Watershed management issues are complex and interrelated. How a community handles development and land use, for example, directly affects water supply, stormwater, wildlife habitats, and stream management. As government agencies, businesses, and grassroots organizations work to affect watershed-related policies, the need for professionals with interdisciplinary training is rising.

Lysle Sherwin (left) and Kerry Wedel direct the new Center for Watershed Stewardship, a collaborative training and education program of the School of Forest Resources and the Department of Landscape Architecture. They are helping to preapre professionals in the emerging field of watershed planning and management.

With this in mind, the School of Forest Resources joined with the Department of Landscape Architecture to form the Center for Watershed Stewardship. Funded by a five-year, $1.78 million grant from the Heinz Endowment, the center offers continuing education courses for professionals in the emerging field of watershed planning and management, as well as a graduate option in watershed stewardship for students in landscape architecture, forest resources, and wildlife and fisheries science. The center also hopes to work with other academic programs at Penn State to offer the option.

"In traditional water resource programs, students focus on the physical aspects of planning, such as resource analysis and management practices," says landscape architect Kerry Wedel, who directs the center. "Our graduate option also gives them training in the social and political side."

Landscape architecture students receive deeper scientific training in areas such as biological assessment, hydrology, and forestry. Forestry students learn more about planning, community involvement, and the process of developing a watershed plan. The 19 to 22 credits of course work include watershed stewardship planning; water resources science, social science, public policy or economics; humanities; and communication and design. Students also work in teams on yearlong community service projects. These "Keystone Projects," performed in partnership with local governments, nonprofit organizations, landowners, and businesses in Pennsylvania communities, introduce students to the processes involved in putting together a sound watershed management plan. "Both the students and the community benefit from these projects," says associate director Lysle Sherwin.

In fall 1999, the first Keystone Project kicked off in the Maiden Creek Watershed, a 216-square-mile watershed in Berks and Lehigh Counties. "The Maiden Creek Watershed is a beautiful landscape, with forested headwaters on Blue Mountain and some of the state's richest farmland in the lower watershed," Sherwin explains. "The City of Reading's reservoir near the mouth of this watershed is being affected by nonpoint source runoff from development and agriculture. Community stakeholders, led by the Berks County Conservancy, want to prepare a watershed stewardship plan to protect it."

"The Berks County Conservancy wants to apply for funding through government programs to make streambank stabilization and other improvements, which requires a formal conservation plan," explains graduate student and landscape architect Herb Kupfer. "We're helping the conservancy create their plan by assessing the watershed. We're looking at such factors as land use, riparian vegetation, stream channel physical and biological conditions, and cultural and historic attributes."

Students also are helping the conservancy review the land use controls already in place, such as subdivision regulations, zoning ordinances, and how the community is addressing such problems as stormwater management and pollution. Then, with the local steering committee advising the conservancy, they will identify priorities.

Kupfer worked for a traditional landscape architecture firm for four years, designing landscapes in residential, commercial, institutional, and resort settings. Then he decided it would be more personally rewarding to do environmental work, restoring streams and assessing watersheds. "Decisions that affect watersheds often are made based on political boundaries," he says. "But the 216 square miles that drain into Maiden Creek follow no political boundaries whatsoever. Parts of 2 counties, 5 boroughs, and 17 townships lie within its boundary. Many different zoning ordinances exist, and everybody has different goals and ideas. The challenge is to get everybody on the same page."

"Watershed stewardship involves many disciplines and we have that represented in our student team," says Sherwin. "Their report, which they will present at a public meeting for feedback, will be a good basis for the community to refine, enhance, and finalize their watershed plan."

"That plan will be used as the basis for a comprehensive multi-year funding strategy," says Joseph Hoffman, the conser-vancy's director of natural resources and conservation. "We hope to generate at least $15 million by the year 2010 to accomplish direct physical improvements in this watershed."

Wildlife and fisheries science student Beth Finger researches the life cycle of a minnow recently placed on Pennsylvania's endangered species list. She added the watershed stewardship option to her graduate program, because she saw the importance of being able to deal with different kinds of people when working on water quality issues. "It's challenging to get everyone to meet in the middle," she says. "But watershed stewardship is about compromise--being able to see that everyone involved has a common interest in clean water."

"Once you get people thinking of the watershed as their 'environmental address,'" Sherwin adds, "they realize we're all connected and need to work together to improve the community's quality of life and economic prosperity."

Continuing education offerings so far have included cosponsorship of the first statewide citizens' conference for abandoned mine drainage, in coop-eration with Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and other organizations. The course, "Principles of Wetland Design," was taught by wetlands ecologist Andy Cole and landscape architect Ken Tamminga. "Trout Stream Restoration--Ecological Principles into Practice," a course on restoration and fish habitat enhancement in freestone trout streams, was hosted by the center and Penn State Continuing and Distance Education. Speakers included forest hydrologist Bill Sharpe, civil engineer Peggy Johnson, landscape architect and Penn State alumnus Brian Auman, and experts from government, business, and other universities.

For more information, write the Center for Watershed Stewardship, 227 East Calder Way, University Park, Pa 16801; or visit the center's Web site at www.larch.psu.edu/watershed.

--Kim Dionis