Webinar: Conservation Opportunities under the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART Program
Channel: Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox
Date: 2017-03-14

Presenters: 
Avra Morgan, Policy and Administration, Water Resources and Planning Office, Bureau of Reclamation
Katharine Dahm, Policy and Administration, Water Resources and Planning Office, Bureau of Reclamation
Darion Mayhorn, Policy and Administration, Water Resources and Planning Office, Bureau of Reclamation

The American West is now the fastest growing region in the United States and faces serious water challenges related to climate variability and competing demands. As the largest supplier and manager of water in the 17 Western States, the Bureau of Reclamation has a responsibility to work with stakeholders to ensure sustainable water supplies for multiple uses into the future. The WaterSMART Program, established by the Secretary of the Interior in 2010, is one of the ways that Reclamation works with partners to support water supply sustainability. WaterSMART includes multiple program components supporting sustainability through water conservation and efficiency, water reuse and recycling, drought resiliency, water marketing, watershed restoration, basin-wide planning, and the development of applied science and tools to improve Reclamation’s operations. Most of the programs under WaterSMART are grant-based programs that provide financial assistance to non-Federal entities on a 50/50 cost-share basis, using a competitive selection process. 

In this webinar, the presenters from Bureau of Reclamation will describe some of the WaterSMART programs that members of the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives may be most interested in. We will use our recently developed WaterSMART Data Visualization Tool in the webinar to provide information about WaterSMART programs.

All presenters work for the Bureau of Reclamation in the Water Resources and Planning Office, within Policy and Administration, in Denver. Avra Morgan has worked for the Bureau of Reclamation since 2004 and led the teams that developed many of the programs under WaterSMART. Avra currently oversees the Cooperative Watershed Management Program. She has a JD from the University of Colorado and was a water rights attorney before joining Reclamation. Katharine Dahm has worked for Reclamation since 2010 and works on a number of WaterSMART Programs including the Basin Study Program, Title XVI Water Reclamation, and Reuse Program. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Colorado School of Mines and is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Colorado. Darion Mayhorn is the coordinator for Reclamation’s Drought Response Program.  In this position, he coordinates and communicates with stakeholders and internal staff to support the planning and implementation of actions that build long-term resiliency to drought across the West.  He has worked for the Bureau of Reclamation since 2010 and has also worked for the Army Corps of Engineers and Argonne National Laboratory. Darion holds an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Oklahoma.