Glossary of Terms
Watershed
(See Illustration right) A watershed is a basin-like landform defined by highpoints and ridgelines where all of the rainwater that falls on it, drains eventually to a body of water. Drop by drop, rainwater is channeled into soils, groundwater, creeks, and streams, making its way to larger rivers and eventually the sea. Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes. They cross county, state, and national boundaries.
Watersheds (also called ‘basins’ or ‘catchments’) come in many sizes. They are usually nested one within another like a series of Chinese dolls; for example, the Coos River watershed contains the South Slough watershed. Within the South Slough watershed are a dozen or so smaller watersheds (often referred to as sub-basins) such as Joe Ney Slough, Elliot Creek or Hidden Creek. Each sub-basin in turn contains numerous tributaries, many without names, but none without its own, unique, watershed.Vision
A vision will define the desired or intended future state of the project area in terms of the community’s fundamental objectives; it will describe where committee members would like the community to be in key economic, environmental and quality of life areas at some point (e.g., 20 years) in the future. The vision must reflect the commonly held values of the community and guide committee participants as they work toward the goals of the project.
Collaboration
A process where two or more people or organizations work together towards common goals by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus.
Collaborative Learning
Collaborative learning involves groups of learners working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. Collaborative learning requires positive interdependence (a sense of sink or swim together), individual accountability (each of us has to contribute and learn), interpersonal skills (communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution), face-to-face interaction, and processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how to function even better).
In a collaborative learning setting, learners have the opportunity to converse with peers, present ideas, exchange diverse beliefs, question other conceptual frameworks, and be actively engaged.Resilience
The positive ability of an ecosystem or community to adapt itself to the consequences of chronic or catastrophic change.
Sustainability
Social and environmental practices that protect and enhance the human and natural resources needed by future generations to enjoy a quality of life equal to or greater than our own.
Ecosystem services
Humankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. Collectively, these benefits are known as ecosystem services and include products like clean drinking water and processes such as the decomposition of wastes.
Habitat Restoration
Broadly defined as the act, process, or result of returning a degraded or former habitat to a healthy, self-sustaining condition that resembles as closely as possible its pre-disturbed state. Examples of restoration include removing material from a filled wetland, increasing tidal flow to a restricted wetland, re-establishing natural river flow, enhancing degraded seafloor habitats, treating runoff to improve water quality, cleaning up contaminated habitats, and managing invasive species.
Ecology
The study of organisms and their habitats. As there are almost always complex relationships between many organisms in their habitats, the study of ecology most often involves a wide perspective across many levels of the food chain.
Monitoring
The act of observing and recording processes and indicators which can lead to a greater understanding of how things may or may not be changing over time.
What are Management Actions
This term broadly refers to projects designed to repair or replace degraded habitat, reduce the risk of future impairment, and strive to improve or allow natural watershed processes to function so that all users benefit from ecosystem services.
In the South Slough and Coastal Frontal watersheds, likely management actions to be considered will be proposals to improve water quality and habitat for native fish such as reducing fine sediment loads to streams, reducing stream temperature, and stabilizing stream banks with native vegetationOther proposals are expected to include upland brush-thinning to reduce risk of wildfire; prevention and removal of invasive species; protection of private property and vulnerable habitats from increasing storm surges and sea level rise.
Scientific Model
A scientific model can be designed to predict future conditions based on current data and a set of assumptions. Models are used when it is either impossible or impractical to create experimental conditions in which scientists can directly measure outcomes.
Benchmark
A standard by which something is evaluated or measured.
Trend
The change in a series of data over a period of years that remains after the data have been adjusted to remove seasonal and cyclical fluctuations.
Consensus
A feeling within a group that its conclusion represents a fair summary of the conclusions reached by the individual members of the group. Each individual accepts the group’s conclusion on the basis of logic and feasibility.
Technical Advisor
An individual who knows a great deal about a particular field or subject, who is asked to provide information about that field or subject to help address specific issues or achieve specific goals.
Adaptive Management
Once the Partnership Steering Committee develops a common understanding of the issues in the project area that may impede progress towards the community vision, they will then identify voluntary management and adaptation actions in the project area that will help ensure progress towards the vision. Because not all the actions can take place at once, the committee will prioritize those actions based on collectively agreed upon criteria. Committee members, as appropriate, will then help the Partnership project team find and secure project funding and help implement projects in some cases.
Assessment
A watershed assessment describes conditions in a watershed, such as the kinds and extents of aquatic habitats, drainage and erosion patterns, or fish-passage barriers such as poorly-designed culverts or failing tide gates. The assessment may also note the presence of exotic, invasive plants and animals, cultural artifacts such as pilings and piers, or other significant features, and human activities that affect water, land and climate conditions within the watershed.
Action Plan
A watershed action plan is a set of activities or actions proposed to improve undesirable conditions identified in the assessment, such as brush-thinning in forests to reduce risk of wildfire; protecting salt marshes for their ability to ameliorate storm surges and floods, or planting stream banks to reduce erosion.