Watershed Reporting at CVC

Influencing and Engaging Decision Makers: A Case Study

Outline

• IWMP summary• 5 Year Review Report Card• 10 Year Review • CVC Stakeholders• Components of current WRC• Next Steps

CVC Integrated Watershed Monitoring Program

• Program started in 1999 with the goal of “ensuring an environmentallyhealthy river for economically and socially healthy communities”

• Watershed wide program with approximately 175 monitoring sites in 22 subwatersheds

• Annual reports, program reviews every 5 years

Parameters we measure

Index of Biotic IntegrityFish species, populations and communities

Biology

Parameters of Concern

Community composition

• Water and sediment chemistry• Benthic macroinvertebrates

species, populations and communities

Water Quality

Stream stabilityStream form and channel shapeFluvial Geomorphology

Forest HealthSpecies HealthWetland and riparian health

• Forests and their flora and fauna• Wetlands and riparian

communities

Terrestrial

Temporal trendsFlow regimesHydrology

Recharge ratesBaseflow and groundwater levelsHydrogeology

Air Temperature, Precipitation

WeatherMeteorology

IndicatorArea of FocusDiscipline

IWMP Five Year review

• A 5 year review of the program was completed in 2005 and Watershed Report Cards were produced

• 2 versions for public distribution with different audiences

IWMP 5 Year Review

• Many of the disciplines could not detect a significant change

• 2 of 15 water quality stations showed good results, 4 showed poor results

• 40% of fish stations were in excellent or good health while 30% were in poor health

Limitations to Five Year Review

• Not enough data – for some disciplines more than 50% of the watershed could notbe assigned a score given a lack of data

• Difficult to engage decision makers without that certainty

10 Year Review

• Four Key Questions:– Are there time trends?– Do the time trends differ among zones?– What is the influence of Percent Impervious Cover?– What is the current condition?

• 10 Years of monitoring should give us a better opportunity to develop a statistically robust dataset that could better identify trends.

• From the beginning of the project, discussions around presenting the data in a report card have occurred and have helped us formulate the questions

10 Year Review Trends

• Water quality index and chloride show trends towards improvement

• Mean annual flows increasing

• Forest Birds Species Richness increasing

• Weedy species increasing in lower urban areas suggestion urbanization impacts

• Fish IBI decreasing over all zones

IBI SCORE -Credit River @ Silver Creek u/s Hwy 7 Norval 501110001

y = -2.5276x + 23.839R2 = 0.7387

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

YEAR

IBI V

ALUE

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

0 1

Excellent >15Good (10 - <15)Fair (5 - <10)Poor (<5)501110001 Silver Creek u/s Hwy 7 Norval

10 Year Review

• in order to present results in a watershed report card, we need to establish targets

• Some disciplines have known threshold values Eg benthics - HBI, water quality -WQI, fish - CVC Index of Biotic Integrity

• Other disciplines don’t have well established thresholds e.g. Terrestrial/Species Richness, hydrogeology well levels

10 Year Review Limitations

• Difficult for some disciplines, ie geomorph, to fit into categorized scores (eg. good, fair, poor)

• 10 years of monitoring has not been long enough to collect enough data for some disciplines

• Since not all disciplines are at all sites, integration is a challenge

From the results of the 10 year review, who do we want to engage.

CVC Stakeholders

• Watershed Residents• Municipalities• Government Agencies• Board Members• NGO’s• Conservation Ontario

How to Approach/Engage Stakeholders

• Watershed Residents• Focus on key problem

areas with a simple and focused topic

• Know the issues that concern the residents before engaging them

• Eg. Market research campaign on Sustainable Practices showed 44% don’t know what a watershed is

How to Approach/Engage Stakeholders

• Municipalities• Bring it all back to

land use• What has been the

influence of land use change

• Identify problem areas with scientific data to support

How to Approach/Engage Stakeholders

• Government Agencies

• Focus on the disciplines which they contribute to

• Provide clear scientific data with easy to read trends

How to Approach/Engage Stakeholders

• Board Members and NGO’s• represent a link between the CVC and the

public and municipalities• Want information presented on different

levels• Clear easy to understand for non-scientific

readers

Report Card Considerations

Need to be aware of:• Scale of interest (local, subwatershed,

watershed)• Technical/Scientific sophistication of the

general target reader • The issues of the day• The readers ability to contribute to the goal

of a healthy watershed

Report Card Considerations

• The report card will identify issues and trends that are of concern to the stakeholders and health of the watershed

• Target key locations and practices within the watershed to concentrate our outreach and influence change

• What change, if any, is expected (negative or positive)

• What can be done to contribute to positive change

Final Product

• Publication Blitz• Follow up conversations to key areas

indentified• Presentation to Board• Website• Workshop Presentations

Next Steps

• Expect to have a final technical report by mid December

• Watershed Report Card by spring 2011

Contact

• lharvey@creditvalleyca.ca