Lower priorities aren't dropped completely, but they have fewer allocated resources. Establishing Reclamation's Priority Determining what has priority is really a matter of deciding what tradeoffs to make. Priority starts at a local level by listing community-based issues consistent with Reclamation's mission. This list provides a backdrop to determine which watershed issues and regional needs are most pressing or important. Public involvement efforts on projects, public affairs offices, and other internal resources as well as news media and local organizations are good sources of information.
Reality checks help to determine what is important.
Call letters and previous appropriations will also point out priority work. Ranking techniques can help do this. Priority stacks show which issues take precedence. This could be a simple list or a bunch of yellow stickies in order of priority. This stack will keep everyone focused on the important items.