The Difficulties and Promise of an Interagency Public Information Campaign for Water Quality Issues

The following case study addresses the difficulties and promise of developing a statewide interagency public information campaign to raise general awareness of water quality issues and governmental programs to address them. Due to only moderate success of voluntary programs to curb nonpoint source pollution, agencies are looking toward information and education programs to motivate the public toward conservation behavior. One of the biggest obstacles in developing an effective information/education program is institutional barriers to interagency cooperation, mirroring difficulties local conservationists encounter in their work to restore and maintain water quality at the watershed level. Cooperation between federal agencies, and resource commitment to public information is necessary at the federal level, as well as state and local levels. Agencies involved to date include the United States Department of Agriculture-Soil Conservation Service; Wisconsin State Departments of Natural Resources, and Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and Administration; University of Wisconsin-Extension; Wisconsin Land Conservation Association.