied over a wide range of geographic scales, from forest stands to entire countries. An extensive sampling of this diversity of applications is presented in section 2, in which EMDS application developers describe the varied uses of the system. These accounts, together with the requisite background in section 1, provide valuable practical insights into how the system can be applied in the general domain of environmental management.
Download or read book Financial Services and General Government Appropriations for 2017 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Interior Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2017 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 1140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Interior Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2016 Part 4 A 2015 114 1 written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 1180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Interior Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2016 Part 4 B 2015 114 1 written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Interior Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2016 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 1196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Environmental Law and Contrasting Ideas of Nature written by Keith H. Hirokawa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-17 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Law's ideas of nature appear in different doctrinal and institutional settings, historical periods, and political dialogues. Nature underlies every behavior, contract, or form of wealth, and in this broad sense influences every instance of market transaction or governmental intervention. Recognizing that law has embedded discrete constructions of nature helps in understanding how humans value their relationship with nature. This book offers a scholarly examination of the manner in which nature is constructed through law, both in the 'hard' sense of directly regulating human activities that impact nature, and in the 'soft' manner in which law's ideas of nature influence and are influenced by behaviors, values, and priorities. Traditional accounts of the intersection between law and nature generally focus on environmental laws that protect wilderness. This book will build on the constructivist observation that when considered as a culturally contingent concept, 'nature' is a self-perpetuating and self-reinforcing social creation.
Download or read book Integrating Landscape Approaches and Multi Resource Analysis into Natural Resource Management written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-04-09 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The responsible management of natural resources for present-day needs and future generations requires integrated approaches that are place-based, embrace systems thinking, and incorporate the social, economic, and environmental considerations of sustainability. Landscape-scale analysis takes this holistic view by focusing on the spatial scales most appropriate for the resource types and values being managed. Landscape-scale analysis involves assessing landscape features in relation to a group of influencing factors such as land use change, hydrologic changes or other disturbances, topography, and historical vegetation conditions. As such, different types of data and multiple disciplines may be required for landscape analysis, depending on the question of interest and scale of analysis. Multi-resource analysis (MRA) is an approach to landscape-scale analysis that integrates information among multiple natural resources, including ecosystem services, and is designed to evaluate impacts and tradeoffs between development and conservation at landscape scales to inform public resource managers. This approach implicitly addresses social, economic, and ecological functional relationships; for example, actions to realize the benefits of one type of natural resource (e.g., minerals, oil, and gas) may influence behavior and potential benefits related to other types of natural resources (e.g., recreational opportunities). In June 2015, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on using landscape-based approaches and MRA to better inform federal decision making for the sustainable management of natural resources. Participants discussed knowledge gaps and priority areas for research and presentations of case studies of approaches that have been used to effectively integrate landscape-based approaches and MRA into practice. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
