Averting a Water Supply Crisis While Protecting Endangered Species: Partnerships Pay Off for Tennessee's Duck diver

摘要

In 1999, the Tennessee chapter of The Nature Conservancy launched one of its first river projects-on the Duck River in Middle Tennessee. Our Duck River program quickly became involved with many federal, state, and local partners who were beginning to tackle the water supply challenges facing several communities in the river's watershed. One of the Nature Conservancy's key partners and the local force behind water resource planning in the watershed is the Duck River Agency (DRA). From 2000 to 2002, DRA members worked to build trust between all partners within the watershed-improving tools for water management planning and coordinating research priorities and efforts. Little did we know that these first steps we made together would pay off so soon. When Tennessee's exceptional drought came along in 2007, it put our relatively new collaboration straight to the test.