Watersheds in the Northeast-Midwest region, ranging from freshwater river systems and lakes to estuarine systems and bays, are unique ecosystems with ecological and economic importance.  Unfortunately, human impacts have degraded the region’s waters, impacting recreational and consumptive uses, and putting human health at risk. Advocates of comprehensive watershed and ecosystem management have long stressed the need for interagency and interstate cooperation and for management of resources according to natural, landscape-level boundaries rather than traditional political boundaries. The Northeast-Midwest Institute has played a unique leadership role in advancing this watershed approach in Congress.

The Institute has helped to establish a series of watershed-based, bipartisan Congressional task forces, including the Great Lakes Task Forces, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force, the Upper Mississippi River Basin Task Force, and the Delaware River Basin Task Force, which fall under the auspices of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions. These task forces help organize ecosystem protection and restoration advocates into a strong and effective voice in Congress. Additionally, the Institute works to link policy makers with advocates and stakeholders in these watersheds to promote education and increase access to on-the-ground information.

The Institute participates in ecosystem restoration initiatives to ensure adequate national attention to and resources to protect the region's waters.  Experience and a strong knowledge base in large-scale ecosystem restoration of watersheds around the country resulted in an Institute report on ecosystem protection and restoration strategies entitled “Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration: Lessons for Existing and Emerging Initiatives”. Guided by this report, the Institute’s Water and Watersheds program promotes a dual approach to restoration: strengthening large national programs, such as the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, as well as collaboratively promoting regional strategies, directed at individual watersheds

The Institute’s Great Lakes Restoration work falls within the Water and Watersheds policy area, and also overlaps with several other policy areas, including Trade and the Environment/Invasive Species; Revitalizing Older Cities; and Brownfields. The work complements that of the Great Lakes Task Forces.

Home to more than 16 million people, the Chesapeake Bay watershed is unique in both its beauty and size. It encompasses six states – Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia -- and the District of Columbia, and drains over 64,000 square miles. Begun in the 1980s, the effort to restore the water quality and living resources of the Bay continues to gain momentum.

Much of the management and oversight of the Chesapeake Bay has been initiated and directed by the U.S. Congress. Beginning with a request for a five-year study in the late 1970s, resulting in the creation of the Chesapeake Bay Program, Congress has played a critical role in both raising the national profile of the Bay watershed and funding a large portion of the restoration efforts. With a complex funding climate and changing Congressional priorities, education of policy makers and their staffs has never been more important.

The Institute most recently launched its Delaware River Basin Program to promote legislative strategies for ecosystem restoration for the four-state watershed in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Beginning in the Catskill Mountains and ending in the Delaware Bay, the Delaware River is a defining feature of the Mid-Atlantic landscape. The 13,000-square-mile Delaware River watershed boasts eight million inhabitants, and provides drinking water to 15 million people, including over half the residents of New York City.

The Institute’s current work surrounds developing a regional environmental legislative agenda – as bold and comprehensive as other place-based water programs.