Russian River Regional Monitoring Program
R3MP is a science-based planning effort convened by public agencies and watershed stakeholders to develop a coordinated regional monitoring program for the Russian River watershed.
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) is calling for the development of a Regional Monitoring Program of best available independent science to inform and coordinate environmental regulatory and management decisions throughout the Russian River Watershed.
The Russian River Regional Monitoring Program (R3MP) will be developed in phases. During Phase 1, a Steering Committee was convened to guide the development of the R3MP’s governance framework, priority management questions, and the first iteration of the R3MP Charter. A list of funding models was also drafted to identify potential funding sources for implementing the program. Phase 1 was completed in March 2019.
Since then, Phase 2 has been honing in on developing specific management and monitoring questions as they relate to coordinating regional monitoring within the Russian River watershed. Aligned with the overarching goal of assessing watershed health, the R3MP Steering Committee identified three Guiding Questions:
What is the baseline health status of the Russian River watershed
What are the trends in watershed health, and
How can the health of the watershed be improved?
Subsequent phases can broaden the R3MP to support additional regulatory and management programs, subject to Steering Committee advice and review. The anticipated functions and benefits of the R3MP include, but are not limited to:
Improved protection of aquatic resources and their beneficial uses;
Coordinated, inter‐agency adaptive watershed management;
Maximized value and minimized costs of environmental data;
Robust assessment of baseline conditions and trends;
Evaluation of project and program effectiveness;
Improved data access and visualization;
Improved public outreach and reporting.
R3MP Governance
Steering Committee Members
Steering Committee Agendas and Meeting Summaries
Technical Advisory Committee Agendas and Materials
Governance Documents
Management Questions (final)
Charter (v. 2/17/2021) - includes the governance framework diagram at the end
TAC Charge Memo (v. 2/17/2021)
Other Information
Biostimulation Monitoring Focus Memo (v 10/14/2020)
Funding models (3/7/2019)
Funding models Update (10/25/2021)
White paper on Watershed Health (Josh Collins v.11/2018)
R3MP Phase II Development Work Plan with SFEI-ASC (2020-2023)
R3MP Phase II Task Schedule for TAC and SC (2021-2023) v.4/2021
Data Access and Tools
Public access to monitoring data and reports is a key goal for the R3MP. We envision that data and information will flow between the R3MP delivery system and other systems. Dashboards can be developed to summarize information for particular programs, user-defined areas of the watershed, or for the watershed as whole.
Several projects have uploaded water quality monitoring data to the California Environmental Data Exchange Network (CEDEN) and the Regional Data Center (RDC). Those data are available through CEDEN or the Contaminant Data Display and Download Tool (CD3), which is a map-based interactive website to access publically available monitoring data.
The R3MP Watershed Atlas is a beta version of a customized data access website that displays existing, public domain data layers, that displays regional monitoring sites (and in some cases allows monitoring data to be downloaded) for NPDES permittees, SWAMP, post-fire water quality monitoring studies, North Coast TMDL monitoring, and other studies whose data have been uploaded to CEDEN.
EcoAtlas is another online, interactive statewide data access, visualization, and summary tool (https://www.ecoatlas.org/). Users can explore geospatial map layers, general wetland condition information collected using the California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM), and more specific water or sediment quality information, such as water toxicity data provided by CEDEN.
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R3MP Metadata Questionnaire Link
The R3MP is collecting information about long-term monitoring and special studies being conducted across the Russian River watershed. Specifically, the program is interested in understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of ongoing monitoring for a suite of watershed health indicators and associated metrics. The compiled information will help the R3MP coordinate with partner agencies (and other entities) who are conducting ongoing ecological monitoring efforts and will be used to characterize overall watershed conditions and track trends over time to support improved watershed management.
(Questionnaire is active from February 1 - May 30, 2022)
Other Resources
Our Partners
Sonoma Resource Conservation Districts (Sonoma + Gold Ridge RCDs)
Related Programs and Initiatives
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The R3MP Long-term Monitoring and Special Study Metadata Questionnaire collects the name and email of the person who is uploading monitoring information (in case we need to reach out about the data being submitted), study type, monitoring data type, study name and purpose, and includes a template for station location(s) and parameters measured, and a file upload option for additional documentation.
The R3MP will use this information to compile a map and associated database of monitoring stations, parameters measured, and frequency of sampling among programs.
Here is a list of monitoring and special studies uploaded to date (last updated June 28, 2022).