Strategy 5. Increase the number of abandoned mines and contaminated sites treated.
This strategy calls for providing a comprehensive, GYA-wide, inventory of prioritized sites, and working with state abandoned mine agencies to complete projects.
Strategy 6. Ensure the continued availability of water to meet purposes for which public lands.
were established and to sustain ecological functions.
Currently, federal agencies work through individual states’ water rights processes to obtain “favorable conditions of water flow” as directed by the U.S. Forest Service Organic Act and the establishment acts for the national parks and national wildlife refuges in the GYA. Administrative units within the GYA will continue to be a part of this process.
Strategy 7. Implement a system of national standards for assessing watersheds by the end of 2001.
This process has already been established through the use of “A Framework for Analyzing the Hydrologic Condition of Watersheds.” GYA forests will use this process in determining the condition of fifth-level HUBs.
Strategy 8. Maintain the integrity of roadless areas through implementation of a roadless area conservation policy.
The USFS roadless area policy will be followed within the GYA. Recommendations for trail restoration in roadless watersheds (see above) will be applied.
Conclusion
Along with the privilege of administering landscapes within one of the nation’s most spectacular settings, federal land managers in the GYA also share the responsibility for ensuring the integrity of one of the area’s most valuable resources: water. Prompted by the Unified Federal Policy for a Watershed Approach to Federal Land and Resource Management, the GYCC has demonstrated a commitment to establishing watershed management as a top priority by preparing a watershed management strategy for the GYA. The strategy may be found at .
The multi-agency (and within an agency, multi-unit) approach to the strategy expands upon existing data to produce watershed information that provides consistency across administrative
boundaries. Watershed and waterbody characteristics and conditions are identified and rated across the GYA. Managers and decisionmakers use this information to assist them in prioritizing watersheds and waterbodies in terms of protection, management, and restoration opportunities.
The management strategy provides a useful tool that when utilized on a particular unit, or across various units, will further the GYCC’s commitment to watershed management. The specific guidance provided in the strategy provides management direction that will ensure that the GYA continues to perform its vital function as “America’s headwaters.”