How do watersheds help the environment

Healthy watersheds not only help protect water quality, but also provide greater benefits than degraded watersheds to the people and wildlife that live there. We all live in a watershed, and watershed condition is important to everyone and everything that uses and needs water. Healthy watersheds provide critical services, such as clean drinking water, productive fisheries, and outdoor recreation, that support our economies, environment and quality of life. The health of clean waters is heavily influenced by the condition of their surrounding watersheds, mainly because pollutants can wash off from the land to the water and cause substantial harm.

Streams, lakes, rivers and other waters are interconnected with the landscape and all its activities through their watersheds. They are influenced by naturally varying lake levels, water movement to and from groundwater, and amount of stream flow. Other factors, such as forest fires, stormwater runoff patterns, and the location and amount of pollution sources, also influence the health of our waters.

These dynamics between the land and the water largely determine the health of our waterways and the types of aquatic life found in a particular area. Effective protection of aquatic ecosystems recognizes their connectivity with each other and with their surrounding watersheds. Unfortunately, human activities have greatly altered many waters and their watersheds.

For example:. The great majority of these involve pollution sources in their watersheds — the land area that surrounds and drains into these waters. Knowing the conditions in watersheds is crucial for restoring areas with degraded water quality, as well as protecting healthy waters from emerging problems before expensive damages occur.

EPA is investing in developing scientifically sound and consistent data sources, and making this information public and easily accessible to the wide variety of our partners working toward clean and healthy waters. A very wide range of activities could be called healthy watersheds protection. Stories in Indiana. We all live in a watershed.

But what is a watershed, and what is its place in our community? A watershed is an area of land that drains rain water or snow into one location such as a stream, lake or wetland. These water bodies supply our drinking water, water for agriculture and manufacturing, offer opportunities for recreation canoeing and fishing, anyone?

Unfortunately various forms of pollution, including runoff and erosion, can interfere with the health of the watershed. Therefore, it is important to protect the quality of our watershed. Watersheds sustain life, in more ways than one. That is why proper watershed protection is necessary to you and your community. Every day, we rely on ecosystem goods and services - they connect us to our environment.

Conservation Authorities deliver practical, cost effective programs that ensure healthy ecosystems which enable them to generate and maintain valuable goods and services, often preventing the need for costly technological solutions to environmental problems.

Conservation Authorities promote an integrated watershed management approach balancing human, environmental, and economic needs. The Economic Benefits of Protecting Healthy Watersheds PDF Protecting healthy watersheds can reduce capital costs for water treatment plants and reduce damages to property and infrastructure due to flooding, thereby avoiding future costs. Additionally, protecting healthy watersheds an generate revenue through property value premiums, recreation and tourism:.

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