Water 4 emerged in 2019 from conservation work already in action around the Intermountain West. Water 4 is now in its fourth year and has grown from a Joint Venture (JV) initiative to a well-established and broadly recognized conservation approach for sustaining wetlands. What was once an initiative is on the radar at the highest levels of government and is increasingly bringing new investments from key agencies to support locally led conservation efforts. Yet, now more than ever, drought and climate change are fundamentally altering the valuable wetland and irrigated agricultural lands that are imperative to the future of migratory birds, wildlife and fisheries, and people.
The Water 4 approach includes:
- SCIENCE to identify vital working wetlands; Science to Implementation to enhance access to and use of science for strategic conservation, from field implementation to funding and decision making.
- CAPACITY to address conservation bottlenecks and work through existing partnerships to increase the pace and scale of conservation. Adding capacity requires putting the right people with the right skills in the right place.
- COMMUNICATIONS to advance conservation through stories about partnership-driven conservation efforts, outcomes, and the tools that get the job done.
Water 4 is accelerating water and wetlands conservation and developing transferable models across the West.
Water 4 aims to achieve conservation that provides multiple benefits to people and wildlife. A deep understanding of different perspectives, needs, and approaches to habitat delivery is necessary to ensure effective, lasting, and community-based conservation. Science further informs and focuses Water 4 in landscapes that have high value to migratory birds, wetland habitat abundance, partnership synergy, and partner investments.
The Water 4 Toolbox
Conservation Easements
Low-Tech Restoration
Modernization of Flood Irrigation Infrastructure
Reconnecting Rivers to Floodplains
Wet Meadow Restoration
Resources
News
Shoring Up the Banks on Nevada Creek
Decades of restoration are accumulating to keep a key tributary to Montana's Blackfoot River functioning for ranchers and native trout.
Along the Rio Grande, Farms are the Future for Wetland Birds
In New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande, conservation partners look at farmland owners as allies. They are a major part of the big-picture perspective that wetland conservationists have in this bottleneck in the Central Flyway.
Reconnection + Renewal on the Sycan River
An oxbow restoration on a tribally held easement on a working Sycan River ranch is by all means a simple project—but for the partners involved, it’s a glimpse into a brighter future in the Klamath Basin.
