What is WRAPS?
Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) is a planning and management framework that engages stakeholders within a particular watershed in a process to: • Identify watershed restoration and protection needs and opportunities • Establish management goals for the watershed community • Create a cost-effective action plan to achieve goals • Implement the action plan WRAPS represents a shift from “top-down” government intervention in watershed issues, to a more citizen-stakeholder approach, in which funds, guidance and technical assistance are provided for stakeholders to reach consensus on issues of relevance in their watershed, and then design and execute a plan to address those issues.
Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) is a local stakeholder driven process that intends to help protect and improve the quality of the watershed. The processes by which the groups function are broken down into four steps: Development During the development stage of the process local interest in the project is identified. Stakeholders are educated on the WRAPS process and are educated about the issues in their watershed. At the end of the development process a stakeholder team is identified for that watershed. Assesment The assessment stage is used to identify and inventory the needs of the watershed. The assessment stage can be used to assess the water resources of the watershed. Planning The function of the planning stage is to write a document that identifies the needs and goals of the watershed and how those goals will be met. Implementation The implementation stage serves to enact the goals of the watershed plan.
