Watershed Management in Hamilton County
Key Programs:
Regional Leadership in Watershed Management:
HCCD provides leadership among water resources professionals across Ohio and the Greater Cincinnati Area by:
- Facilitating collaboration to solve tough problems
- Building technical capacity
The Regional Watershed Network:
This networking group enjoys widespread participation from water resource professionals throughout Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky. The group has a long history going back to it's origins as one of Green Umbrella's "Watershed Action Teams." The group in now facilitated by HCCD with the following objectives:
Regional Watershed Network meetings are held via video conference on the first Friday of each month from 9:30 to 11am.
- Serve as a forum to facilitate coordination and collaboration between watershed focused organizations throughout the Tristate Region,
- Identify regional issues and potential initiatives/projects that could be addressed as collaborative efforts by participating organizations
- Serve as a forum for networking and learning.
Regional Watershed Network meetings are held via video conference on the first Friday of each month from 9:30 to 11am.
Capacity Building:
Workshop - Pollutant Load Reduction Modeling for Grant Applications:
Important water resource management funding programs (e.g. Section 319 and H2Ohio) require load reduction estimates as part of the application process. Additionally, watershed-scale load modeling can be a powerful tool to identifying potential “critical areas” for “nine element watershed plans”. However, there is a general lack of load modeling skills among the professionals that coordinate watershed restoration projects and planning.
HCCD, in partnership Environmental Protection Agency with and Natural Resources Conservation Service, designed this full-day workshop to provide resources and training to enable coordinators of water resource management projects to develop reasonable load reduction estimates, and to increase consistency of load reduction reporting.
A Videos Playlist from this workshop can be found on HCCD's YouTube Channel.
Training Event - Hand-Placed Log Structure Stream Restoration:
In partnership with the University of Cincinnati and others, we recently implemented a hand-placed log structure stream restoration projects that served the dual purpose of a 1) demonstration test project, and 2) a regional capacity building training event. Nearly forty natural resource professionals from eleven organizations across southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky registered for this event. The training was led by Dr. Bob Hawley from Sustainable Stream's, LLC.
This novel method of stream restoration has the potential to be a cost-effective, scalable way to mitigate negative environmental impacts of development. Unlike most conventional stream restoration approaches, this method does not require heavy machinery, healthy tree removal for regrading, or complex engineering. Because this approach can be implemented by volunteers with professional guidance and low-cost tools, it could be implemented throughout the region with minimal funding.
While many people and local governments think that wood in streams is problematic and often remove it, the opposite is true! It is often necessary for local governments to remove “log jams” from road crossings to prevent flooding around roads. Maintaining an adequate amount of wood within streams can reduce that maintenance as wood pieces that are washed downstream can be strained out by these wood structures. Wood is an important component of natural streams that provides benefits such as slowing down the velocity of erosive flash-flows, reducing sediment pollution, and creating habitat features for fish and other wildlife.
Important water resource management funding programs (e.g. Section 319 and H2Ohio) require load reduction estimates as part of the application process. Additionally, watershed-scale load modeling can be a powerful tool to identifying potential “critical areas” for “nine element watershed plans”. However, there is a general lack of load modeling skills among the professionals that coordinate watershed restoration projects and planning.
HCCD, in partnership Environmental Protection Agency with and Natural Resources Conservation Service, designed this full-day workshop to provide resources and training to enable coordinators of water resource management projects to develop reasonable load reduction estimates, and to increase consistency of load reduction reporting.
A Videos Playlist from this workshop can be found on HCCD's YouTube Channel.
Training Event - Hand-Placed Log Structure Stream Restoration:
In partnership with the University of Cincinnati and others, we recently implemented a hand-placed log structure stream restoration projects that served the dual purpose of a 1) demonstration test project, and 2) a regional capacity building training event. Nearly forty natural resource professionals from eleven organizations across southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky registered for this event. The training was led by Dr. Bob Hawley from Sustainable Stream's, LLC.
This novel method of stream restoration has the potential to be a cost-effective, scalable way to mitigate negative environmental impacts of development. Unlike most conventional stream restoration approaches, this method does not require heavy machinery, healthy tree removal for regrading, or complex engineering. Because this approach can be implemented by volunteers with professional guidance and low-cost tools, it could be implemented throughout the region with minimal funding.
While many people and local governments think that wood in streams is problematic and often remove it, the opposite is true! It is often necessary for local governments to remove “log jams” from road crossings to prevent flooding around roads. Maintaining an adequate amount of wood within streams can reduce that maintenance as wood pieces that are washed downstream can be strained out by these wood structures. Wood is an important component of natural streams that provides benefits such as slowing down the velocity of erosive flash-flows, reducing sediment pollution, and creating habitat features for fish and other wildlife.
|
Click the link below to view the educational sign installed at the demonstration site.
| bechtold_lwd_sign.jpg |
Development of Tools and Methods for Novel Mitigation Approaches:
One example of this is the Guidance Document and Tools that we created, in partnership with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to assist stormwater utilities and conservationists in assessing the potential for retrofitting storm sewers to reduce the frequency of erosive flash flows in streams.
Another example is work we are doing, in partnership with University of Cincinnati, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, to develop methods to identify locations in which subsurface linear infrastructure (and the graveled trenches in which they are installed - collectively termed the "urban karst") is draining headwater streams. These methods will help to inform strategies to mitigate ecological impacts to streams and reduce sanitary sewer overflows. Read more here.