Model and Strategy
The purpose of this revolutionary project is threefold:
1) To redefine California’s water systems to include source watersheds and develop a system to finance their repair
and maintenance on an equivalent basis as built infrastructure.
2) To apply successful, proven financing approaches for built infrastructure towards the repair and maintenance of
source watersheds: California’s essential natural infrastructure.
3) To transform the governance structure of California essential watersheds as a replicable model for other
communities across the arid west.
Healthy Watersheds California will accelerate—by decades—a resource revolution for California’s water, increasing
climate resilience and water security for millions of water consumers across the state, especially poor and urban
communities who are most vulnerable from climate impacts and who are most reliant on public water sources.
Impact
This project will reverse decades of environmental neglect and set a sustainable future course for these
watersheds to provide enhanced water security under advancing climate change for millions of California residents.
The permanent protection and restoration of source watersheds is a proven and cost-effective method of improving
water security, as well as likely enhancing supply. As such, there are enhanced environmental benefits for all those,
both human and animal, who rely on watersheds. Further, this project will pilot a model for how other communities
across the country can improve their water security through investments in natural infrastructure, benefitting them
with new tools and approaches to enhance water security.
Leadership
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Laurie A. Wayburn
Cofounder, CoCEO, and President