Watershed Monitoring Project Development Guide for VSP in Washington
Available for Comment until March 17, 2023
Version 2 of the VSP Watershed Project Monitoring Development Guide is available for review and comment.
An updated version of the “Watershed Project Monitoring Development Guide for the Voluntary Stewardship Program of Washington” is available now for review and comment. The Guide can be downloaded from the State Conservation Commission’s VSP web page. The comment period for the guide is open and has been extended until March 17, 2023. Comments may be submitted using this form.
This update to the guide includes the addition of a new section, Volume III: Developing a Monitoring Plan with Quality Assurance and Quality Control. The goal of this section is to provide guidance for practitioners to develop monitoring plans and data quality standards that will ensure monitoring activities are successful and informative for reporting and adaptive management.
Feedback and comments of the guide will be evaluated and incorporated into the document after the comment period closes with the expected adoption of the guide by the Commission in the Spring of 2023. A companion forum will be held March 28th to review the updated guidance. Questions can be directed to Levi Keesecker – lkeesecker@scc.wa.gov, 360-789-3650
Background: The State Conservation Commission (SCC) has created a draft Voluntary Stewardship Program (VSP) Monitoring Guide. Monitoring is an essential component of VSP. Effective monitoring is required to determine whether counties are meeting the goals and benchmarks defined in each county’s VSP work plan. This guide intends to illustrate these commonalities of approach, language, and scope by leveraging and applying the scientific lens to monitoring – irrespective of differences in goals and objectives between counties. This guide attempts to communicate these commonalities “from the ground up” by highlighting the essential features required for any type of monitoring.
The guide is structured in four parts:
- Volume I focuses on the essential elements of VSP and the key role of monitoring for evaluating VSP goals and benchmarks; it provides a framework for watershed work groups to identify the most critical questions to answer with their monitoring program.
- Volume II focuses on operationalizing a monitoring program; it illustrates the different considerations required to develop actionable information to address the monitoring questions identified in Volume I.
- Volume III, which is being released in 2023, provides information related to project management and the types of logistical considerations important for successful monitoring; this section will guide day-to-day, practical aspects of monitoring to ensure the information collected through monitoring is actionable and aligns to support VSP goals and benchmarks.
- Volume IV (Library of Resources) provides links and references to VSP-related documents, data, projects/programs, summaries, as well as guidance and resources for field data collection (e.g., protocols) that pertain to monitoring.
The Monitoring Guide has been posted on the SCC's VSP webpage and is available for download there.
The SCC proposes releasing the final version of the guide after consultation with the VSP Technical Panel and Statewide Advisory Committee, and adoption by the SCC, later in 2023.
The due date for comments is 5:00 pm on March 17, 2023.
Please use this form to submit your comments. If it is necessary to submit comments in another format (i.e. by mail), please contact Levi Keesecker at lkeesecker@scc.wa.gov or by phone at 360.789.3650.