Related Content
Library Documents
- Aerial oblique photo of Russian River south of Cloverdale
- Big Sulphur (Sulfur) Creek Survey
- Big Sulphur (Sulfur) System Field Notes
- Biological Opinion for the Proposed License Amendment for the Potter Valley
- Biological and Physical, Habitat Assessment of Selected Sites within the Sa
- Biological and Water Quality Monitoring in the Russian River Estuary, 1996
- Biological and Water Quality Monitoring in the Russian River Estuary, 1997
- Biological and Water Quality Monitoring in the Russian River Estuary, 1998
- Biological and Water Quality Monitoring in the Russian River Estuary, 1999
- Biological and water quality monitoring in the Russian River estuary, 2000
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Watershed Background
"Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children's lifetime.
The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land"
- Luna Leopold
Increasingly, people speak of their place in the natural landscape in terms of watersheds. By definition, a watershed is the land that water flows across, or under, on its way to a stream, river, lake or the ocean i.e., the area drained by a river or river system. Watersheds may be as large as the Sacramento/San Joaquin drainage comprising thousands of square miles encompassing much of California or as small as a mountain rivulet draining a few thousand square feet.
Watersheds are complex with dynamic interactions between physical, biological and social features taking place within a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Effective watershed management requires the compilation and integration of large amounts of information including data about ecosystem hydrology, geomorphology, ecology and socio-economics at both the basin scale and the site-specific scale. Because of the complex, dynamic nature of watersheds, multi-disciplinary teams of scientists and community members are often an effective means to accomplish watershed management goals.
As a philosophy, a watershed approach requires inclusive community planning for sustainable land stewardship. Watershed groups have therefore become a powerful mechanism for collaboration and community based stewardship. This type of whole systems approach is perhaps the best alternative for people seeking to integrate environmental, public and economic health. By working at the watershed level - in our veritable backyard - we have the opportunity to engage in the long-term stewardship of our land and our community.
