Our Services
Watershed Initiatives, LLC provides procedural, organization and editorial support for local governments, agencies, non-profit organizations, community-based and stakeholder groups working on complex public policy and natural resource issues.

Facilitation
WI has facilitated numerous meetings with local interests to develop watershed protection and restoration strategies that have a broad base of support. We have also facilitated advisory committees and stakeholder groups seeking solutions to difficult natural resource and management issues.

Mediation
WI has trained mediators who can help resolve conflicts and find solutions in multi-party environmental and public policy disputes.

Planning
WI helps clients achieve success through effective planning processes that are strategic in their orientation and pragmatic in their design and execution. WI works with local governments, agency staff, stakeholder representative groups, non profits and others to identify near-term and long-term goals and the pathways to achieve them. Priority setting, strategic problem identification and solutions, resource needs and allocation, and time lines developed to achieve identified outcomes are all part of the planning process WI uses to help clients achieve their goals.

Technical Writing
Watershed Initiatives contracts with agencies, governments, scientific teams and others to compose credible and accessible technical reports, manuals, articles and other documents involving natural resource and watershed restoration. WI also edits and translates existing technical documents into language that a broader audience can understand and use. WI has composed and edited texts for the Oregon Governors' Natural Resource Policy Office, the Oregon Plan Monitoring Team, the U.S. Forest Service and non profit organizations. Please contact Watershed Initiatives for further information.

Workshops
WI believes that education is a cornerstone for developing new solutions in multi-stakeholder-based watershed management. WI crafts a learning experience that fits the client's objectives and accelerates learning. Watershed Initiatives offers cost-effective workshops in two areas:

1. Resource protection and restoration
2. Problem-solving, decision-making and organizational development

Watershed Initiatives develops educational workshops about aquatic ecosystems with experts acknowledged in their field. Included are presentations in ecological processes, field-tested restoration techniques and strategies, plus field trips that illustrate these concepts.

WI's organizational development workshops are facilitated meetings that help participants identify problem areas and learn new techniques. Collaborative decision-making and conflict resolution skills are introduced to help groups create more effective management processes.

Technical Support for Watersheds
WI teams with recognized professionals in watershed restoration and management. We can help design projects that re-establish ecological functions through the creation of historical reconstructions and watershed assessments. We can also develop restoration and recovery plans and analyses of cumulative effects of human activities and natural events on watersheds. Assessments can include road inventories, sediment transport potential, and analyses of barriers to fish passage.

See the Lobster Creek Case Study

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