There are many ways to influence upstream activities without ownership and authority, even in large watersheds. Building partnerships and providing accurate information about various issues to stakeholders and communities are two important ways to provide influence without authority and spending large amounts of money. Most importantly, one needs to identify the various issues that upstream stakeholders are concerned about and provide them information specific to their needs and your needs. Local organizations and their members can sometimes be more effective at raising the awareness of local officials and influencing local action and change. Therefore, providing support to upstream organizations and building partnerships with them can develop lasting and productive source water protection benefits without requiring extensive monies to purchase and manage lands or build various BMPs. The emphasis of these efforts becomes leveraging local efforts, initiatives, and monies that are going to be spent on watershed protection upstream into efforts that will provide the most effective protection for water supply downstream. Finally, emphasis on protection efforts should be allocated based on the areas that water quality influences originate and the amount of influence by them. Typically most protection efforts are located near the point of water withdrawal, but can be over 100 miles away, if necessary. The key is not to protect the entire watershed, but only the portions that are critical to protecting the water supply and where partners are willing to support these efforts.