Research Topics » Watershed Stakeholders

By Margaret Kurth, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University
Published: July 21, 2011

The Wappinger Creek Watershed drains about one-third of Dutchess County into the Hudson River below Wappingers Falls. The watershed has a diverse landscape ranging from forest and agricultural land-uses in the rural north to residential areas in the central region and urban and commercial land-uses in the south (Natural Resource Management Plan for the Wappinger Creek Watershed, 2000). Substantial population growth and land-use change over the past 20 years have increased the pressures placed on local water resources. The Wappinger Creek Watershed Intermuncipal Council (WIC), composed of representatives and volunteers from the 13 municipalities in the watershed in Dutchess County New York, was established to facilitate the cooperation of its members at the watershed level to conserve and protect the assets they share.

Introduction

Wappinger Creek at Buttercup Sactuary

Water quality is not simple to manage. The water that fills our streams, river, lakes, and ponds has travelled over and through the landscape, encountering many opportunities for contamination, before depositing in those water bodies. The quality of the landscape that surrounds a water body (its watershed) plays a significant factor in determining the quality of our water. Pollutants that lie dormant on the landscape (lawn chemicals, spilled motor oil, road deicing salt, sediment) are mobilized when rain water flows over the land during a storm and sweep them into water bodies. Managing water quality is also about managing the land.

Effective water and land management is not limited to physical and chemical management; the strong human dimension that exists with these resources needs to be considered. Two important stakeholder groups to consider are landowner and municipal officials. Each has a great potential to impact water resources.

• Landowners - The landscape, over which stormwater travels, is divided into privately owned parcels where landowners make daily decisions about their households and properties. It may be hard to imagine how these individuals’ decisions have an effect on water quality, but collectively, they do matter a great deal.
• Municipal officials – The municipal level is charged with managing issues of local concern, including land-use policy. Careful land-use planning is one of the most important ways to protect watersheds from the potentially negative effects of land-use change. A variety policy tools exist which enable communities to balance development with the conservation of valuable natural resources.

Understanding the social context of a watershed means understanding the values, concerns, and motivations of the community. Analyzing the attitudes and perspectives of relevant stakeholders can give insights about how to design outreach strategies, adopt socially acceptable land-use regulations, encourage beneficial household behaviors, and foster local partnerships in community watershed protection.

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Research

The Human Dimensions Research Unit at Cornell University (http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/hdru/) began collaborating with Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County and The Wappinger Creek Watershed Intermunicipal Council in summer 2008. The purpose of this collaboration was to create a social profile of the watershed community with the endeavor to achieve the following goals:

• Build the long-term capacity of the WIC
• Empower the WIC to implement the Natural Resource Management Plan for the Wappinger Creek Watershed
• Increase effective education about watershed issues
• Initiate a process to involve stakeholders in local decision-making

The research team sought input from a variety of sources in order to customize their efforts to local area. Two questionnaires were developed to collect data on:

• How do landowners and municipal officials use the Wappinger Creek and its tributaries, ponds and lakes?
• What are the perceived problems in the watershed?
• What issues are most concerning to the stakeholder groups?
• What outcomes do stakeholders believe can be achieved with water management?
• Who do stakeholders think is responsible for managing local water resources?
• What policy tools for watershed protection are acceptable to stakeholders?
• What sources do landowners use to get their water-related information?
• Contextual and demographic factors within the watershed

Data was collected from landowners and municipal officials in the 13 municipalities of the watershed. Responses to the survey were compiled for analysis. Comparison of landowner and municipal official responses was important for identifying incongruities that exist between the two groups.

Stakeholder Concerns:

Landowner Attitude:

 

Policy Tools

Landowners and municipal officials supported a variety of policy tool that can help protect the watershed. These tools include ones of restrictive nature (such as restricting development in floodplains and requiring development proposals to take new pressures on the existing system into account); environmental planning such as monitoring, and education for residents and municipal officials.

Information Sources

Approximately 50% of landowner respondents have sought out water-related information and have used a variety of sources including local newspaper, friends and family, and Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County. Information about what land-use laws exist in the municipalities of the watershed should be accessible so that residents understand what measures are being taken to protect water quality and where gaps exist. A large number of landowners (40.4%) report that they do not know if the laws in their municipality are adequate to protect water resources.

Awareness of Watershed Issues

When respondents were asked to rate the severity of various watershed issues, many landowners responded that they “don’t know”.

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Management

Raise awareness

Increasing and facilitating access and exposure to the Wappinger Creek Watershed and the natural environment for both residents and municipal officials may raise awareness about its condition and increase the salience of watershed issues.

Promote behaviors to improve water quality

Data about stakeholder groups can be used to design social marketing messages to evoke voluntary behavior change in landowners. For example, research results identified a large potential for promoting rainwater and stormwater management on private property. A large number of landowners are aware of behaviors to capture rainwater and stormwater runoff and are willing to try them.

Accord among stakeholder groups

Comparing the responses of stakeholder groups helps identify areas of divergence among their attitudes. It is important for municipal officials to understand landowner perspectives so they can be responsive to landowner concerns, learn about experiences with watershed problems, and identify misconceptions.

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Methods

Map of Wappinger Creek watershed in Dutchess County

During the development of the survey instruments, the research team sought input from a variety of sources in order to customize their efforts to local area. Two questionnaires were developed:

1. For landowners of the watershed: to gather information about attitudes, knowledge and awareness, capacity, behavior, and contextual and demographic factors.
   • The questionnaire was mailed to 1,422 landowners that were randomly drawn from public tax parcel data, encouraging them to participate. Efforts were made to maximize the number of landowners that participated. 26% of landowners surveyed responded.
   • Sample size for the survey was weighted in two ways. First, we considered what proportion of the watershed is each municipality occupies (since watershed and municipal boundaries do not coincide). A municipality that comprises a smaller proportion of the watershed had fewer landowner names in the sample. Secondly, we wanted the sample to have a significant representation of riparian landowner (own land that includes or borders a water body). The sample was therefore weighted to include a substantial number of riparian landowners (670 riparian and 752 non-riparian).
   • Telephone contact with a random sample of non-respondent landowners was made to provide valuable information about how non-respondents might differ from survey respondents. An abbreviated version of the survey was administered by phone to 30 riparian and 30 non-riparian non-respondent landowners.
2. Companion survey for municipal officials: contained many questions in common with landowner survey, but was also supplemented by questions relevant to municipal officials.
   • A combination web and mail survey was used to reach 326 local government officials in the 13 municipalities of the watershed. E-mail was the primary method of contact but for those officials whose e-mail could not be obtained, a paper booklet version of the survey was used. 32% of municipal officials surveyed responded.

The questionnaires and research methods were approved by the Institutional Review Board at Cornell University (protocol # 09-02-030 and amended application ID # 0909000076).

Data analysis was conducted using SPSS, a commonly used statistics software package in the social sciences. Descriptive statistics were generated to reveal trends that existed among responses. Additionally, landowner and municipal official responses were compared to illuminate difference among the two groups.

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References

Allred, S.B., Kurth, M., Klocker, C., Chatrychan, A. "Understanding Landowner and Municipal Official Perceptions of Water Quality in Local Watershed." Human Dimensions Research Uni Outreach Series. 11-1. http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/hdru/pubs/HDRUOutreach11-1.pdf

Allred, S.B., Kurth, M., Klocker, C., Chatrychan, A. "Understanding Landowner Potential to Improve Water Quality." Human Dimensions Research Uni Outreach Series. 11-2.http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/hdru/pubs/HDRUOutreach11-2.pdf

Allred, S.B., Kurth, M., Klocker, C., Chatrychan, A. "Informing Land-Use Planning in the Wappinger Creek Watershed." Human Dimensions Research Uni Outreach Series. 11-3. http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/hdru/pubs/HDRUOutreach11-3.pdf

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This project has been funded in part by a grant from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund through the Hudson River Estuary Program of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) (contract #303671).

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