Napa County Resource Conservation District
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Stewardship Management
of
Natural Resource Systems

Land Stewardship, as developed and practiced in Napa County, California, involves the use of interest based planning to develop sustainable management of complex watershed systems. Watershed or ecosystem planning and management allows identification of system imbalances in advance of crisis occurrence, as well as identification of enhancement opportunities. It concentrates on the complex interactions of a diverse system and provides an efficient, creative method to integrate its widely varying aspects, including social, economic, and natural. The regulation and enforcement approach to pollution prevention can be cumbersome and expensive, and by nature is frequently focused on post-event mitigation rather than proactive prevention. While this approach does have its uses, cost conscious citizens and their government are looking for more efficient ways to protect and enhance natural resources within their jurisdictions . Joint efforts among the public, local, state, and federal agencies have proven to be very effective as long term means of resource protection. Of these efforts, Land Stewardship planning and implementation hold the greatest promise for success through coming generations.

Integration of planning on a watershed or system basis provides an opportunity to combine the services and expertise of a variety of agency personnel; landowners and managers; special interest group members; and the general public in a single efficient effort that emphasizes satisfying interests through goal achievement ahead of problem solution. The inclusion of landowners and other interested constituents in the planning process promotes greater commitment to and cooperation in the implementation and long term management of a watershed plan, with consequent considerable cost savings. But, beyond the direct savings through better cooperation and less litigation and enforcement, watershed planning and management provides much more comprehensive protection for natural, social and economic resources than protection built primarily on crisis reaction.

By focusing on the interests that inspire the description of a given situation as a problem, interest based planning and management allows communities to unite through purpose, instead of the present method of unification through formal organization. The result is a creative, flexible management of natural resources that more effectively adjusts to changes in the watershed system. It also encourages participation by a broad range of diverse interests by combining the net result of their interactions into a positive management scheme without changing the interests themselves. Participants in stewardship planning and management use their differences to enhance the joint effort, which results in a far less threatening or adversarial relationship than that developed from directed management methods.

Land Stewardship Workshop Agenda Topics:

Watershed Planning - why bother?	A description of systems interactions and the effectiveness of system planning for natural resource protection and enhancement. Analysis of the effectiveness of past and present efforts at resource conservation based on single issue programs.
River Dynamics	Discussion of river systems and the need for complex planning to deal with complex systems. Historical review of river management methods and their effectiveness.
Land Management: the key to non point source pollution control	Using interest based, goal oriented planning and management methods to encourage effective cooperative, voluntary land management.
Principles of Effective Relationships: Cooperation and Commitment	Exercises in developing effective relationships among all watershed constituents. Construction of partnerships to encourage cooperative efforts between and among government and the private sector.
Interest Based Planning and Problem Solving	Exercises in interest based planning, management and conflict resolution. Includes exercises in determining interests and practice in developing solutions in complex situations.
Consensus Building	Practicing skills to encourage development of consensus in diverse groups. Includes an introduction to facilitation and methods of reaching agreement.
Planning Methods And Systems	Discussion and examples of different approaches to development of watershed plans and long term management.
Monitoring: a key to success	Importance of developing a monitoring plan to measure plan effectiveness; based on constituent involvement and volunteer monitoring.

Dennis Bowker, © 1996 NCRCD

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