Quick Update on the 6th Level Sub-watershed Workshops

 

Federal agencies and states in the PNW have agreed (March, 2) on a process to quickly develop a unified set of 6th Level sub-watersheds for the PNW.  A series of workshops will be held in late May/June where agency and field hydrologists will meet to review completed work, and to delineate sub-watersheds into areas not yet complete. 

 

The REO will coordinate these workshops in conjunction with the Hydrology core team.  Considerable progress has been made in refining the process and establishing a schedule for individual units.  Below is a list of completed tasks and agreements in order to successfully complete this large project.

 

-         Data for existing 6th Level subwatersheds has been compiled from BLM, Forest Service and state agencies.

-         A pilot workshop was conducted April 2, in the S. Santiam area.  In this pilot agency and field hydrologists were invited to review and coordinate their existing watersheds, and to complete those not already done.  The purpose of this pilot was to set expectations to the products needed, and for the timing necessary for working together in the workshops.  We successfully completed the task.

-         Established a standard protocol and software package for how the workshops will be run.

-         All hydrologists in each agency have been briefed on the plan, and memo’s from the head office have been sent to the field supporting this plan.  We are finalizing their availability, and adjusting the schedule accordingly.

-         A pilot contract for digitizing the products from the workshops has been completed.  A test watershed was selected and a contractor digitized a final set of watersheds per our protocol.  This test established realistic expectations and costs relating to contracting this work out.

-         An RFP for this work has been released.  This will allow us to economically select the right contractor.

-         Meeting rooms for the workshops have been reserved. 

-         So far we are well under budget.  We have minimized meeting room costs, and travel for hydrologists and GIS detailers.

 

Funding To Cover the Cost of Digitizing

 

Approximately $80,000 will be needed to cover the costs of digitizing the resulting concept lines into 1:24,000 scale maps.  This project was only recently agreed upon by the agencies, so no funding has been budgeted to cover this.  Due to the urgency of this project across all agencies and states, several agencies have come forward to provide a portion of the funding this year.  To date we have the following agreements:

 

- NMFS       - $5,000 (Opportunity for year end funds as well)

- EPA           - $25,000 (With the concurrence from the MPM group)

- BLM          -

- FS             -

- F&WS       -

- NPS          -

 

 

Core Team

 

Dale Guenther        - REO

Dan Wickwire        - BLM

Stephen Bown         - FS

Ian Reid                - NCRS

Bruce McCammon    - FS

Chester Novak       - BLM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Santiam Watershed

5th Level Watersheds – Large lines

6th Level Sub-Watersheds – BLM and Forest Service lines

Before:

 

After: