If we look at the TVA, we see an important idea opposed by those who viewed it as unwarranted government interventionism in private affairs. We need to consider that experience when we consider the brave new world of watershed planning and management in which we are now engaged. The concept of watershed analysis is closely related to the issue of cumulative effects. For several decades, we have grappled with how land use activities on federal, state, and private lands interact to affect hydrologic and ecologic processes. In a sense, watershed analysis has evolved as a kind of pro-active analysis of cumulative effects, conducted prior to developing management plans rather than in response to predetermined action.
Historians talk about ideas emerging simultaneously in different places.
A document of our current phase of history would note that the idea to use watersheds as units of planning and analysis has evolved in many government and private agencies seemingly independently. Ideas have evolved through the process. However, the basic concept remains that watershed analysis is a mechanism to address inconsistencies between the current scales of planning and the direction to implement ecosystem management. Forest Plans attempt to implement these targets and direction. As we know, the courts have found that the commodity outputs and environmental direction are fundamentally incompatible, and Forest Plans have been challenged as inadequate.