Potomac Watershed Partnership

Location:
Maryland, Delaware and metro-Washington, DC area

What challenges were faced and how were they overcome?

One challenge that the group has been facing involves engaging and accommodating new partners in the PWP. The PWP has actively solicited participation from agencies in Pennsylvania and West Virginia responsible for managing the upper portions of the watershed, but the group has not formally extended invitations to others. After persistent invitations from the PWP Coordinator, a representative from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection began attending the Steering Committee meetings. Unfortunately, McKechie explains the timing was such that “we were just getting to the point where we were comfortable with where we were as a group,” and so welcoming a potential new partner into the mix was challenging for the existing Partners. In order to address the challenges of adding new partners, McKechie created governance articles that outlined expectations and rules for additions, but the Steering Committee shied away from this formality. When the Pennsylvania DEP did join, the state agency representative felt that it was not an easy transition into the partnership. Since then, PA DEP has helped to create a less formal, draft template for accepting new partners, which specifies that new partners’ missions are appropriately aligned with the PWP’s and requires that the new partners have the ability to commit resources throughout the elements of the strategic plan.

As an indication of the Potomac Watershed Partnership’s growing popularity and success, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Army Corps of Engineers have recently asked to join the PWP. The Potomac Watershed Partnership is conscious of its need to maintain balanced representation of state and federal agencies and nonprofit organizations, and so honoring requests like these from federal agencies are challenging decisions for the group. No decisions have been made yet concerning formal membership of USFWS and the Corps, but USFWS representatives have started to attend meetings.

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