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Environmental Flows & Levels

Freshwater ecosystems require specific flows and levels of water to sustain their viability. Setting and managing for Environmental Flows and Levels (EFL) is essential for balancing water needs for agricultural, municipal, and industrial uses with water needs for ecosystems and species.
 
The need to protect environmental flows and levels for ecosystem purposes is gaining wide recognition among scientists, managers, and policy-makers, and assessment approaches have advanced substantially. Translating the science to management will require incorporating these methods into law and policy at multiple jurisdictional levels and demonstrating successful implementation. In the United States, water allocation is managed at the state level, but federal management policies can also have a significant effect on water supply. At the federal level, The Nature Conservancy has formed partnerships with agencies to design, implement and test methods for restoring environmental flows and levels for both surface- and groundwater-dependent ecosystems and to apply them nationwide. Examples include of work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service.
 
Check out our Environmental Flows and Levels work in the realms of both surface and groundwater by clicking on the links above.
 
Links below this line are automatically generated and may not directly relate to work in Oregon.
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