Over 300,000 people in Clackamas and Washington Counties depend on the Clackamas River Basin (CRB) for high quality drinking water and other watershed services such as stormwater and sanitary sewer management. The watershed is also an important source agricultural and forestry products, and provides aquatic, terrestrial, and snow-based recreational opportunities to people from across the Portland metropolitan area and beyond. As a multi-purpose watershed, a key challenge is how to bring together stakeholders with a diverse array of objectives to ensure the resilience of watershed in the face of a changing climate, growing demands for services from the watershed, requirements for fish and wildlife, and the livelihood needs of those who depend on the watershed. This webpage presents a case study of research focused on understanding the social and ecological dynamics of the Clackamas Watershed.
The Clackamas River Watershed Resilience project was a multi-year project aimed to provide water resource stakeholders in the Clackamas River Watershed (CW) with guidance for managing resilience in the face of climate change. Phase I of this project was primarily funded by PSU Institute for Sustainable Solution to establish a baseline of historical trends in the Clackamas River watershed relevant to climate change and identify issues pertinent to stakeholders in the context of climate change (e.g., diminished summer water supply, water quality degradation resulting from urban development and intense rainfall, etc.). Phase II of this project sought to continue that research with two objectives: (1) Applied Climate Science, (2) Climate Adaptation Planning.
PROJECT GOAL:
The goal of the Clackamas Watershed Resilience project is to help project partners understand local impacts of climate change on water quality and quantity in the region; and develop strategies to sustain a healthy, reliable water source.
Uncertainty related to local impacts of climate change present a challenge for regions who are making infrastructure investments and policy decisions today that will remain in place for decades. This project aimed to provide locally specific information, at a finer scale than what is available through global climate models about how climate change may threaten water quality and quantity in the Clackamas River basin.
Alongside climate scientists, faculty and students with social science and natural resource management expertise worked with the Clackamas river community and key stakeholders to develop recommended strategies for adapting to climate change. The executive summary is a summary of the second phase of work for on this project, which began in March 2017. A full report from the first phase of work is also available below.
The Northwest Climate Conference provided an opportunity for the project team to provide an overview of the project and a facilitate a panel and audience discussion on conducting interdisciplinary applied climate impact assessment. An audience of close to 50 people attended. The session started with an overview of the project, followed by a series of 5 minute flash talks on the science findings, and concluded with a panel discussion with representatives from the Clackamas River Water Providers, Water Environment Services of Clackamas County, and the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State. The slides from the session are posted below.
May 13, 2019 - Clackamas County Development Services Building Auditorium
This multi-phase applied team workshop developed from a research partnership with local community partners, PSU faculty, and graduate students to inform local understanding of Clackamas watershed resilience to climate variability and change.
The Clackamas Watershed Resilience workshop was focused on communicating and engaging with research conducted in 2018-2019 by PSU faculty and graduate students. The research was conducted as Phase 2 of the Clackamas Watershed Resilience workshop, which aimed at developing and evaluating climate change impact models for the watershed, and simulating and assessing future conditions in Clackamas hydro-climate system. Ultimately, the project goal is to make statements about temperature, snowfall, wildfire, and water quality such as, “The frequency of extreme events is projected to increase/decrease/remain the same by the mid/late 21st century,” while also fostering dialogue among stakeholders and resource management about how to adapt to those changes.
Towards that end, 48 water and natural resource managers, elected officials, scientists, and other engaged stakeholders met for 3 hours to:
The workshop was organized to maximize engagement between project scientists and stakeholders. First, participants engaged in a round robin poster session on the latest climate impact science specific to the watershed with posters on:
Second, groups of 10-12 engaged in breakout discussions addressing the following questions:
Results from the poster session and discussions included
Click the posters below to see the workshop posters
This multi-phase applied team research project developed in partnership with local community partners, PSU faculty, and graduate students to inform local understanding of Clackamas watershed resilience to climate variability and change. Phase 1 of the project occurred in 2017-2018 and was focused on establishing a baseline understanding of historically observed data about hydro-climatological relationships in the watershed. The report to the left focuses on stakeholder interests in resilience, as well as historical changes in climate, hydrology, fire, and resource management in the Clackamas watershed. The objectives of the project were to:
Our findings focus on the following:
by Matt DeAngelo
There is increasing recognition amongst water resource managers of the role that private landowners play in determining downstream water quality, but bringing together landowners with a wide variety of land management objectives under the umbrella of watershed stewardship remains a challenge. Recently, “Payment for Watershed Services” programs have aimed to engage private landowners in watershed stewardship initiatives by offering financial incentives for adopting watershed best management practices. However, whether financial incentives are sufficient to encourage widespread watershed stewardship is unknown?
My masters research explores the variety of attitudes and motivations driving landowner decisions to enroll in watershed stewardship programs. This project was designed to provide water resource managers practical recommendations to better engage private landowners in watershed stewardship. The research primarily addresses three questions:
In order to address these questions, we completed a mail and web-based survey in the Summer of 2015, distributed to nearly 1,000 private agricultural, forestry, and residential landowners in the Clackamas River watershed. We received 279 valid responses for a 29% response rate. Most survey respondents reported support for water quality outcomes, but there remained widespread distrust of governmental agencies and regulatory implications of program enrollment. Our findings suggest that landowners are largely motivated to manage their land under self-initiative and are concerned for losing the freedom and independence associated with owning land - emphasizing the importance of engaging landowners through a flexible, bottom-up approach.
A report of the data is available in the “Clackamas Landowner Summary Report.” More in-depth analysis is available in my thesis and the following paper in the journal Society & Natural Resources.
TBA...