Drought continues to be a major issue in the headwaters states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana, which provide water for over 100 million people in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Other equally important issues such as point-source pollution, a complex system of historical water rights, and a rapidly-growing population with changing needs puts great stress on our water resources.

At the forefront of the efforts to safeguard essential water supplies is the watershed group. A watershed is the way natural waterways are organized, comprising the entire area that drains into a river or lake. There are now thousands of watershed groups in the US that have formed to protect these areas and the water that flows through them.

These watershed groups are most often "stakeholders" — made up of local farmers, ranchers, and business people working cooperatively with representatives from local, state, and federal agencies. This new collaborative approach to addressing natural resource problems is based upon an evolving realization by our government that it's better to work with the local stakeholders early on rather than fight with them later on in the legal system.

These watershed groups provide water quality monitoring, initiate restoration projects, educate the public about water conservation, and much more. In general, they try to resolve issues in a partnership approach rather than within a forced regulatory or adversarial legal framework.

TWP helps these groups to become sustainable by providing a wide spectrum of technical and organizational training. This support helps assure that our watersheds are protected and that America's water really is pure.