Using Satellite Broadcasts to Educate the Public About Watershed Issues on a Regional Basis

The Pacific Northwest Water Quality team developed a series of three regional (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington) watershed issues satellite downlinked conferences that were delivered in 2002, 2003, and 2004 using a regional steering committee. These conferences were downlinked to a minimum of 38 educational sites each year with an annual attendance ranging from 300 to 1,000 educators, agency and non-profit personnel, and members of local watershed groups. Evaluations indicated that regional programming on certain topics is an efficient and effective alternative to individual state programming when both financial and human resources are limited in individual states.