Lake Watershed Program

Program Introduction

Program Goal
Program History
What is a Lake Watershed Survey
Survey Process
Pilot Surveys
Train-the-Trainers

PROGRAM GOAL

The purposes of Massachusetts Riverways’ Lake Watershed Stewardship Program Pilot were to (1) help citizens find root causes of water quality problems and (2) support grassroots planning and implementation of actions that help restore lake water quality and improve watershed management. The program achieved its purposes by:

1.) Developing and field-testing watershed survey methods with a series of pilot surveys on lake watersheds statewide, and;

2.) Coordinating a “Train-the-Trainer” program to share these methods with nonprofit partners around the Commonwealth.

The Lake Watershed Stewardship Program is a grassroots effort - tools and training are provided to citizens so they can take the steps necessary to protect the natural resources in their communities. The development of this pilot was the means by which Riverways developed and demonstrated a sustainable Lake Watershed Survey Program.

HISTORY

In November 2001, the Massachusetts Riverways Programs (Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Environmental Law Enforcement) launched the pilot Lake/Watershed Stewardship Program with federal funds from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) under an s. 319 competitive grant. Working collaboratively, the Riverways Programs partnered with DEP and the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), as well as nonprofit partners. The pilot’s Technical Advisory Committee included representatives from DEP’s Nonpoint Source Program, the DEM Lakes and Ponds Program, Massachusetts Congress of Lakes and Ponds (COLAP), Lake and Pond Associations of Western Massachusetts (LAPA-West), and the Massachusetts Water Watch Partnership. Based on the successful Riverways’ Adopt-A-Stream Program, the pilot brought together lake groups, residents on tributaries to lakes, town officials, sportsmen, and recreational users to address watershed protection for lakes and ponds.

WHAT IS A LAKE/WATERSHED SURVEY?

A lake watershed survey is a visual survey of a lake or pond, tributary and outlet streams, and the lake’s watershed, designed to look for the sources of nonpoint source pollution (i.e. the diffuse sources and situations contributing to the degradation of lake and tributary stream water quality). Trained volunteers use the survey to assess the lake or pond’s shoreline, the stream corridors of the tributaries and the outlet stream, and the upland watershed area.

Watershed surveys lead to actions that protect and restore lakes and ponds and their watersheds. By identifying and reporting problems to municipal and state officials, by designing projects to enhance existing conditions or remediate problems, and by raising awareness of communities and individuals, groups are able to achieve milestones in:

• Restoring water quality
• Identifying nonpoint source pollution
• Protecting and restoring habitat
• Involving municipal officials and bringing in new partners in identifying problems and solutions
• Implementing doable steps and in some cases seeking grants for larger projects

• As part of their effort to protect and restore lake watersheds, lake stewardship teams and lake watershed associations use watershed surveys to:
• Generate baseline data from field observations
• Determine priorities
• Create and implement an Action Plan for the watershed
• Reduce lake pollution from stormwater runoff by identifying and correcting sources of nonpoint source pollution
• Increase the body of active and aware watershed residents

WATERSHED SURVEY PROCESS DEVELOPEMENT

The pilot was based on the Massachusetts Adopt-A-Stream Program’s successful Shoreline Survey process. Developed and field-tested for over ten years, the Shoreline Survey process brings residents and municipal officials together for data collection, action planning and implementation. Because each survey uses “bottom up” decision making with technical assistance from Riverways, the process successfully promotes local assessment, protection and restoration of Massachusetts’ rivers.

Before the pilot Lake/Watershed Stewardship Program was launched, state agency staff and nonprofit organizations met to discuss possible scenarios for a lake stewardship program.  After discussion this group agreed to adapt the Shoreline Survey process to lakes. As a first step DEP published the Massachusetts Volunteers Guide for Surveying a Lake Watershed and Preparing an Action Plan. The Volunteers Guide provides excellent technical background on why a survey process is needed for lake and pond watersheds in Massachusetts, gives a thorough overview of two of the most common problems facing lake watersheds - phosphorus issues and eutrophication - and outlines the principles of a watershed survey.

Riverways took the next step: to develop the field methods and practical logistics of how to organize residents, with participation from municipal officials, for these surveys and to field-test the methods with actual surveys across the Commonwealth. The Riverways Lake/Watershed Stewardship Program Coordinator conducted watershed training statewide for one hundred eighty-five volunteers on twenty-two lakes and ponds and sections of thirty-one streams.  Along the way the Coordinator tracked successes and problems and made adjustments to improve the process and protocols with feedback from the participants?

During the course of the pilot, it became clear that several new tools were necessary to coordinate citizens through the watershed survey process. The Coordinator, in collaboration with other Riverways staff members, further refined the data collection forms for the program, including the development of a new “upland watershed area” data sheet for the forms to address surveying those land areas of concern that drain to the tributaries and lake. For the training, Riverways also created a new interactive PowerPoint slide show to educate citizens on watershed ecology and nonpoint source pollution and guide participants through an in-the-room watershed survey. Both of these tools were subjected to trial runs among colleagues from Riverways and from DEM to assure that these tools would be clear to non-technical participants, were relevant to watershed concerns, and that they would be appropriate across a wide range of communities and watersheds statewide.

Critical to the success of each pilot watershed survey was the involvement of local municipal officials in the planning stage for each survey, and again during the survey and action planning processes. As they formed the local steering committee for each pilot survey, Riverways coordinated local partners to recruit from city councils and town select boards, from conservation commissions and natural resources offices, in addition to other relevant officials. Again and again, Riverways found that involvement by the community from planning the survey to addressing its findings resulted in the local participants taking ownership of the project, viewing it not as a task to be completed for the state, but as an important step to addressing their own local concerns using an exciting new tool (the survey process) with guidance from the state agencies.

PILOT SURVEYS

Riverways trained almost 200 volunteers on twenty-two lakes and ponds and sections of thirty one streams in a variety of watershed situations.  The groups were chosen through a simplified application process.  Criteria for selection included:

1. Water quality problems – must be on the state’s list of water bodies with impaired water quality (s 303(d) list) and have existing or draft remediation plans from DEP, known as Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs).

2. Active volunteer group that:
a) Demonstrates commitment to doing this work
b) Demonstrates ability to work with town officials, the program, and people who live along upstream and downstream tributaries.
c) Demonstrates an interest in long-term solutions
d) Demonstrates current support, or a plan to gain support, from their community, elected officials, and the Watershed Initiative Team Leader to follow through with implementation.

3. Probability that this work will substantively advance restoration and protection of the lake/watershed’s water quality and ecosystem.

The surveys included a variety of watershed types:  urban, suburban, mixed urban/suburban, mixed suburban/rural and, through the train the trainer program,  kettlehole lakes.  It was felt that having such a variety of watersheds would ensure applicability of the surveys for a broad range of conditions.  Riverways found that the surveys, with some modifications did meet the full range of conditions.  Each step of the process, once refined, worked as it should.  The local steering committees ensured that the process met local needs and ensured local buy-in.  The interactive training both educated and caught the interest and imagination of the participants.  The data sheets worked well both to identify problem areas and to educate the participants.  The action planning meetings identified solutions that will give each group both a short term plan and long term aspirations in solving nonpoint source problems.  Finally the reports for each watershed will inform both local communities and state agencies, will ensure that the information will remain in a viable form and can serve as the basis for writing grants for future projects.

TRAIN-THE-TRAINER

A major goal of the pilot was to expand the Lake/Watershed Stewardship Program beyond its existence as a state pilot by establishing regional providers to assist citizens statewide. To achieve this goal, Riverways established a Train-the-Trainer Program to provide nonprofit and other organizations with the tools needed to coordinate volunteer Lake/Watershed Surveys for lake and pond watersheds in their region. The Train-the-Trainer Program provided rigorous training on the methods piloted and honed during the project and included participation in an actual Lake Watershed Survey.

Although the scope for this project required Riverways to train only three prospective Trainers statewide, Riverways felt it was essential to the long-term effectiveness of this project to provide training to a wider audience statewide. The goal in effect was to establish a network of regional service providers statewide, prepared with the proper training and tools to serve constituents in their region. To reach this goal, Riverways conducted extensive outreach. The coordinator mailed information packets offering free instruction through the regionally planned Train-the-Trainer Programs to potential participants in seventy-seven organizations, drawn from watershed associations, lake groups and regional planning commissions statewide, and followed up the mailing with phone calls and e-mails. This outreach proved to be very effective: eventually Riverways trained twenty-one participants from seventeen organizations in five different workshop series including

• Western Massachusetts Workshop Series featuring groups from west of the Connecticut River
• Connecticut Workshop Series
• Central Massachusetts Workshop Series
• North Shore Workshop Series, and
• Cape Cod Workshop Series.

The Massachusetts Leaders’ Manual to Coordinating a Volunteer Lake Watershed Survey

In the final months of the pilot Lake/Watershed Stewardship Program, Riverways conducted these Train-the-Trainer Workshops with staff from nonprofit partners across the state. The Technical Advisory Committee recommended tools and guidebooks for trainers to use as they coordinate citizens for a survey. To complement the first guidebook, DEP’s Massachusetts Volunteers Guide for Surveying a Lake Watershed and Preparing an Action Plan (Volunteers Guide), that provides technical material and a preliminary outline; Riverways developed a second guidebook, the Massachusetts Leaders’ Manual to Coordinating a Volunteer Lake Watershed Survey (Leaders’ Manual).  Expanded from a similar Adopt-A-Stream Leaders Guide, this Guide provides protocols and data sheets based on field experience and input from volunteer participants in the pilot Lake Watershed Surveys. Riverways’ Leaders’ Manual and accompanying compact disc contain materials accumulated and modified from the pilot watershed surveys conducted under the guidance of the Lake/Watershed Stewardship Program, including agendas, letters, sample action plans, and data sheets. Often, the Leaders’ Manual refers back to DEP’s Volunteers Guide for specific technical matters that are already well addressed in that text.

Copies of the Volunteers Guide can be obtained from DEP’s web site at:
http://www.state.ma.us/dep/brp/wm/wqassess.htm

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