Community-Based Watershed Planning in the Kingston Lake Watershed of Northeastern South Carolina: Activities During 2008-2010

2010 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Science and Policy Challenges for a Sustainable Futur

Community-Based Watershed Planning in the Kingston Lake Watershed of Northeastern South Carolina

2008 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Addressing Water Challenges Facing the State and Regio

Crabtree Swamp Stream Restoration in Horry County, South Carolina

2010 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Science and Policy Challenges for a Sustainable Futur

Plant Survival in the Floodplain Restoration of Crabtree Swamp, Horry County, SC

2012 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Exploring Opportunities for Collaborative Water Research, Policy and Managemen

Watershed Plan Implementation Challenges for SMS4S in Murrells Inlet

2014 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Informing Strategic Water Planning to Address Natural Resource, Community and Economic Challenge

Comparing Flow and Sediment Dynamics in an Urban and Forested Stream in the Lower Coastal Plains of South Carolina

2012 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Exploring Opportunities for Collaborative Water Research, Policy and Managemen

Watershed Plan Implementation Challenges for SMS4s in Murrells Inlet

This case study describes the plan development process, implementation strategies and initial and future challenges to implementation for the Murrells Inlet Watershed Plan (WRCOG, 2014). The Plan was crafted by a group of key stakeholders with community support and guidance to address fecal coliform bacteria loading in shellfish harvesting waters in the Murrells Inlet Estuary along the northeastern South Carolina coast. Stakeholders debated the interpretation of the data analysis and ultimately concluded that the primary pollutant sources were non-human, namely wildlife and domestic animals. Stakeholders also concluded that the loads from these sources were being delivered to the estuary via a landscape that includes a network of surface drainage ditches and subsurface pipes so that water retention on the landscape has been largely short-circuited. Armed with this information, plan participants devised management measures that encompass several strategies, including: (1) utilize an end-of-pipe/ditch solution that addresses pollution nearest the discharge point; (2) generally reduce volume and flow and/or increase retention/detention across the landscape to reduce the pollutant load; and (3) use education and outreach to achieve behavior change. During both plan development and the implementation of management measures, the plan steering committee faced significant challenges. Initial challenges include: geographic and space limitations that make the use of large retention or detention devices impractical; lack of state or local requirements to use low impact development techniques to increase retention; and mounting outreach campaigns that cannot guarantee significant pollution reductions. Additional complications include mechanisms to sustain community support and involvement. As implementation progresses, the steering committee must track plan implementation and determine creative ways to evaluate the effectiveness of management measures. Local funding allocations must also be sought to leverage against potential grant funds to enable implementation

Prepared for The Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board Executive Summary

Beginning in the early 1990s, many salmon, steelhead, and trout/char stocks were listed or are under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). In response to these listings, federal, state, local, and tribal governments committed substantial resources to planning and implementing the recovery of depleted salmonid stocks. It is recognized that an important component of salmon recovery and key to de-listing salmonid populations is a credible monitoring and adaptive management program. In 1999, the Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Ecology (ECY) developed an approach for index watershed monitoring that involved measuring the production of wild downstream migrating juvenile salmon (smolts), habitat, water quality, stream flow, and macro-invertebrate assemblages in selected watersheds. Broad ranging goals included evaluating factors that influence wild salmon production, human activities and natural processes that modify those factors, and monitoring the effects of restoration activities on salmon production and the aquatic environment. To begin achievement of these goals, monitoring of al