Issues Affecting Our Watershed

A watershed is a complex system of organisms, geology, water, weather, and a myriad of other pieces impacting one another. As such, there are many complex issues in the watershed, both man-made and not, which impact all the other pieces in many ways. Our watersheds face a number of natural challenges such as climate change, sedimentation, flooding, e-coli, invasive species, deforestation, and more. They also face a number of man-made challenges such as bids for open-pit mining, large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations, commercial-scale artesian water withdrawal, and oil pipelines.

Man-Made Challenges

There are many complex issues regarding land use for our region. We work to provide relevant information to promote responsible and effective decision-making on issues affecting the region. By relying on sound science and partnering with other local organizations, we hope to provide our community with the ability to think critically and objectively evaluate new developments and what they mean to our watershed.

Natural Challenges

We recognize that many “natural” challenges are frequently man-made in origin, and also that humans are a part of the natural world. But to distinguish active campaigns from local, human sources from those which are broad, complex, and often decades or hundreds of years in the making, we will consider these challenges as “natural” challenges separate from man-made, localized challenges.