Links to presentations
Evaluation and Attendance Stats
Breakout Session Summaries
Photos
Final Program (pdf)

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

This year the Southeast Watershed Forum worked with NOAA’s Coastal Services Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Gulf of Mexico Program, TVA and other agencies and organizations to host the first Regional Quality Growth conference - Building Sustainable Communities for the 21st Century, August 12-14, 2008 in Charleston, South Carolina.

The conference highlighted resource protection programs and management strategies to ensure more sustainable communities in a time of unprecedented growth and development pressures, diminished water availability and threats from climate change. Local initiatives and case studies were presented during the concurrent sessions and focused on the following areas: 1) Building Greener Communities; 2) Saving Habitat, Farmland, Green Infrastructure and Community Character, and 3) Designing Resilient Communities.

The program offered an opportunity to provide regional leadership on issues that will dramatically affect the viability and natural resource base of southeastern communities. The program drew individuals from 14 different states and from a wide variety of affiliations, including developers, land use planners, natural resource managers, elected officials, land trusts, watershed groups, universities and local, state and federal agencies in an effort to showcase ideas for creating wiser land use and development strategies for the region. The conference served as the Forum’s 11th Watershed Roundtable.

Click here to see the final program (pdf) for this year's conference.

For questions about the conference, please contact our office at 615-627-1310 or seforum@southeastwaterforum.org.