Sustainable Development: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. - Our Common Future, 1987.

In general, the current federal and state structure for decision making that affects or protects the environment is stratified by environmental media programs, as well as by political and administrative jurisdictions. Air laws and regulations protect air quality and control harmful emissions to the atmosphere. Water laws and regulations protect water quality, controlling discharges of pollutants to United States waters and promoting pollution prevention efforts. Waste disposal laws and regulations govern the way in which solid and hazardous wastes are managed and disposed. Endangered species laws protect threatened and endangered species. These statutes and authorities and the resulting government programs have not traditionally encouraged cross-media, multi-institutional, ecosystem-based approaches among all the various agencies with responsibilities that affect watersheds. In many cases, existing regulations may obstruct these types of approaches.

It is increasingly clear that threats to aquatic resources cannot adequately be addressed, nor can problems posed by freshwater diversions, wetlands destruction, or conflicts between endangered species habitat and industry be solved, without a more integrated watershed approach to the management and protection of those resources. Today's challenges include resolving not only the direct sources of pollution and other impacts, but also the significant pollution problems that come from literally millions of nonpoint sources. Downstream and coastal waters are seriously impacted by the effects of activities carried out higher in the watershed. Safe drinking water supplies must be maintained, and aquatic habitats restored and protected, while at the same time meeting the infrastructure needs of our society. These challenges require innovative, cooperative solutions on an ecosystem basis. They require consideration of the condition and capacities of landscapes within the entire watershed. They also require collaborative attention from the full range of decision-makers who impact or protect those resources and from stakeholders who live, work, or own land in watersheds and have an interest in resource health and integrity.

We need an improved framework at national, regional, state, and local levels to better integrate efforts that could contribute to watershed resource management and protection and to encourage such efforts already underway. In addition, government agencies at all levels must work more closely with each other and with the private sector to solve common problems. We must develop environmental solutions using a holistic approach that considers the interconnectedness of surface water, ground water, and aquatic and related land resources. These solutions must be undertaken in a geographic context that addresses the whole spectrum of activity and resource use throughout the watershed. Finally, sustainable development must be the unifying principle for all future approaches to managing natural resources.

New Directions

The concept of watershed-based environmental protection has been included in congressional debate on the reauthorization of the CWA, with many advocates emphasizing the need for a stronger watershed framework in the management and protection of our nation's aquatic resources. Specific proposals include providing authority for voluntary watershed planning at the state level to protect water quality and the living resources supported by the waters. Watershed plans are to characterize waters and land uses of the watershed, identify water quality problems and goals for watershed management, allocate needed load reductions among point and nonpoint sources, and identify financial resources and institutional arrangements necessary for implementation.

The current administration also has endorsed the concept of cross-agency ecosystem management initiatives, and supports an ecosystem framework through which federal agencies, state, local, and tribal governments, the public, and Congress can work together to develop specific strategies, refocus current programs and resources, and identify cost-effective investments in the economic and ecological health of a region.

Another current model for integrated site-specific coastal ecosystem restoration is the collaborative partnership known as Coastal America. Through this partnership, the full spectrum of infrastructure agencies, resource management agencies, environmental protection agencies (both federal and state), local, private, and citizen interests have joined forces to restore coastal ecosystems. The partnership provides a framework for many of the parties conducting activities throughout the watershed that affect the aquatic ecosystem to collaboratively resolve the problems that threaten the watershed's aquatic resources.

Through these and similar partnership efforts, we are addressing the problems facing our Nation's aquatic ecosystems and living resources from a new perspective. The future of our aquatic ecosystems and the fish and wildlife that depend on them lies in integrated and collaborative decision-making on a watershed basis and in an ecosystem context. By these means we can protect and support clean, abundant habitats and water resources, healthy ecosystems, and continued use of our waterways for our economic and environmental benefit, from the beginning to the end.

Go to Section V: A Model for Watershed-Based Aquatic Ecosystem Protection

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