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Accelerating Action: The Delaware River Watershed ForumOctober 28, 2013

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Watershed Protection Program: Protect Water in the Delaware River Basin

Point Mountain on the Upper Delaware at the Pennsylvania-New York border

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• Target and Prioritize places we work and issues we address, driven by science and data• Identify baseline conditions • Fund strong and effective organizations • Monitor change and impact of interventions we support• Leverage the work of public and private funders• Share learning to strengthen work and encourage replication

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Watershed Protection Program: Three Strategies in the Delaware River Basin

• Build the Constituency for Watershed Protection by engaging people outdoors on targeted trails and rivers, and organizing people participating in specific outdoor activities, including birding, fishing, and hunting

• Address Watershed-Wide Issues through research, monitoring, policy and campaigns

• Protect and Restore Places of Ecological Significance through on-the-ground conservation and restoration in eight sub-watershed clusters, to protect or restore water quality

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Accelerating Action

The Delaware River Watershed Forum

Help accelerate a new era of watershed-wide collaboration and solutions! Join visionaries from NGOs, government agencies, foundations, and other organizations working across the region for a series of facilitated, action-focused discussions on critical issues affecting conservation and restoration work in the watershed.

Select from a series of breakout sessions that best match your interests and needs. These sessions will be repeated throughout the day so that you won't have to miss an opportunity to provide input on the topics that matter most to your organization. Day 1 will focus on landscapes; Day 2 will focus on watershed-wide issues. Click here to view the preliminary agenda. While there is no charge to attend the Forum, registration is required and space is limited, so register today to participate in this important event.

Register Now!

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Science-based focus areas

Key data:•Physical•Biological•Development trends•Protected lands• Ground water

5 to 12 clusters of watersheds with

greatest potential

Feasibility Screen – Led by Open Space Institute in consultation with ANS and key experts

Science screen – Led by Academy of Natural Science

Develop scale-appropriate indicators linked to specific strategies

Ranking of watersheds by conservation /

restoration need

•Indicators•Monitoring•Measures

Capacity

Impact/investment•Organizations•Track Records

Measurability•Urgency•Leverage•Feasibility

Watershed Protection Site Selection Process

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Criteria for Investment in Watersheds

• Potential for Significant Impact• Urgency to Act• Organization Capacity• Cost Efficiency• Ability to Measure Impact

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

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Sub-watershed Strategy Grantmaking• Much of the work to implement the subwatershed strategy will be

supported through grants in two phases:

– A short Planning Phase, which was completed in early September, through which invited organizations developed shared Implementation Plans that address water quality stressors for each subwatershed cluster

– An Implementation Phase beginning in early 2014, through which organizations will perform work identified in the eight Implementation Plans with Foundation support requested via proposals presented for board consideration in January 2014. (There is no guarantee that all elements of all eight plans will be funded, however.)

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