The Cross Watershed Network (XWN) operates by helping practitioners help each other. Watershed partnerships and practitioners across the southwest are finding that they can accomplish much more together than they can individually, and asking other practitioners for help can often save both time and resources. XWN strives to support these concepts. XWN participants feel strongly that all collaborators will achieve greater impact within and across watersheds by sharing leadership, responsibility and credit and building on existing strengths and resources. As an informal practitioner network that belongs to participants, XWN is built on the issues identified by participants and structured to meet their information sharing needs. Funding for XWN to date has been provided by the Walton Family Foundation, Terra Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy-Utah Chapter. Future funds are being developed through a collaborative fundraising effort implemented by the ‘Steering Committee’. Shared funding is important to achieving sustainability of XWN operations and activities.

Annual Workshop: The XWN has completed two annual peer-to-peer workshops. In 2013, the first annual workshop was co-hosted by the Verde Watershed Restoration Coalition. The 2014 workshop was co-hosted with the Escalante River Watershed Partnership.

Virtual Collaboration: This website is the next major accomplishment through which we can grow capacity to connect participants and share best practices and lessons.