The Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program promotes a coordinated approach to stream protection and management within the Ashokan Reservoir watershed.
In the watershed, Stream Management Plans are developed to provide a comprehensive review of stream characteristics, data, maps and recommended management strategies. To date, three management plans have been completed in the watershed, for Broadstreet Hollow, the Stony Clove, and the Esopus Creek (above the Reservoir). A stream assessment of Woodland Creek has been completed and an assessment of the Beaverkill is underway.
The recommended management strategies consist of measures to individually and collectively reduce the risks of living along Catskill streams, improve the ecology of the stream and floodplain, while protecting the stream’s many resource values. Ultimately, the plans are meant to assist watershed municipalities and residents in planning for a sustainable future for their property, infrastructure, water and biological resources. Ensuring the health of the watershed’s environmental resources will also help to secure a future of prosperous economic growth and a good quality of life for watershed residents.
Program Funding
The Program is primarily funded by New York
City Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) through contracts with Cornell Cooperative
Extension of Ulster County (“CCE”) and Ulster County Soil and Water Conservation District (“UC SWCD”).
The funding for the program is provided by DEP as part of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s
(“EPA”) determination to allow New York City to avoid filtration of its Catskill water supply. The
filtration avoidance determination (“FAD”) was previously reviewed and determined on a five year basis
(1997‐2002; 2002 – 2007). The recent approved FAD is for a ten year period 2007‐2017.
NYC has committed over $10 million since 1997 for stream management planning in the Ashokan Reservoir watershed.
Program History
The DEP Stream Management Program is a watershed management and protection program developed
as part of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in 1997. The MOA established a set of watershed
partnership protection programs to ensure that the NYC water supply watersheds were adequately
protected. The Stream Management Program was established to work with all Catskill Mountain stream
stakeholders to devise strategies and best management practices to protect and enhance the integrity
of the stream system.
The Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program is an expansion of an
effort that began with the development of the Broadstreet Hollow Stream Management Plan (SMP) in
2003, continued with the Stony Clove SMP in 2004 and most recently the Upper Esopus Creek SMP in
2007. In 2008, DEP and CCE also completed a stream assessment of Woodland Creek which will be
incorporated into the watershed‐wide program.