The Healthy Watersheds Initiative

As a nation we devote substantial resources to restoring impaired waters and have made significant progress in cleaning up polluted waters.  However, we still continue to experience the loss of some of our remaining healthy aquatic ecosystems.  The objective of the federal Clean Water Act is to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nations's waters, EPA programs focus on restoring impaired waters.

• Over the last 50 years, coastal and freshwater wetlands have declined
• Surface water and groundwater withdrawals have increased by 46%
• Non-native fish have established themselves in many watersheds
• 42% of the nation's stream length is in poor biological condition
• 25% is in fair biological condition
• Nearly 40% of fish in North American freshwater streams, rivers, and lakes are found to be vulnerable, threatened, or endangered

The Healthy Watersheds Initiative enchances the watershed approach with proactive, holistic aquatic ecosystem conservation and protection.  The Healthy Watersheds Initiative includes both assessment and management approaches that encourage states, local governments, watershed organizations, and others to take a strategic, systems approach to conserve healthy components of watersheds, and, therfore, avoid additional water quality impairments in the future.

Learn more about the Healthy Watersheds Initiative