PULLMAN, Wash. — As a neutral, third party, Washington State University hopes to bring diverse interests together to help create a sustainable future for fish, water and people.
Donald Nelson, WSU Cooperative Extension specialist, said WSU is sponsoring three regional watershed roundtable meetings to be held in Portland, Spokane area, and Boise.
The goal is to help divergent interests develop a shared vision of the future through consensus building to foster creative solutions to old conflicts.
“We especially want farmers and ranchers to attend,” Nelson said. “I hope about 100 land owners will attend each meeting.”
“These are not meetings at which people come and give some brief testimony that will be ignored. Everyone will have an opportunity to speak more than once, be listened to and to be involved in small group discussions. Reports from these meetings will identify strategies and actions to achieve.
Representatives of all private and government organizations with an interest in watershed issues also are invited to the meetings.
WSU’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources is conducting the meetings, which will be held Sept. 6-7 in Portland, the Spokane regional meeting will be held in Post Falls, Idaho, Sept. 13-14. The Idaho meeting will be Oct. 3-4 in Boise. They are free. Attendance is restricted to the first 150 people who register.
Documents reporting results of the meetings will be posted on the CSANR Web site about a month after the meetings, Nelson said.
The University of Maryland will hold a related watershed funding workshop Sept. 8 in Portland.
Complete information is available on the CSANR web page at http://csanr.wsu.edu/. Click on “What’s New.” You also may e-mail Nelson at nelsond@wsu.edu or call him at (509) 335-2922.
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