Program Plan to Assess Watershed Conditions

Through the Natural Resource Challenge, the NPS Water Resources Division received a base increase to conduct Watershed Condition Assessments on a system-wide basis. Watershed Condition Assessment (WCA) involves applying a set of descriptive and/or quantitative technical methods to describe ecosystem health at the watershed scale. Typically, these methods develop and integrate assessments of discrete ecosystem components at a variety of landscape scales. Over the past 10-15 years, researchers and managers have developed numerous WCA methods for use in various ecosystems, and for a wide range of purposes. A constant element in all of the methods is the use of watershed areas to define landscape-level scales.

The field of resource condition assessments is relatively new and rapidly expanding. There are no widely accepted definitions, approaches, or “methods” for conducting structured, replicable assessments of watershed resources, and a wide variety of methods are available depending upon such things as the assessment purpose or use, habitat type, scale, and degree of quantitative rigor. The first challenge for this new program is to define the concept of watershed condition assessment for the National Park Service and to develop a framework and context for the systematic assessment of park watershed resource conditions. Additionally, sufficient guidance to parks is needed to identify and select appropriate methods to meet individual park needs.

As part of this program a project was recently initiated in cooperation with the Chesapeake Watershed CESU and George Mason University (GMU) to identify, review, clarify, evaluate, and develop a compendium of the many published methods for assessing watershed conditions in general, as well as the broad-scale conditions of various watershed resources such as wetlands, uplands, streams, and riparian resources. The GMU team, as part of the project, has created a website to solicit input from natural resource professionals on landscape health assessment methods. WRD is asking anyone who has been involved in these kinds of planning-level assessments to go to http://ecosurvey.gmu.edu and complete the survey. Additional information on ecological assessment methods is available on this site. If you have any questions please call Gary Smillie at 970-225-3522 or Rick Inglis at 970-225-3517.

Coastal Watershed Condition Assessment

Coastal watersheds, or land areas that drain into the coastal zone, are nature’s dynamic hydrologic systems that create and sustain coastal ecosystems. The NPS Watershed Condition Assessment Program (WCAP) is providing scientific assessments of coastal parks through the Natural Resource Challenge. In FY 2003, the WCA Program began funding assessments for 52 parks that manage significant ocean and Great Lakes resources, and as of FY 2005, has initiated 41 park assessments (see references to completed reports below). Through this program scientists review and synthesize existing information to determine the status or condition of coastal Park resources including water quality, habitat condition, invasive and feral species, extractive uses, physical impacts from resource use and coastal development, and other issues affecting resource health. Reports from these assessments evaluate the current state of knowledge about the condition of park resources and, where sufficient information exists, draw conclusions in regards to resource statusThese assessments also make recommendations for further studies to address known resource problems and to fill information gaps that were identified. FY05 and select FY04 assessments include the construction GIS database layers such as land use, habitat types, and other geospatial information that can be used to summarize and depict the current condition of Park resources.

Beginning in FY 06, the Scope of Work for the remaining 11 coastal/marine assessments will be modified as necessary to evaluate the condition of upland resources within coastal Park boundaries. Results of these assessments will be integrated into park and service-wide databases and will be used to guide Department of Interior land health goal reporting as prescribed by the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993. GIS databases and synthesis reports produced from this program will provide parks with an integrated, overall evaluation of current resource conditions for the DOI land health goal “land types” which include upland, riparian, wetland, and coastal/marine areas.

Coastal Watershed Condition Assessment Fact Sheet

Completed Coastal Watershed Condition Assessment Phase One Reports

Status of the Coastal Watershed Condition Assessments