Thank you to everyone that has participated in the development process and online survey for the Thompson River Watershed Restoration Plan. So far we have had a total of 12 people respond to our survey. It is very important to us that we receive input from our local landowners and water users during this planning process. Your identification of streams that are important to you and descriptions of how you use the Thompson River watershed have helped guide stream prioritization and ideas for restoration.
Progress drafting the Watershed Restoration Plan
We currently have 5 of 7 sections drafted:
- Section 1: Defines watershed restoration plans and nonpoint source pollution; defines impaired streams, total maximum daily loads, and additional prioritized streams for the Thompson River watershed; identifies goals for the Thompson River watershed restoration plan.
- Section 2: Characterization of the Thompson River watershed.
- Section 3: Identifies locations of impaired and additional prioritization streams, identifies and defines causes and sources of stream impairments, identifies current pollutant loads and expected load reductions if best management practices are implemented, and identifies additional water quality management considerations besides nonpoint source pollution (sediment, temperature, and nutrients).
- Section 4: Identifies potential best management practices to be used for nonpoint source pollution reduction.
- Section 5: identifies local stakeholder organizations within the Thompson River watershed, identifies current financial and technical assistance available, and describes efforts being made to include local landowner input in the plan.
The last two sections (Sections 6 and 7) are currently under development:
- Section 6: Will describe current stream conditions, and identify potential projects for each stream picked out by local technical stakeholders. In September, LCFWG will meet with all local technical stakeholders to receive their suggestions for projects and we will work to prioritize not only projects for each stream, but we will prioritize each stream as well. The input received from local landowners from our survey will be carried over to this meeting so that we can use the suggestions of the landowners during our prioritization process. This meeting will be closed to the public due to lack of space mostly, so LCFWG will make sure to update all interested landowners on decisions made through this meeting and to receive additional comments and suggestions.
- Section 7: This section will identify milestones and criteria needed to evaluate progress of project implementation and will also identify current monitoring efforts and future monitoring needs.
The Thompson River Watershed Restoration Plan is slated to be completed by the end of 2017.
Summary of Online Survey Results
Question: How often do you visit the Thompson River Watershed? 
Question: How do you use the water in the Thompson River Watershed? 
Question: What are the most important tributaries/streams/creeks/are
“Other” responses included: Chippy Creek, Bear Creek, Semen Creek, “all tributaries should be considered important”, and McGregor Lake. We recognize the importance of all waterbodies within the Thompson River watershed. However, the Thompson River Watershed Restoration Plan will prioritize flowing bodies of water (rivers and creeks) for restoration and/or conservation at this time. All tributaries within the Thompson River watershed are connected, which is why this plan focuses on a “watershed approach” to restoration, but in order to develop a meaningful plan that we can work towards implementing, it is important that we develop priority areas for future work.
Question: Do you feel any of the below actions would help to restore or conserve streams you identified in question 3?
We intend to leave the survey open and available throughout the planning process and invite more responses! If you have not yet taken our survey, please visit lowerclarkforkwatershedgro