The Washington State Conservation Commission is hosting an in-person hybrid meeting to support counties with the development of their VSP monitoring plans. There is great work happening statewide and we want to bring the VSP community together to share monitoring resources and lessons learned and have a collaborative discussion on VSP monitoring. We encourage everyone to attend in person, but have a virtual option available.

To support a collaborative discussion, please come prepared to discuss the monitoring tools your county is considering using and copies of resources or examples to share with participants. This meeting is an opportunity for counties to collaborate with each other, with support from state partners, to develop a robust set of tools for monitoring critical areas statewide.

Meeting Goals:

• Clarify the monitoring plan expectations and review process.

• Support counties with the development of their VSP monitoring plans.

• Provide space for counties to share monitoring tools and resources with each other, establish a community of practice around monitoring, and foster connections in the VSP community.

This event took place in person in Ellensburg and also online.

This webinar explored tools and approaches to identify and prioritize erosion hot spots on agricultural lands. Ryan Boylan, Research and Monitoring Coordinator at Palouse Conservation District, shared his work on this important topic. The second portion of this session provided updates on various projects, programs, and data sets that relate to VSP monitoring.

This webinar on Nov. 14 was focused on assessing wetland functions and values, with an emphasis on applications to watershed-scale monitoring and VSP.

Thanks to VSP stakeholders in Okanogan for the reminder that the Department of Commerce produced a series of webinars in early 2021 related to critical areas, monitoring at the parcel scale, and adaptive management. Those webinars are available for anyone to review at the Washington Department of Commerce Growth Management Critical Areas web page.

SCC highlighted this webinar series in the December 2020 VSP newsletter. At that time, SCC did caution VSP stakeholders that the webinars were focused more on the regulatory aspects of the Growth Management Act, and not so much on the voluntary stewardship program alternative, and monitoring at the parcel scale—a difference from monitoring in VSP, which is done at the watershed scale. Counties using a regulatory basis for protection of critical areas for other land uses likely will eventually focus on watershed or county-level scale for monitoring so some parallel approaches may be relevant, however, the focus of these webinars is at the parcel and individual permit scale.

With the caveats described above, the webinars are available and there is useful background information in them related to the Growth Management Act and critical areas. Webinars may offer helpful information related to monitoring and adaptive management of critical areas, complementing efforts the Commission has made regarding monitoring and adaptive management under VSP. And for those workgroups relying on regulatory backstops, the webinars may have direct applicability.

Access all CAO resources from Department of Commerce.

SSB 5353 – Reopening VSP to the 12 non-VSP counties – informational webinar – Thursday, June 15, 2023, at 9 am. SSB 5353 reopens the VSP to the 12 counties who originally declined to opt into VSP in 2011-2012 (Clallam, Clark, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Klickitat, Pierce, Skamania, Snohomish, Wahkiakum, Whatcom, and Whidbey Island). Governor Inslee signed SSB 5353, making it effective on July 23, 2023. The webinar is designed to walk the 12 counties through the process for opting into VSP, so the webinar is designed for county commissioners, county staff, and conservation district staff of the 12 counties who might join VSP.

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The webinar introduced and summarized lessons learned and best practices from multiple watershed scale monitoring efforts conducted by CEAP across the US; and approaches and frameworks used by the ACPF to assist conservation districts, NRCS staff, and other partners with planning, prioritization, monitoring, and outreach at the nexus of agriculture and ecosystems.

The webinar reviewed the new contract for the 2023-25 biennial budget between VSP counties and SCC, provided a template that a VSP sub-contractor/technical service provider might use when contracting with a VSP county for implementation and summarized the budget for the 2023-25 biennium. You may find the slide deck here.

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This webinar was tailored toward new VSP staff responsible for tasks like implementation, contracts, processing expense vouchers, cost-share, monitoring, adaptive management, outreach, education, and reporting.

This monitoring forum was held virtually on March 28, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. and focused on updates to Version 2 of the "Watershed Project Monitoring Development Guide for the Voluntary Stewardship Program of Washington."

The March 9 Monitoring Symposium contained wonderful presentations from WSDA about monitoring data and methods for surface water, crops, soil health, groundwater, and dairy nutrient management.

WA State Conservation Commission (SCC) finance staff, supported by regional managers, lead a training and Q&A about conservation district Cost Share and District Implementation Projects (DIP).

VSP Monitoring Symposium - Fall 2022 (Nov 2022)

USDA NRCS Plant Materials Program: A history and future of developing, testing, and transferring plant science technologies to meet natural resource needs.

This webinar provides a overview of the FY 22-23 VSP supplemental budget guidelines, process, and timeline.