Pyramid Lake Watershed Base Plan

What is a watershed?  
A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. John Wesley Powell, scientist geographer, put it best when he said that a watershed is:

"that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community."

Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes. They cross county, state, tribal and national boundaries.

Watershed Based Planning
Since the late-1990's, USEPA has been promoting a watershed-based approach to addressing water quality issues in states and on tribal lands. A watershed approach has the following features:
Is hydrologically defined
Geographically focused
Includes all major stressors
Involves all stakeholders
Includes public (federal, state, local, tribal) and private sector
Is community based
Includes a coordinating framework
Strategically addresses priority water resources goals (e.g., water quality, fisheries, habitat, etc.)
Integrates multiple programs
Based on sound science
Uses adaptive management
In partnership with the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (PLPT), the Desert Research Institute (DRI) is developing a watershed based plan. The PLPT needs a watershed-based management plan to:

coordinate remediation and pollution prevention efforts and,
be eligible for competitive funding opportunities.
Because this Plan will be watershed-based, the DRI team will address pollution concerns with all stakeholders. 
Non Point Source pollutants relevant to the Reservation include sediment, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), and salinity.

The developed plan will outline concrete steps to restore and preserve important water resources for the Tribe and concerned citizens within the planning area.

A series of public stakeholder meetings will be conducted. The PLPT WQ Program looks forward to working with all stakeholders to create the Watershed Based Plan to aid in the restoration and preservation of Tribal water resources.