A watershed is a geographical area in which water, solids, sediments and dissolved materials flow to a common outlet -- a point on a larger stream, a lake, an underlying aquifer, an enclosed bay, an estuary or the Pacific Ocean
What is a Watershed?
Why Watershed Management?
Citizen Monitoring of Your Own Watershed
Watershed Resources
Let's Work Together To Keep Our Watershed
Host a Wild on Watersheds Tour
Why Is Your Watershed Important?
Healthy watersheds are vital for a healthy environment and economy. Our watersheds provide water for drinking, irrigation and industry. Many people also enjoy lakes and streams for their beauty and for boating, fishing and swimming. Wildlife also need healthy watersheds for food and shelter.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nonpoint source pollution is the number one cause of the nation's water pollution. Diffuse sources of water runoff from the landscape that carries pollutants such as sediment, pesticides and salts, heavy metals and nutrients, constitute nonpoint source pollution. How we manage and use the land comprise the categories of nonpoint source pollution -- siviculture, urban, mining and agriculture.
This type of pollution results from a wide variety of activities over a wide area. The best way to reduce nonpoint source pollution is through a coordinated approach working in partnership with the watershed community.
We All Live In A Watershed
Take a drive or walk through your neighborhood, or across the farm. See if you can discover how and where the water drains.
Everyone lives in a watershed and everyone in your watershed is part of the watershed community. The animals, birds and fish are too. You influence what happens in your watershed, good or bad, by how you treat the natural resources -- soil, water, air, plants and animals. What happens in your small watershed also affects the larger watershed downstream.
