Focus on relationships with stakeholders. Leverage existing relationships with agencies and local stakeholders and focus on building new relationships to build trust within the community. This step takes time and patience, so beginning to do this as early in the process as possible is beneficial.

Convene like-minded stakeholders to clarify input in advance of large group meetings. Host “user group” (e.g., local government, trans-mountain diverters, agricultural, conservation groups and state government) interviews/calls, or design workshops for specific interest-groups (e.g., agriculture), inviting only members from that community. Considerations such as having attendees among trusted peers and having the meeting managed by a neutral facilitator can help people feel at ease and result in valuable participation and input.

Adapt meetings to the stakeholders involved. Consider the time-of-day, season, venue (webinars or calls as opposed to in-person meetings), and location. It is common for SMPs to cover a large geography; in these cases, consider holding meetings regularly throughout the watershed to minimize travel time for stakeholders.

Engage entities with legal regulatory responsibilities early (town councils, county commissioners, conservation districts, etc.), setting the expectation that they have a seat at the table in the stakeholder group.

Invite people who are skeptical of stream management planning to participate, giving them an opportunity to provide input and take more ownership of the effort.

Give stakeholders a reason to be at the table by clearly articulating the benefit they could receive by being involved (e.g., projects that are aligned with the SMP could be poised for funding down the line).

Bring in interested people early to demonstrate your intent to be considerate of all users.

Use local experts or well-regarded community members as ambassadors to help build trust and confidence among stakeholders. Keep elected officials well informed and included in the stakeholder process. 

Invest in good communication tools to keep all parties up to date with progress and provide ongoing access to information. Transparency is important to achieving long-term trust between the project-lead and the water user community.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered opportunities for in-person stakeholder meetings. The “Planning in a  Pandemic” peer call offers suggestions and tactics to maximize virtual stakeholder engagement.