The Delaware River Watershed Initiative is a broad partnership of nongovernmental organizations that share the goal of ensuring abundant clean water through conservation of targeted watersheds within the 13,000-square-mile drainage of the Delaware River. As part of this initiative, the Open Space Institute (OSI) administers the Delaware River Watershed Land Protection Fund with generous support from the William Penn Foundation.
This document summarizes OSI’s approach to evaluating sites for permanent protection of water resources based on a literature review, expert opinion, and stakeholder input. The approach was developed to evaluate project proposals submitted to the Delaware River Watershed Land Protection Fund.