How do you decide where to do watershed restoration? Suppose there's a creek in your backyard; or you own 3,000 acres; or you live on a reservation; or you own a business that requires a clean water supply; or you are a manager responsible for many large watersheds. It makes good sense to start with an overview of the situation.

Start by finding out the boundaries of the watershed and its general condition. Use maps, existing information available from resource offices, or your own knowledge from living or working in the watershed. Form a preliminary idea of what you can hope to accomplish. (The next section, Good Science, provides more information about assessing the watershed and finding options for action.)

Is this a healthy watershed? A healthy stream? What fish and wildlife use it? Do salmon spawn in it? Who owns the land? Who cares about it? Who else is working on it or has studied it? How has it been used in the past? How is it being used now? What do you want for it? What is most important to accomplish first? What is possible? (The Good Science, Good Partnerships, and Resources sections will help you answer these questions.)

A watershed is an area of land that drains to a common point-a river, stream, or lake. It is defined by the ridgeline that separates it from other drainages. A watershed of any size is composed of subwatersheds, and each subwatershed, similarly, may have its own subwatersheds.

The term "watershed" is used somewhat interchangeably with "basin," and may be used loosely to refer to any scale of drainage basin. Among specialists, the terms basin, subbasin, watershed, and subwatershed can refer specifically to the nested hierarchy of land forms created by a large river (e.g., Columbia River basin), major tributary (Yakima River subbasin), minor tributary (Naches River watershed), and small creek (Rattlesnake Creek subwatershed).

Riparian vegetation performs the following functions:

• Stabilizes banks.
• Provides cover and food (both plant material and insects) for fish.
• Provides cover and food for wildlife.
• Provides migration corridors for wildlife.
• Provides breeding, resting, nesting, and foraging areas.
• Provides a source of large or coarse woody debris.
• Provides shade and cover to moderate both water and air temperature (cooler in summer, warmer in winter).

In contrast, in an unhealthy or poorly functioning watershed:

• Upland soils are compacted and stripped of vegetation.
• Water runs off quickly, instead of being absorbed and released slowly.
• Rainfall washes sediments down into the stream.
• During storms, the stream can gain velocity and force, blowing out obstacles, carving deep banks, and scouring down to bedrock.
• Streamside vegetation suffers from lack of water between rains.

It's impossible to understand a stream without knowing where it comes from. Every stream carries the story of the entire drainage basin. Because conditions throughout a basin change with seasonal cycles, climatic cycles, and human activities, the streams, too, change. Flowing water is a dynamic system.

The daily and seasonal variations in flow and the ability of the watershed to support year-round flow are of great importance to fish and wildlife. In a deteriorated watershed, rapid runoff may make the peak flows higher and the low flows lower than in a healthy watershed. For salmon, this could mean the difference between survival and death from desiccation of the eggs, high water temperatures, lack of food for juveniles, or lack of water for adult passage.

These are the components of a healthy stream system:

• Well-vegetated uplands, dominated by diverse native plants showing vigorous growth.
• Active floodplain connected to stream. (The floodplain is the land alongside the stream where high water overflows.)
• A channel with natural stability. The channel has developed a stable pattern or profile so that channel features such as pools, riffles, and undercut banks are maintained. Fish use each of these features in different ways-pools for refuge, especially from warm water temperatures; riffles for feeding and spawning; undercut banks for refuge from predators and high velocity water.
• A groundwater supply available to recharge the river during low flows.
• Healthy native riparian vegetation that has evolved into mature communities, with abundant and diverse plant life which, in turn, supports abundant and diverse wildlife.
• High quality water, which supports desirable macroinvertebrates, fish, and birds.

Restoring watershed function involves changing land use-and that often means changing people. To set realistic priorities you generally need to consider social, economic, and political circumstances as well as biological resources and needs. While change can initially seem threatening, working together to improve the land and water can also build community.

Most watersheds encompass multiple land holdings. To change land use practices, it's necessary to work with the owners, whether they are public agencies, tribes, or private individuals. You need to consider who owns land in the watershed, your relationship to them, and the potential benefits and costs involved in making changes.

In many parts of the Columbia Basin, citizen groups called watershed councils have been formed to address these questions. They usually include a wide range of local interests. In Oregon, the Governor's Watershed Enhancement Board (GWEB) provides some funds for watershed councils. Other state and federal agencies, such as fish and wildlife departments and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), provide technical assistance.

If there is no watershed council or similar organization in your area, you can still draw on local natural resource agencies to help set priorities and plan management for restoration on your own land (see Resources section).

What do you want for this stream or watershed-and what's possible? Presumably, you want it all-a healthy stream and watershed that supports abundant salmon and other fish and wildlife while providing human benefits such as timber, forage, fisheries, beauty, and recreation. Is that within the potential of this watershed? Is it socially, economically, and politically feasible? (See Watershed Assessment in Good Science section.)

In general, the best first step is to protect the areas that are still undeveloped and biologically intact. Next, improve management practices throughout the watershed. Last and most complex, actively restore the streams. These three major options are discussed in more detail in the Good Science section.