Healthy Headwaters

In this time of a rapidly warming climate, it is imperative that watershed protection work be quickly scaled up and implemented based on scientifically sound principles that will lead to more resilient landscapes. This, in turn, requires innovative federal policy and significantly higher levels of federal investments.

Starting in 2010, Carpe Diem West led the Healthy Headwaters Alliance. Together, we developed and implemented new and sustainable responses to impacts of a rapidly changing climate on water resources. We identified new approaches for addressing climate change impacts; shared critical information quickly; learned about forests and water justice; and, launched communication strategies and tools to promote success.

In 2020, the Healthy Headwaters Alliance came under the umbrella of the National Wildlife Federation in 2020. An original participant in Healthy Headwaters, this respected national conservation organization will provide the expertise and capacity to take the Alliance’s work to scale with national advocacy and communications and to connect the network with a diverse range of communities, interests, and partners throughout the western United States.

Healthy Headwaters Federal Policy Platform

In the American West, water is the face of climate change. Everyone who lives here does, or will shortly, experience climate change most immediately and acutely through too much water at the wrong time, too little water over a long period of time, or through an increasingly unhealthful water supply.

A critical aspect of this changing water supply story is the resilience of forested headwaters. Western water providers and their customers depend on natural watershed processes to filter pollutants, control erosion, regulate temperature, attenuate floods, and buffer human activities from drinking water resources.

Healthy Forests, Healthy Water, Healthy People

Today, leaders around the American West are pioneering innovative ways to restore forests - the source of over 60% of our water. Healthier forests results in healthier water downstream. The four regions highlighted have big plans, and the price tag is hefty, but are an economically responsible investment for long-term water security. As communities around the West consider similar investments, these regions are leading the way.

Watershed Restoration Principles

One of the first steps in creating an actionable watershed investment plan is prioritizing what, where, and how restoration will take place in your watershed. This process can be overwhelming, if you don’t know where to start. We’ve sorted through dozens of watershed protection plans from around the American West to get a sense of what actions and outcomes communities are prioritizing, and how those priorities were decided upon. We hope this guide will get you thinking about what successful restoration looks like in your watershed. If you need help getting started, let us know.

Forest Funding

Local governments can and do use local funds to complete projects that improve the health of nearby federal forests. There are several ways by which a local government may partner with the U.S. Forest Service or a congressionally-chartered nonprofit partner1 in order to complete the desired forest treatment.

Memorandums of Understanding - Where to Start

A look at different types of agreement between the US Forest Service and downstream communities and agencies. The report also includes examples of different MOUs.

Communicating the Benefits of Watershed Investment

In this brief primer, we walk you through the basics of a strategic communications approach.

Communicating Headwaters Solutions in Dramatic Times

We explore three approaches that will help utilities and community leaders be prepared to forward their solutions in the midst of, or right after, a crisis like a catastrophic fire. Amid many concerns about an appropriate mourning period for loss of lives, we returned to how critical it is to share these life- saving solutions in a timely and smart way, so that policy shifts can be animated by the freshness of catastrophic events.

Watershed Investment Programs

This report looks at six key headwaters investment and restoration programs, presents some lessons learned and opportunities going forward, and includes a list of current programs in the American West

Analysis of Voluntary Incentives Program (Eugene Water & Electric Board)

An expert team from the Carpe Diem West Network met with McKenzie Watershed Collaborative (Collaborative) partners and Eugene Water & Electric Board staff to analyze the McKenzie Watershed Voluntary Incentives Program pilot project.