Benefits of Multi-Level Watershed Management :: Watershed Management Essays

Benefits of Multi-Level Watershed Management Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) have played a significant role in establishing grassroots methods of environmental protection while incorporating citizen involvement. The most prevalent types of NGO’s in the United States are ones that rally public opinion and advocate legislative and/or social change. Among these are the various Public Interest Groups (PIRG’s), the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Greenpeace. Public education and involvement are seminal components to the success of these organizations. Hence, the application of NGO’s to other issues might prove successful in advocating and implementing change while bettering the community that they inhabit. Such is the case with the relatively newly established watershed management associations in New Jersey. These organizations employ grassroots tactics to increase community education and establish stronger environmental protection. Thus I assert that inter-munic ipal (and inter-state as we will see later) watershed management, through the use of non-governmental organization, has the ability to have a profound impact on how natural resources are managed and subsequently on how an area is developed. This is extremely valuable to a state like New Jersey, where uncoordinated development has led to a sprawling landscape causing fragmentation of natural features and severe depletion of water quality. Furthermore, in the large bureaucratic system of development that dominates New Jersey, this NGO method of watershed management is a qualitative and creative way to promote democracy, public education, and public participation. To examine how watershed management associations can improve environmental superintendence and consequently development patterns, one must first examine the existing landscape pattern on physical and political scales. New Jersey is composed of 566 municipalities, each functioning pseudo-independently from one another. These municipalities, â€Å"†¦each with home-rule authority to make decisions and policies concerning development without regard [of] their potential negative effects on neighboring towns, â€Å" (Shutkin 2000) create an atmosphere of competition and discordance. This unproductive circumstance is a product of human invention. For it is â€Å"multiple ownership or administration within watersheds [that] present some major challenges for watershed management policy and planning† (Satterlund and Adams 1992). Municipal boundaries do not account for broader natural boundaries. While it is true that a municipal boundary might coincide with a stre am or ridge, municipalities generally overlook broader, more important delineations like watersheds.