Money, Money, Money: Making the Case
Friends of Confluence West -
In this issue of Three Drop Thursday, we examine the quantifiable value of watershed restoration and the call for adopting an essential process for the long-term protection of the Colorado River Basin.
A big challenge facing water utility managers, community leaders, and NGOs is how best to make the economic case for why decision-makers should invest in headwaters/source water protection.
Work on source water forests is pricey and initially looks like hell. Members of the public often send nasty emails afterward: “You’ve killed everything!” (Try explaining that one to a fly-by reporter.) Plus, there’s no guarantee that the next monster wildfire won’t burn an equally important watershed two drainages over – one that hasn’t had restoration work.
Two new studies help make the economic case. One is from the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University, Estimating the Return on Investment from Restoration and Fuel Treatments in the US Western Frequent-Fire Forests. The second, “Headwaters Valuation as a Tool for Economic Development, Healthy Forest Management, and Water Resilience focuses on the Upper American River in California.
At Confluence West HQ, we continue to cat-herd western water agencies to develop a “zone of agreement” for federal National Forest policies for agencies dependent on supplies sourced in headwater forests. As with all of this kind of herding, this project is taking some time. Stay tuned.
For the West,
Kimery
Does your organization need to determine the best next steps to protect a critical watershed? With our 20+ years of experience working on climate, water supply, and forest restoration with water utilities, communities, funders, and NGOs, we can help. Please be in touch!
Money, money, money: Value on return
The Ecological Restoration Institute’s Estimating the Return on Investment from Restoration and Fuel Treatment in US Wester Frequent-Fire Forests study is a meta-analysis – a literature review of forest restoration benefit types for the Western United States. The researchers created a “collective basket” of restoration benefits to illustrate the ROI.
The bottom line is that for every dollar invested in high-risk, high-value forested watersheds, over seven dollars in benefits may be returned to investors. They further add that the other unique values have not been economically quantified and aren’t included in the meta-analysis.
Money, money, money: Tool for Economic Development
This study, The Headwaters Valuation as a Tool for Economic Development, Healthy Forest Management, and Water Resilience, looks at the Upper American River watershed in California, a high-value water source for the state.
The study’s authors took a somewhat unusual approach, assessing 18 EGS categories supplemented by locally available data. The findings: The natural capital asset in this watershed has a net value of $14.8 billion annually.
This watershed provides 23 categories of valuable ecosystem goods and services. Food, water supply, water quality, climate stability, waste treatment, wildlife habitat, and recreation are some of these EGS.
One of my favorite things about this study is that it was partially funded by and co-authored by staff at the El Dorado Water Agency. This agency is at the top of the watershed with thousands of acres of forested lands that have already burned or are overdue to burn.
Turning to the Black Hole Mess known as the CRB
These days, any Three Drop Thursday always mentions that vast, interconnected black-hole mess that is the current CRB negotiations. For some time, a number of us have been calling for some new entity that looks like, for example, the Great Lakes Compact. Why? An expanded decision-making table will help ensure supply equity and can effectively make the case for long-term state and federal funding.
The authors, John Berggren, Western Resources Advocates, and Lorelei Cloud, Vice-Chair of the Southern Ute Indian Reservation of the Time is Now for a New Colorado River Basin Process, are two highly respected and engaged players in the CRB.
Their piece calls for establishing a whole-basin roundtable to embrace the entire transboundary watershed to provide an equitable process to engage all four sovereigns (US, Mexico, Basin states, and 30 Tribal nations), water users, and stakeholders. In other words, those with skin in the game need to be at a decision-making table.
Overall, it’s been generally radio silence from both the Lower and Upper Basin on any steps towards a joint strategy. Reclamation issues the Draft EIS this December, at which point things will become quite interesting.
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