Thursday evening, the Utah Association of Conservation Districts (UACD) hosted a Huntington Creek Watershed Planning meeting at the Huntington City Hall.
The goal of the meeting was to explain what a watershed plan is, identify resource concerns, establish a plan and to organize watershed committees.
A watershed plan is a document that serves to enhance and improve natural resources in a defined area. It is developed with local input in a collaborative manner. The plan outlines current conditions of an area and provides recommendations for improvements to assist in seeking funding for projects which are outlined in the plan.
Developing a watershed plan can provide funds to implement flood protection and improve natural resources conditions. The plan will be developed by input from local citizens, landowners, government and government agencies. Once a plan is written, any organization, group or individual can seek funding for specific projects with the steering committee’s approval and support.
Representatives from PacifiCorp, Energy West Mining, San Rafael Conservation District, Huntington Cleveland Irrigation Company, Castle Valley Special Service District, Bureau of Reclamation, Utah Division of Water Rights, local citizens and several others attended the planning meeting.
After identifying many resource concerns such as soil, water, air, plant, animal, energy, and human impacts in the Huntington Creek Watershed area, the assembled group began to organize a steering committee.
The steering committee will determine what goes into the plan, provide oversight and review. It will be comprised of all users of the watershed, ranchers, irrigation companies, cities, conservation districts and all others who are important in the process.
There will also be a technical committee that will write the plan and will be comprised by federal agencies, which have technical information in specialized resources.
The committees will begin meeting on a monthly basis with the next meeting being held at the Huntington City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 6:30 p.m.