Soon many in Colorado, and particularly CRA members, may be asked to undertake what seems a mission impossible. The assignment, should you accept it, is watershed planning. Planning for water resources is simply very difficult. Planning for water use seems tougher than land use planning. Reasons given for the demise of several civilizations during the past three thousand years illustrate this difficulty.
Watershed planning requires looking at the big picture, the watershed.
Luna Leopold pointed out years ago that streams integrate all that happens within a watershed. In theory the effort requires a recognition of all the interrelationships among the host of components and processes. A watershed plan is supposed to make everything fit together or make sense with respect to each of these relationships. Watershed planning must integrate with all that will happen. A theorist on planning, Chris Paris, described planning as simply all conscious attempts to organize action in order to affect future outcomes.