Upper Sacramento River Watershed Assessment
Steering Committee Charter
(partial draft)

Mission/Purpose

Mission statement: The mission of the Upper Sacramento River Watershed Steering Committee is to work cooperatively and collaboratively to complete a Watershed Assessment of the Upper Sacramento River Watershed and, based on this, to develop  non-regulatory management strategy recommendations that conserve and enhance the resources of the Upper Sacramento River Watershed, support the sustainability of the watershed and local economy, recognize and protect the rights of public, private, and tribal stakeholders, and advocate outreach and education.

Purpose statement: The purpose of the Upper Sacramento River Watershed Assessment is to gather, synthesize and analyze existing information on the physical, biological and human conditions within the Upper Sacramento Watershed, linking reference and present conditions, in order to inform the watershed community about the current status of the greater Sacramento Watershed ecosystem, identify areas in which additional data and information are needed, and provide a basis for the development of a watershed stewardship and management strategy.  The Assessment will be conducted under the collaborative direction of a diverse group of watershed stakeholders, and will provide multiple opportunities for community input and involvement.

Project Deliverables and Timeline

Phase 1 – Watershed Assessment

Part 1: Scope and structure – 1/1/08 – 3/30/08
A. Convene partners and introduce project
B. Develop purpose/ mission
C. Define requirements
D. Identify stakeholders and define steering committee and process
E. Identify immediate (Part 1/ 2) support needs.
F. Convene steering committee and create detailed Part 2 plan and schedule

Part 2: Process planning, deliverables, and ownership – 3/30/08 - 5/30/08
A. Develop process and system for prioritization
B. Identify specific deliverables based on requirements
C. Prioritize deliverables
D. Assign ownership to deliverables including:
            i. Dividing work among partners where appropriate
            ii. Identifying contract needs
E. Generate process summary (deliverables, schedule/timeline, ownership, dependencies)
F. Hire consultants

Part 3: Data collection, compilation, and synthesis – 6/1/08 - 12/31/08   
A. Compilation and synthesis of existing data
B. Collection and analysis of new data
C. Identification of data gaps and potential measures to fill those gaps

Part 4: Preparation and distribution of final assessment – 1/1/09 - 5/31/09
A. Completion of any additional data collection or analysis
B. Completion of assessment draft
C. Internal feedback, comment, and revision period on assessment draft
D. Final assessment completed
E. Final assessment printed and circulated

Phase 2 – Management Strategy

Part 1: Process design for Management Strategy – 6/1/09 - 6/30/09
Part 2: Consensus on strategy components and work-plan – 7/1/09 - 12/31/09
Part 3: Preparation and distribution of Final Management Strategy – 1/1/10 - 5/31/10

Phase 3 – Outreach, Monitoring, and Evaluation

Part 1: Community outreach plan design and implementation – 1/1/08 – 5/15/10
Part 2: Completion of project monitoring and evaluation – 12/10/09 - 5/15/10

*Note: some parts may run concurrently within and across phases

Participant Roles and Responsibilities

• River Exchange: Project coordination, management, administration, and outreach

The River Exchange shall:

• Guide definition of project and process, and coordinate workflow    
• Allocate and disperse funds, manage contracts
• Serve as primary point of contact for project members and outside parties
• Play leadership role in project research and workflow
• Fulfill individual communications plan (see below)

• Partners: Leadership, process, technical expertise

• The Project Partners are:
•  
• California Trout
• River Exchange
• Shasta Valley RCD
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• U.S. Forest Service
• Western Shasta RCD

Project Partners shall:

• Define project purpose and (based on this) develop requirements
• Identify and assemble steering committee and associated process
• Participate and provide leadership in steering committee
• When appropriate, provide support  in data assembly, analysis, and interpretation
• Fulfill individual communications plan (see below)

• Steering Committee: Direction, prioritization, process, workflow

The Steering Committee shall be comprised of the six project Partners; and ten additional members:

• California Department of Fish and Game
• California Department of Water Resources
• Castle Crags State Park
• Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board
• City of Dunsmuir
• Roseburg Forest Products
• Sierra Pacific Industries
• Siskiyou County
• Union Pacific Railroad
• Winnemem Wintu

Steering Committee members shall:

• Participate in Steering Committee meetings
• Define process and specific deliverables based on requirements from partners
• Prioritize deliverables and tasks
• Determine best approach to accomplishing tasks
• Organize and oversee workflow
• Adjust and refine project requirements iteratively, when necessary/ appropriate
• Review and signoff on specific deliverables and complete product
• Create process and work-plan to define management strategy and goals based on assessment findings/ outcomes
• Participate as appropriate in public outreach activities
• Fulfill individual communications plan (see below)

• Project Consultants: Project support and  technical expertise

• Work with Steering Committee in all aspects of Assessment and Management Strategy development and production. Perform specific tasks per contractual agreements.

• Public: Comment, and feedback  

• Provide comments, recommendations and feedback on project goals, requirements and desired outcomes.
• Provide comments, recommendations and feedback on deliverables, products, and associated management strategies.

Meeting Schedule

Steering Committee: The Steering Committee shall meet as needed throughout the process. During Phase 1, meetings shall occur approximately every 4 weeks. During Phases 2 & 3, meetings shall occur approximately every 6-8 weeks.

CLARIFICATIONS

Steering Committee
The Upper Sacramento Watershed Assessment Steering Committee (SC) includes specialists from 1) the River Exchange (REX) grant manager, 2) the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), grant administrator, 3) partner agencies (collaborators on the initial proposal, provided with limited funding under the project grant) including Western Shasta RCD (WSRCD), Shasta Valley RCD (SVRCD), California Trout (CalTrout), 4) federal partners (non-funded collaborators on the initial proposal) including the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) , as well as 5) cooperating agencies and watershed stakeholders, including representatives from the California Department of Fish and Game (CADFG), the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board  (CVRWQCB),  Castle Crags State Park (CASP), the City of Dunsmuir (Dunsmuir), Siskiyou County, Roseburg Forest Products (RFP), Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), Union Pacific Railroad (UP), and the Winnemem Wintu.

The SC will serve as the primary decision making entity for the project, defining scope, identifying key subject areas and associated topics, and working with the consultant to create specific project deliverables based on these.  The SC and consultant will then work collaboratively to identify project checkpoints, milestones, and due dates for project deliverables, as well as process and timing for SC feedback, comment, and signoff.  SC members will review the consultant’s work and serve in an editorial capacity providing general comments, feedback, and additional clarification/ prioritization as needed on each section of the assessment. A schedule of review dates will be agreed upon in advance so that the consultant’s delivery dates will not be jeopardized.  

SC members may be asked to provide access to existing data in the form of documents, GIS datasets, tables, charts, etc.  SC members may also, in specific cases, provide support with data collection and analysis.  The consultant can contact individual SC members to answer technical questions; however, a record of all information received from all SC members directly to the consultant will be maintained and provided to the SC as requested.  All other questions should be directed to REX.

Data and Information

It is possible that some relevant data and information currently available may be quite generic in nature, or found in a different geographic area, but is otherwise representative of the Upper Sacramento River Watershed.  Therefore, the Assessment should include all published and non-published data and information deemed by the consultant, in consultation with the SC, to be significant.  Non-published information will be reviewed and approved by the SC prior to its inclusion in the final report.  All data included in the final report shall be referenced by source (i.e. published, anecdotal, personal communication including month/year, etc.).

It is understood that the consultant is expected to assemble existing publicly-available data and information, including data that is available for purchase from any local, state or federal agency, if no other means of acquisition exist.  The consultant is expected to conduct interviews with relevant stakeholders as needed and provide brief written summaries of such interviews.  The consultant is not expected to collect any new field data. However, some new field data may be collected in isolated cases, by separate contractual arrangement.

Guidelines for organization, presentation, and extent of analyses leveraging GIS-type data gathered during the preparation of this report will be determined by the SC, based on recommendations from the consultant.

Collection and analysis of existing information about the watershed, and associated data gaps, will be focused on the subject areas and list of associated key topics provided by the SC (Figure 1).  Key topics will be prioritized by the SC, in cooperation with the consultant.  Key topics, and associated subject areas should be examined and evaluated in the context of the Watershed Assessment Framework (WAF) (Figure 2).  WAF categories should be used, wherever applicable, to focus and organize evaluation of subjects areas and topics, to ensure adequate breadth of information assemblage and analysis.