Applying Hydro-Climatological Research to Improve the Scientific Basis Of Local Watershed Decision-Making

The North Olympic Peninsula Resource Conservation & Development (NOP RC&D) Council proposes to evolve a Solutions Network of local, regional and national organizations to provide watershed management teams with decision support through NASA-funded earth-sun research results. The NOP RC&D Council built a team of eight other major partners for this Project, including the NASA-funded Pacific NorthWest Regional Collaboratory (PNWRC); USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Idaho National Laboratory (INL); Olympic National Park (ONP); Clallam County; the National Association of RC&D Councils (NARC&DC) in Washington, DC; and Peninsula College (PC). The science portion involves applying hydro-climatological research, through the Hybrid hydrology model, to improve the scientific basis of local watershed decision making. A Solutions Network of User Groups, Research Scientists, and an Operation Center will be developed in the Dungeness and Elwha River watersheds during the first two years of this project. The Elwha River watershed is also the site of the largest dam removal project ever undertaken in the Nation and therefore posed additional opportunities to collaborate with Peninsula College, Olympic National Park, and the Elwha Research Consortium.