What's In Your Watershed?

No matter where you live, you live in a watershed! 

So what’s a watershed you ask – a watershed is all of the land that drains into a common location or body of water.  It’s not just the streams, rivers and lakes, it’s all the land surrounding those areas including farms, parks, playgrounds, streets, even your yard.

A watershed’s borders are marked by the highest ridges surrounding all sides. All the water than runs off from all the surfaces within the area defined by the watershed’s borders collects into a funnel of sorts and drains into the nearest body of water. These bodies of water, flow into bigger bodies of water and eventually into the ocean.

The largest watershed in the United States is the Mississippi River Watershed, which drains 1.15 million square miles from all or parts of 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces stretching from the Rockies to the Appalachians! (NOAA) With any watershed, water drains from creeks and streams into rivers and larger bodies of water. When this happens, not only is water pushed along, but silt, pollutants and litter are also transported to larger bodies of water.  These pollutants and litter are detrimental to the health of our watershed as well as to the health of the larger bodies of water such as the bays and oceans where they ultimately end up.

Our environment, our economy and our society all depend on a healthy watershed.  So what can you do to help?  Here are some tips from the EPA:

1. Conserve water by taking shorter showers, fixing leaks and turning off the water when not in use. 
2. Don’t pour toxic household chemicals down the drain. Instead, take them to a hazardous waste center for proper disposal
3. Use hardy plants that require little or no watering, fertilizers or pesticides in your yard.
4. Do not over apply fertilizers. Consider using organic or slow release fertilizers instead.
5. Recycle yard waste in a compost pile and use a mulching mower.
6. Use surfaces like wood, brick or gravel for decks and walkways; allows rain to soak in and not run off.
7. Never pour used oil or antifreeze into the storm drain or the street.
8. Pick up after your dog and dispose of the waste properly.
9. Drive less—walk or bike; many pollutants in our waters come from car exhaust and car leaks.
10. Volunteer at your local watershed.

It’s great to volunteer at beach clean-ups, but it’s equally important to clean your local watershed by cleaning up trash around your city, town, local roads or parks. Together we can make a difference!

1. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/watershed.html
2. https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/indiana/stories-in-indiana/watersheds-101/