West Virginia Watershed Project Implementation Guide (WPIG)

A step-by-step guide and tool set for running a watershed project from proposal through reporting, written for the volunteer-run groups that actually do the work.

WVDEP's Nonpoint Source Program built the Watershed Project Implementation Guide for the groups it funds, which means it is written for organizations without a grants department. The guide walks through the full arc of a watershed project: developing the letter of intent and proposal, building a workplan and budget that will survive review, meeting the requirements attached to Section 319 and related funding, managing contractors and landowner agreements, documenting match, monitoring and tracking load reductions, and filing the reports that keep a grant in good standing. It connects to the program's companion materials on watershed based plans, their required components, and the question of when a stream can be considered restored. Even for groups outside West Virginia, the guide is a usable template for project management discipline, since Section 319 requirements are broadly similar across states. For a small board looking at its first five-figure grant, this is the document that turns a funded project into a finished one.