Why Watersheds?

Watershed: A watershed is the land from which water drains into a particular stream, river, lake or other water body. All land (and all humans, wildlife, and activity on that land) are part of one watershed or another. In the United States, when watersheds are talked about, we most often are referring to river drainage basins, for example, "the Columbia River Watershed."

River watershed protection, management and restoration: When river protection or restoration is mentioned, a majority of citizens think of water pollution and discharges from factories and sewer systems. These sources of pollution are often referred to as "point source pollution" -- a legal term in the federal Clean Water Act. Contrary to the popular belief that most river pollution problems are caused by direct "point source" discharges, most river pollution problems are caused by pollutants picked up in water that runs off the surface of land, i.e. "non-point source" pollution. Therefore river watershed management is as much about land management and restoration as it is about the river itself. Protecting and restoring rivers entails addressing pollution and wildlife habitat problems in the entire watershed, or the entire land area that drains to the river.

Another important concept for informed citizens and for people engaged in watershed management, protection and restoration is the idea of an ecological address. Simply put, your ecological address is the name of the watershed in which you live. Knowledge of your ecological address, demonstrates an understanding of human location in the ecosystem and its processes. Knowledge of our place in the ecosystem clearly offers an understanding of an inter-connectedness of the human and natural environment. For example, in Portland, Oregon, depending on their exact location in the metropolitan area, residents might also live within the smaller but still sprawling Willamette River Watershed. Narrowing it down still further, to its most useful individual application, one might live within the Johnson, Balch or Fanno Creek watersheds, or the watersheds of any of dozens of other small creeks or streams draining into the Willamette River.