The Lindsay Creek Project: A Watershed and Community Based Land Use Assessment

Newsletters and Presentations
Project Description
Links
Final Strategy
Handbook
Project Evaluation

PDFs of the Strategy follow the description.

The Strategy for the Lindsay Creek Watershed & Community is the result of testing a new process that integrates watershed assessment, public participation, and rural land use planning concepts. The process was designed in an effort to provide additional tools to maintain rural community quality of life while conserving the water, land, and resources communities rely upon. The Strategy incorporates characteristics of a community plan, a watershed plan, and a community ‘visioning' document. It begins with information related to the overall project, defines watershed and community based assessment, and concludes with recommendations for community-initiated action, local government policy, and state and federal consideration.

Source and background data is also provided in the appendices to the Strategy :

• Appendix A and associated attachments are a summary of input, ideas and visions derived via the public participation process;

• Appendix B and associated attachments are a specialized ‘Watershed Assessment' that is based on existing information and designed with land use planning application in mind; and

• Appendix C and associated attachments are a compilation of land use related information.

The Natural Resources Services (NRS) Division of Redwood Community Action Agency in Eureka , California received grant funds from the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), in 2002, for ‘The Lindsay Creek Project: Watershed & Community Based Land Use Assessment'. Results of ‘The Lindsay Creek Project' include the recommendations in this Strategy , that are, in turn, the result of an experimental effort to develop assessment tools that supplement the traditional land use planning process. These tools are documented in Start With The Watershed: A Pilot Handbook for Watershed- & Community-Based Land Use Planning for land use planners, elected officials, interested community members and state and federal officials.

Rural landscapes are valuable both to human and ecological communities, and it makes sense that we strategically address the future of these places with the needs of both communities in mind. The Lindsay Creek Project is part of a growing number of efforts pro-actively integrate natural resource realities into standard land use planning practices (examples include Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 2004 and Benedict and McMahon 2002). Around the United States , and particularly the rural west, these efforts are underway because people love the rural regions where they live, they have recently begun to seek better ways for communities to grow: better ways to maintain a rural sense of community, working lands, open spaces, wildlife, clean water and opportunities for the future. The Lindsay Creek Project team hopes that this Humboldt County, California-based effort can present some useful tools and questions for other attempts to evolve the way rural western communities grow.

Though substantial academic efforts are dedicated to the definition of ‘rural' environments as they differ from ‘urban' places, in general the Lindsay Creek watershed and communities are a good example of western rural areas where there is a mix of resource management, residential, habitat and aesthetic values and issues – and infrastructure and services are limited. And, like many rural places around the west, most people would like to think that these attributes will remain relatively constant, even considering that some limited amount of residential development will occur.

The concept of ‘green infrastructure' (or, as the project team prefers, ‘watershed' infrastructure) has been developed to emphasize that, like our ‘grey' infrastructure of roads, sewers, utility lines, and so forth, water, air, and other natural capital are valuable assets that support a community's quality of life (Benedict and McMahon 2002). No matter what our political or ideological persuasions, many of us have learned this only after losing what we felt were some of the most important elements of our rural communities. These assets—whether green or grey—require careful planning, management and maintenance and therefore should be considered early (and often) in land use decision-making processes.

Just as important is the human infrastructure, the people who live within the watershed, as they are the ones who will determine the future of their community. Lindsay Creek, like many rural communities has a core of dedicated, pro-active citizens who are intent on maintaining their quality of life and ensuring that it is passed on to future generations. The importance of integrating of watershed knowledge and community commitment was eloquently stated by the Upper Williamson River Watershed Group in their planning process in Oregon :

We've come to understand that even with healthy, sincere, and dedicated local communities we can do serious damage to natural systems if we don't know how they work. And, on the other hand, a flawless technical understanding of the functioning of natural systems is largely useless without the deep – and usually quite non-technical – commitment of the folks who live and work within particular landscapes (Connelly 2004).

The Strategy for the Lindsay Creek Watershed and Community is the result of an effort to find, use and integrate information to facilitate more informed choices about the future of rural places like the Lindsay Creek watershed.

Strategy Documents (PDF format)

Strategy for the Lindsay Creek Watershed and Community (669 KB)
Figure 1: Lindsay Creek Watershed Aerial Photo and Map (1.30 MB)

Appendix A: The Community Says (189 KB)
Appendix A Attachments (593 KB)

Appendix B: Lindsay Creek Watershed Assessment (428 KB)
Figure B1: Digital Elevation Model with Roads and Streams Map (377 KB)
Figure B2: Watershed Focus Resources - Process Diagram Overview (100 KB)
Figure B3: Management-Related Pollution Process Diagram Detail (104 KB)
Figure B4: Management-Related Pollution Process Diagram Detail (127 KB)
Figure B5: Salmonid Habitat Quality Analysis - Process Diagram Detail (81 KB)
Figure B6: Salmonid Presence and Habitat Quality Map (564 KB)
Figure B8: Riparian Buffer Data and Habitat Quality Map (448 KB)
Figure B10: Large Parcels Greater Than 120 Acres Map (419 KB)
Figure B11: Habitat Value - Large Parcels Map (392 KB)
Figure B14: Habitat Risk - Road-Related Sediment Map (494 KB)
Figure B15: Septic System Density Map (340 KB)
Figure B16: Habitat Risk - Origin of Septic Pollution Map (395 KB)
Figure B17: Generalized Geology Map (426 KB)
Figure B18: Shallow Slope Stability Map (457 KB)
Figure B19: Habitat Risk - Slope Stability Map (388 KB)
Figure B21: Combined Habitat Quality Map (313 KB)
Figure B22: Combined Habitat Risk Map (323 KB)
1B: Surveys and Observations Map (1.09 MB)
1B: Surveys and Observations Table (76 KB)
2B: Lindsay Creek Watershed Assessment Team and Advisors (64 KB)

Appendix C: Lindsay Creek Land Use Assessment Information (3.73 MB)
Appendix C Attachments (250 KB)