1. Getting to Scale With
Successful Watershed
Management
Rebecca Power and Amulya Rao
University of Wisconsin
North Central Region One Water Action Forum 2018

2. Acknowledgements
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Todd Ambs, Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition
Nicholas Brozović and Kate Gibson, Water for Food Daugherty Global Institute at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln
Linda Prokopy, Purdue University
Chad Watts, Conservation Technology Information Center
Roger Wolf,
Iowa Soybean Association

3. Overview
 What is successful watershed management?
 What do we know about getting to scale?
 What is our theory of change?
 The importance of a watershed approach
 Water as a common pool resource (Ostrom and others)
 Scalable unit and necessary support elements of successful watershed management model
Photo Credit: Tom Gill

4. Successful Watershed Management
Successful watershed management: a system that achieves water-related
environmental and social goals in a designated time frame, with the goals and
the time frame agreed upon by a representative group of stakeholders.

5. What do we know about
getting to scale?
Photo: Stephen Morrison

6. Phases of scale-up: a public health model
Modified from
Barker et al 2016

7. Theory of change: scalable unit – 2 parts
1. Scale appropriate planning and
implementation
2. Necessary support elements
Human capital
Social capital
Policy framework
Finance framework

8. Scalable unit – 2 parts
1. Scale-appropriate planning and
implementation
 Watershed planning at the HUC 8 scale in
most Upper Midwest states
 Watershed planning + implementation at
the HUC 10/12 scale
 Size may differ with different populations,
geographies and governance systems

9. Scalable unit - 2 parts
2. Necessary support elements
Human capital
Social capital
Policy framework
Finance framework

10. Necessary element: human capital
 Establish a nested management structure corresponding to
the scalable unit.
 HUC 8 coordinator/manager
 Rotating HUC 10/12 coordinator
 Nurture watershed professionals’ leadership by
professionalizing watershed management
 Provide training
 Develop professional certificates in watershed leadership
 Establish professional organizations for watershed
professionals
 Offer professional-level compensation to watershed
professionals
Photo: Mike Orso

11. Necessary element: human capital
 Encourage citizen leadership and
participation in watershed initiatives
 Train and nurture system integrators, liaisons

12. Necessary element: social capital
 Involve community members in watershed-
related planning, activities, and decisions.
 Increase social capital by strengthening
networks – informal and formal
 Involve the community in formal organizations
like community watershed associations.
 Before launching intensive watershed efforts,
gauge stakeholder and community readiness.
Prioritize projects with high stakeholder and
community readiness.
Wisconsin Foodie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L0sxcm-elc

13. Necessary element: social capital
 Build trust between community members
and leaders of public and private institutions
 Early engagement
 Reciprocity
 Process transparency
 Data transparency and sharing
 Manage expectations
Photo: Papillion Creek Watershed Partnership

14. Necessary elements: policy framework
 States, in partnership with federal and local
government, must develop policy to encourage
watershed planning at larger scales and
implementation at smaller, local scales
 Watershed policies should incorporate
outcome-based, numeric, performance
measures
 Watershed plans must include accountability
criteria
 Federal, state, and local watershed efforts must
be coordinated and corresponding agencies
should work together synergistically

15. Necessary element: financing framework
Your financial framework should be:
 Sufficient
 Stable
 Diverse

16. Necessary element: financing framework
 Explore new and underutilized public and private
funding sources to pay for watershed projects
 Increase use of financing mechanisms like State
Revolving Loan Funds and green bonds that offer
flexible ways to borrow money
 Increase use of incentive-based and mitigation-based
economic instruments that can be used to modify
land management practices through market forces
 Build organizational capacity that will allow entities to
pursue underutilized sources of private funding and
use a mix of funding and financing options that will
offer sufficient, stable, long-term, and diverse funds
for watershed management

17. Necessary element: financing framework

18. Necessary element: financing framework
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-
10/documents/sponsorship_style_newest_final.pdf
Ohio EPA Water Resource Restoration
Sponsor Program (WRRSP) Tagline:
Providing over $165 million for stream and
wetland restoration and protection projects
throughout Ohio
https://www.conservationfinancenetwork.org/2018/05/21/usin
g-state-revolving-funds-for-land-conservation

19. Necessary element: financing framework

20. Where Do We Go From Here?

21. Operationalizing Scale-Up
 Step 1: Create a vision and broad strategy for the scale-up
 Step 2: Develop an organizational structure to support scale-up – Midwest Watershed
Collaborative?
 Step 3: Test, evaluate, and refine scale-up strategies
 Step 4: Go to and maintain full scale watershed management


22. A Midwest Watershed Collaborative Could
. . .
 Develop a knowledge management system
 Cultivate new leadership
 Organize outreach campaigns
 Influence policy
 Provide technical and financial expertise

23. Thank you!
Rebecca Power – rlpower@wisc.edu
Amulya Rao - amulya.vishweshwer@wisc.edu