Focus Area 2 Aquatic Pathways Assessment Summary Report (August 2012)

When the river runs dry: human and ecological values of dry riverbeds (May 2012)

2010 "Sustainable Communities, Healthy Watersheds" Report (2011)

Lake Michigan Forum 

Lake Michigan Watershed Academy
Peer-to-Peer Networking

Watershed Planning Handbook
March 2008. EPA's Office of Water has published a guide to watershed management to help various organizations develop and implement watershed plans. The Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters is aimed toward communities, watershed groups, and local, state, tribal, and federal environmental agencies. The 414 page handbook is designed to take the user through each step of the watershed planning process. The handbook is intended to supplement existing watershed planning guides that have been developed by agencies, universities, and other nonprofit organizations. This handbook is more specific than other guides about quantifying existing pollutant loads, developing estimates of the load reductions required to meet water-quality standards, developing effective management measures, and tracking progress once the plan is implemented.

The handbook is available, here.

You can order a free copy of the Handbook from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP). Contact NSCEP at 800-490-9198 or by e-mail. When requesting a copy of the Handbook, please refer to EPA document number: EPA 841-B-08-002.

Fundamentals of Urban Runoff Management

July 2007. A second edition of a popular publication, Fundamentals of Urban Runoff Management: Technical and Institutional Issues, was published by the North American Lake Management Society. This document revises an earlier 1994 edition and was prepared with support from EPA's Office of Wastewater Management and the Nonpoint Source Control Branch in EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds. The update is important because of the tremendous amount of new information available as well as the significant shift in stormwater program direction from the historic mitigation-based approach to a more source-based approach.

For more information on this document, click here or go directly to the publication in PDF, click here.

Center for Watershed Protection Releases Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices Manual

2007. The key to restoring these watersheds lies in the practice of stormwater retrofitting, which involves subwatershed detective work, storm drain forensics and imaginative design. This manual outlines the basics of retrofits, describes the 13 unique locations where they can be found, and presents rapid methods to find, design and deliver retrofits to meet a wide range of subwatershed objectives. The concepts of retrofitting are illustrated in more than 75 figures, 150 photos, 60 tables and nine appendices.

To download this manual, click here.

A Local Ordinance to Protect Wetland Functions

Wetlands and Watersheds Article #4 (in a Six-part Series) - Center for Watershed Protection - Prepared for the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, EPA – December 2007. Authors: Beth Strommen, Karen Cappiella, David Hirschman, and Julie Tasillo. This article introduces a new type of model ordinance for local protection of wetlands. Existing federal and state wetland permitting programs address some direct impacts to wetlands, such as filling, but are not designed to regulate inputs of stormwater or other pollutants. Local development regulations can fill this gap in wetland protection since local governments typically have control over local land use regulations and decisions.

For a link to this document, click here.

Common Questions: Establishing Local Government Wetlands and Watershed Management Programs

by Jon Kusler, Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. (6/26/06) 
This guide is based upon several more detailed reports available from ASWM including Wetlands and Watershed Management, A Guidebook for Local Governments and Wetlands and Watershed Management: A Collection of Papers.

To download guide in PDF, click here.

Multi-Objective Wetland Restoration in Watershed Contexts

by Jon Kusler, Ph.D., Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. (11/1/04)
This report focuses on multi-objective wetland restoration projects. Fifteen case study profiles are included.

To view report in PDF, click here.