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Watersheds
A watershed is the region that draws water and snowmelt into bodies of water. Every waterway-whether a small tributary, stream, or lake-has its own associated watershed. Watersheds can be large or small and can extend across county, state, and national boundaries.
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Other Uses For Watersheds
In addition to acting as drainage basins, watersheds capture precipitation and filter and store water. Within each watershed there is a diverse system of eco-regions, marine life, and air sheds. Everyone living and working within a watershed needs to cooperate to ensure healthy conditions because water moves downstream in a watershed. Any activity that negatively affects water quality will change the characteristics of the water downstream as well and impact on the water quality of the body of water.
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Above: This picture shows the five major Watersheds in PA |
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Simple Choices in Activities That Can Affect Watershed Health
Simple choices in daily activities that can affect watershed health include: dumping used motor oil down a sewer; over-fertilizing lawns and gardens; applying sand and chemicals to driveways and sidewalks; removing vegetation such as plants, trees, and grasses along a riverbank; leaving pet waste on the ground; and poorly maintaining home septic systems. Communities as a whole can also affect the water quality of a water- shed through land use decisions such as where to locate housing, shops, factories, parks, and farms. By analyzing a watershed's physical characteristics and land use patterns, people will understand how their water- shed is changing and what they can do to protect it. Raising awareness by involving individuals and their communities creates a collaborative effort to preserve home watershed areas. People can play a powerful role in this process.
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Above: This is a drawing of a simple Watershed |
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