The goal of this management approach is to ensure the sustainability of both communities and the environment through recognition of forest watersheds' role as natural resource and community integrators. This approach requires more active and integrated management of the landscape, not less. Our state's natural resources deserve nothing less. Watersheds can be scaled up or down, aggregated or disaggregated, to analyze and address problems or opportunities of varying scope. While Powell's wisdom did not receive its due in his lifetime, we now appreciate its value.
Watershed boundaries are inherently inclusive of most natural and social processes and communities.
Political, administrative, and ownership boundaries are always artificial and typically drawn to exclude and separate, rather than include and integrate. Forest watersheds integrate the water quality impacts of land management activities. Sediment generated by land management moves from the hillslopes to the intermittent draws to the small creeks, and on to the main stem of the river. Habitat changes occur across the watershed landscape as a result of land management and natural processes. These changes, which can be measured in terms of total amount of each habitat type, sizes of habitat patches, and adjacency of habitat types, occur over space and time.