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No matter where you live, your home is situated in a watershed: a land area that drains to a central location, such as a lake, river, or ocean. You can think of it as a shallow depression or bowl in the landscape, where the “rim” is a ridge or hill: even if your home is situated on the rim of the bowl, water washing off of your neighborhood is draining to the same place as areas on the opposite side of the bowl—everything is connected.
The water that you see dripping down your window, pooling in the street, or flowing through a creek leads elsewhere, whether that’s a wastewater treatment facility, a wetland, a larger tributary, or the ocean. Because of this interconnectivity, what may seem like a small action in one area of the watershed can have a big impact on natural systems elsewhere in the watershed, including the plants, animals, and people that depend on them.
Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes, and they all have important roles in the landscape. The fourth-largest watershed in the world, the Mississippi River watershed, reaches from the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern United States all the way to the Rocky Mountains in the West, encompassing regions from 31 states and two Canadian provinces in its drainage area. The rivers, streams, lakes, creeks, and underground flow that make up this watershed are responsible for moving 60% of all grain exported from the US, providing habitat to 25% of the fish species found in North America, hosting 40% of the nation’s migratory waterfowl during their spring and fall migration, and supplying water to more than 50 cities across the country. That’s a tall order for one watershed!
Read the infographic to discover what watersheds are and why they're important.
LET'S EXPLORE
LET'S EXPLORE
Go to EPA’s How’s My Waterway and click “Choose a Location.” Enter your zipcode in the provided field, and then click on the first waterway in the list that comes up.
Click the button that says "Show Map" and view the map of your local watershed.
Click on the button that says "Map Options" on the upper right of the screen. Make sure all of the options are selected and then click "Apply Changes".
Look at the map. What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder?
How does this map look similar and different to the Aboriginal art you just viewed? Write down your observations.
Print your map or take a screenshot and then print.
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