Saving Time and Money Besides the environmental payoff, watershed approaches can have the added benefit of saving time and money. Whether the task is monitoring, modeling, issuing permits, or reporting, a watershed framework offers many opportunities to simplify and streamline the workload. Efficiency is also increased once all agencies with natural resource responsibilities begin to work together to improve conditions in a watershed. In its truest sense, watershed protection engages all partners within a watershed, including Federal, State, Tribal and local agencies. By coordinating their efforts, these agencies can complement and reinforce each other's activities, avoid duplication, and leverage resources to achieve greater results.
Data collection is one activity that is particularly ripe for greater cooperation and coordination.
In addition, permittees and other stakeholders that generate ambient monitoring data can form basin-monitoring consortiums to pool resources and provide the State with greater consistency in collecting and reporting data. Greater Public Support Watershed protection can also lead to greater awareness and support from the public. Through such involvement, watershed approaches build a sense of community, help reduce conflicts, increase commitment to the actions necessary to meet environmental goals, and ultimately, improve the likelihood of success for environmental programs.