Toward Strategic Watershed Management: Lessons from the Boone River Watershed Program Evaluation

Water quality is a growing problem throughout the world. There are over 400 aquatic ecosystems worldwide that have recently recorded hypoxic conditions. Although eutrophication is a natural process in many systems, anthropogenic forces contribute heavily to many of the world’s “dead zones.” The hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico is an example of a system negatively affected by human land use, particularly agriculture in Midwestern states such as Iowa. There are a number of groups throughout the country and the world working to address water quality issues on a landscape level. These groups are contributing to broader understanding of how to conduct watershed management on private and working lands