FROM THE HEADWATERS TO THE SEA, IMPLEMENTING A WATERSHED APPROACH IN SOUTHERN MAINE

Watersheds in southern Maine connect coastal and inland communities where diverse land use practices and land conservation strategies create a complex mosaic of policies affecting water quality and quantity. This presentation shares lessons learned from a project designed to improve land use decision making and overcome barriers to implementing a watershed approach in southern Maine watersheds.

The watershed approach mirrors the principles and practices of community-based ecosystem management. This project integrated the process of Collaborative Learning and land use planning tools developed by the Ecosystem Based Management Network to connect the practice of ecosystem management to municipal land use decision-making. Desire to incorporate water quality and habitat protection into economic development strategies motivated the town of Sanford, Maine to examine existing resource conditions, ordinances, and Comprehensive Plan priorities. The Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve secured grant funding to support Sanford's efforts as part of a national project to improve land use planning in coastal watersheds. Sanford's five watersheds are significant coastal headwaters that drain to two National Estuarine Research Reserves, one National Wildlife Refuge and a National Estuary Partnership. The source waters for a regional water district originate in Sanford as well. This collaborative partnership connected international and national scale initiatives with place based efforts to conserve land and protect water quality.

This project used Collaborative Learning to guide stakeholder engagement and use of geospatial tools and Community Viz technology to develop a Conservation Plan for Sanford that considered the value of headwater streams, aquifers and riparian buffers for water quality and quantity protection. Watershed values were considered along with habitat, recreation and land productivity values. Stakeholder engagement was supported by the use of key pad poling to gather information on community priorities.

This presentation addresses challenges and successes associated with the application of land use technology tools to improve decision making at the watershed scale and linking land conservation goals with water quality protection.