A WATERSHED APPROACH IN ECONOMIC HARD TIMES F rom Innovation to Prime Time-- Making Smart Watershed Projects Shovel Ready

The Need  Urgent Issues Demand Watershed Approach  Long term and structural shortages  Climate Change  Energy Conservation  Severe Weather  Water Quality  Quality of Urban Life  Old grey infrastructure exacerbates problems  Need Economic, Environmental and Social Sustainable Solution

The Vision: Smart Green Infrastructure  Adapt and manage the entire urban landscape to function as watershed instead of drain  Integrated Multi-purpose, Multi-Agency  Engage Nature  Adapt and Network all urban sites and land uses  Functioning Community Forest  Landscape re-engineering  Nature-Mimicking Technologies  Engage Community  Grow Green Collar Economy and Jobs

Crisis! Threat Opportunity

Threat  Focus on shovel-ready outmoded grey infrastructure will harden water, energy and climate crises…  …consume available funds, and foreclose until another generation, the opportunity to heal our cities.  Traditionally, projects aren’t designed until there is money  Most existing and shovel-ready projects have been designed by single purpose agencies, or come from old paradigm

The Opportunity  Build on the partnerships, IRWMP, IRP and other existing innovative integration efforts  Recognize the economic stimulus and recovery efforts as a long term investment in our region’s sustainability, health, economic and social survival.  Mobilize an Emergency Command-style response of multi-agency coordination, planning, funding, and action.  Include long term maintenance and management

The Challenge  Create demand for Smart Green Watershed Approach (legislators, agencies, public)  Identify and Promote Smart Green shovel-ready and near-ready projects within IRWMP and other plans  Provide leadership to move these projects  Rapidly coalesce viable watershed approaches into prime-time preferred options  Insist on iterative learning-evaluation-implementation process  Design the full watershed retrofit and a pipeline of projects so they can be ready for all following stimulus, recovery, bond, tax, funds

Advance to Prime Time  Rapid and iterative process to gather, evaluate, clear, promote and apply watershed approaches to new and even “old” projects  Identify best fits and limitations  Expose strengths, weaknesses, mitigations, lessons  Multi-benefit and cost analysis  Identify and Mitigate Barriers: regulatory, governance, liability, etc.  Galvanize local, regional, state, and federal leadership  Engage full stakeholder process including professional, academic, environmental, agency, business, lawmaker, community

Adapt an old adage…  If we design it…  The funds will come!

Next Steps  Reinforce message to Senate and House committees  Generate more media to create public demand  Begin designing the process for coalescing Smart Green  Additional briefing to the National Foundations, NGOs and Congress: Feb

Process to Date  Op-Ed in LA Times and Huffington Post  Brief Congressional staff in 21 st. Century Water Infrastructure  Spread word though environmental, watershed, urban forestry communities  Identify and advance shovel-ready Smart Green Projects to American Rivers’ list