The mission of the Watershed Management Group is to improve rural and urban livelihoods by integrating community development and conservation. We provide local residents and community groups with the knowledge and skills necessary to sustainably manage their natural resources.

Dear Readers,

We are excited to be sending you WMG's first electronic newsletter! The goal of our quarterly newsletter is to increase our outreach to the community and increase knowledge and interest in watershed management. We believe that watershed issues touch each one of us, and by getting involved in these issues, we can all make a positive impact in our community. The holiday season is a great time to cherish all that we have and support those people and organizations that are doing the essential work to make our world a healthy, peaceful place.

Sincerely,

Lisa Shipek

Executive Director

WMG News

WMG is growing! In September we welcomed four new Board Members: Oscar Beita, Dustin Garrick, Heather Haskell, and Amy McCoy for a total of 8 Board Members. Our new board members bring us experience in international work, business management, community-based conservation, and water policy. We also recently hired part-time staff, Elena Rotondi , as our Community Outreach Associate. Elena has previously worked in environmental education and green building techniques.

This fall was also marked by our first major grant awarded from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), which will support an educational water harvesting project here in Tucson , Arizona . WMG is designing and implementing six demonstration sites on water harvesting and sustainable landscape design. Each working demonstration will be implemented at public sites in collaboration with community volunteers. We have begun work at our first demonstration site at Originate, a natural building materials store in the warehouse district of Tucson. We will be installing a cistern, building water harvesting berms, setting up a greywater system, and planting native trees.

World Water News

Think Small!

A recent article from ‘The Economist' discusses the preliminary findings of the “Comprehensive Assessment”, a study carried out over the last five years by Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an international network of research institutions.

The assessment reports that large, government funded initiatives, such as expensive irrigation projects, have much less impact than smaller investments in simple devices and techniques such as hand pumps to tap groundwater, the reuse of wastewater for irrigation, and rainwater harvesting. The low-cost and low tech projects are easier to deploy in local communities, yield greater returns on capital and often cause fewer social and environments problems.

It takes roughly one litre of water to produce one food calorie. This means that we are indirectly consuming 2,000 to 5000 litres of water daily depending on our diets, much more than we consume by drinking, cooking, washing and bathing. With agriculture accounting for up to 95% of the water we consume, and predictions that this use could double by 2050, increased agricultural productivity and efficient use of water are priorities throughout the entire world. Given that one third of the world's population is affected by water scarcity today, these issues taken on even more urgency.

The final report of the assessment was published in November. To learn more, read the article at: http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7855631 Pay Dirt (2006, September 2) The Economist, 380, 64, and visit CGIAR's website at http://www.cgiar.org/ .

Resource Management 101

Question: What is a watershed?

Answer: A watershed is a geographic space in which all surface water drains to one common outlet such as a stream, river, or lake. A watershed therefore creates a natural physical boundary which is useful for resource management, because all the residents, businesses, and industries share the same resources. Here are some examples of the interrelationships found in watersheds:

• The more water used upstream, the less water available downstream
• The depletion of surface water depletes available groundwater and vice versa
• The water resources that people, businesses, and industry depend on are the same water resources that wildlife and natural ecosystems depend on
• Rainwater runoff carries pollution from urban areas into riparian areas
• Deforestation in mountain regions contributes to increased sedimentation in river valleys

Sustainable Living

Tip #1: Purchase a low-flow shower head.

Reduce the amount of water you use every day by replacing your regular showerheads with low-flow showerheads. Low-flow showerheads have good pressure and come with a variety of settings. Additionally, many low-flow shower heads have a shut-off button which allows the water to be temporarily turned off yet retains your water temperature setting. Try for a show head that uses 2.5 gal/minute or less. You can purchase a low-flow showerhead for about $15 to $20.

WMG Wish List

• 4 ft x 8 ft hauling trailer
• Ladder
• Office space or storage space
• projector and projector screen

*A big thanks to Joseph Wu for his donation of a digital camera and Amy McCoy for her donation of a laptop computer.

  Thanks to…

Many thanks to the following individuals who have generously contributed to WMG:

Peter and Terese Ireland

Keith and Tamahra Evert

Dustin and Heather Garrick

Brenda Telge

Anastasia Rabin

Diana Freshwater

David Shipek & Miss DeFoor

Ed Thompson

Kim Afinowich

Heather Haskell

We would love to hear from you. Please submit your resource management questions, your own sustainable living tips, or any other general feedback to: lisa@watershedmg.org .

Support Watershed Management Group Today!

Contribution Levels:

• Dewdrop: $15
• Silver Raindrop: $50
• Flowing River: $100
• River Basin: $500
• International Watershed: $1000

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