Our Mission Statement
The mission of this plan is to provide logical and reasonable guidelines for improving the watershed that balance the environmental, agricultural, urban, industrial, wildlife, and recreational interests while addressing the goals of stakeholders and providing the means of implementation.




        Development of the project began when two committees were formed to assist with developing the plan. The Resource Planning Committee (RPC) is a group of local stakeholders, ranging from farm managers to local teachers, which are interested in taking action to improve and maintain the social and environmental conditions of the watershed. Stakeholder involvement in the planning process provides two-way communication between agency personnel and members of the community, and all of the parties benefit from such communication.

        The RPC met seven times from September 20, 2005 to October 17, 2006 during the development of the plan. The RPC meetings were well attended with approximately 25 in attendance at each meeting. This committee developed the Mission Statement and initial Issues List in November 2005. Comments on the draft report were discussed at an RPC meeting in January 2007.

        The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is composed of personnel from several agencies: NRCS, Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), counties Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and United States Geological Survey (USGS) that are available to provide data and technical assistance. Many other organizations also contributed to the TAC by participating in the committee meetings and assisting in the preparation and review of the report.

        The TAC met five times during the development of the plan and was largely responsible for creating the text of the various topical areas of the plan. The TAC also consolidated and categorized the Issues List. Much of the TAC work was done outside of meetings with various individuals working on topics assigned to them. Comments on the draft report were discussed at the TAC meeting in January 2007.

        The fundamental objective of the RPC is to develop a comprehensive management plan for the social, cultural and natural resources in the Clinton Lake Watershed. The success of this plan is dependent upon participation and adoption by watershed stakeholders, including private citizens, local groups, and governmental and non-governmental agencies. This plan encompasses the input provided by watershed stakeholders through public meetings and RPC involvement. A total of two public meetings and twelve TAC or RPC meetings were held during the development of the plan.

        Planning for the watershed commenced with a watershed-wide stakeholder public meeting. The first public meeting was held in January 2006. This effort, which was attended by about 30 people, was designed to elicit comments and concerns from the public regarding watershed issues. From these concerns the RPC then developed the needs of the watershed. Based on these needs, the executive summary was developed after meeting with the TAC.