Webinar 8: What are the Choices and Benefits? Matching Objectives to Programs and Getting Additional Help

This is the eighth webinar, delivered in 5 segments, in ASWM and NRCS’s jointly-developed nine-part wetland training webinar series. The webinar began with a brief overview of USDA’s many wetland-related programs. The webinar introduced these programs and when planners should consider using them. This portion of the webinar also explored the complexity created by regional issues, water rights, coastal issues, changing weather patterns and other challenges that planners need to understand in order to make effective decisions when working with landowners. The second presentation shared the potential for using the CPA-52 environmental evaluation tool to assist in planning to assess concerns and alternatives. The webinar continued with a third presentation on partner organizations and programs that provide complementary supports for wetland work. The final presentation shared examples of collaborative projects around the country that have been built around different collaboration goals, form and functions. Throughout, the webinar they shared the importance of identifying and engaging additional help from both internal and external staff experts and advice on how to engage them. It also included discussion of terminology that is accessible by landowners around wetland and these complexities, as well as the interdisciplinary nature of the work.