On June 12th community members from across Valley County gathered to continue the discussion and work of the North Fork Payette River Watershed Coalition. The Coalition is guided by the Valley Soil and Water Conservation District and was formed to engage the community and address the greatest issues facing our county’s watershed.
The meeting began with two experts presenting on topics that pertained specifically to the Coalition and issues vocalized by the community. Dani Terhaar from DEQ presented on Cyanobacteria in Lake Cascade, emphasizing the importance of knowing how to identify harmful algal blooms (HABs) and subsequently keeping your family and loved ones safe. Jordan Messner from Fish and Game presented on water temperatures, historical data and possible solutions to the county wide issue, emphasizing the importance of creating a solution that works for a wide range of interest groups.
Following the presentations community members broke off into working groups and began working on topic specific agendas. These groups were established at the previous April meeting as the greatest areas of concern: Human Waste Management; Improvement of Water Availability, Quality, Temperature; Land Use and Development; Stormwater Management; Drought Planning, Conservation, and Climate Change; and Wetlands.
We simply have to work together to make our watershed more resilient. These working groups will be meeting independently over the next couple months to address the greatest areas of concern within their given topics and begin brainstorming solutions. If you are interested in joining a working group, please reach out to the Coalition at [email protected] or sign up online at JOIN US.