Lesson 3 - Home Inventory and Action/No Action Plan
Acknowledgement: Taken from "Living on the Land 2001"

1. Learn from watershed groups or other sources of local expertise about streams and floodplains in your area. Learn if possible how your stream handled the energy of floods in your setting (broad or narrow floodplains, beaver dams, woody vegetation, herbaceous stabilizing wetland vegetation, meanders, rocks and pools with riffles, and /or coarse woody debris, etc.)
2. Walk your property or neighborhood stream and its watershed to identify places of accelerated soil erosion during runoff or high flow events. If the watershed is too big, use a car, air photos, or a local expert. Note places where land use has removed or significantly weakened the vegetation, or use the "How’s My Stream?" assessment checklist. If you have a stream or pond on your property, identify the major plants along the bank and learn if they are important in stabilizing banks against erosion.
3. Visit the stream during high flow or think back to identify where on the bank the water surface reached during the normal high flow for an average year. Determine if the water surface was on or very nearly on a floodplain surface that had been formed by the stream.
4. Note projects structures, or activities that occur within the stream or its floodplain that would alter the form or roughness of the channel, the flow of water, or the stability of streambanks.
5. List questions from the above tasks about which you need more information or an expert opinion.
6. List your goals and objectives for your stream and floodplain. Goals are broad statements such as: Encourage natural recovery. Objectives are specific statements of accomplishment such as: Allow the stream to become lined with willows.
7. List actions to stop, including those you have previously considered or done that you would no longer consider appropriate, given your current goals and objectives.
8. List actions to accomplish that you believe would be important for your objectives.
9. Describe how you could monitor progress to learn if the desired (or undesired) changes have occurred.

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