Upstream, Downstream: Exploring Watershed Connections

Upstream, Downstream: Exploring Watershed Connections — page 3
Chapter One Chapter One The lower Fraser River near its mouth seen from an airplane ROWENA RAE My Watery World I grew up in Vancouver BC a city with lots of natural beauty snowcapped mountains beaches forests and the Fraser River This river drains such a large area of land that the entire country of Romania could fit inside its watershed I’ve been lucky to see many parts of this long river from its clear chattering headwaters 870 miles 1,400 kilometers inland to its wide swiftly moving middle to its many-fingered delta and milky-brown exit to the sea One of my favorite views of the Fraser River is from on high I’m reminded of the river’s grandeur and also of the many ways that people affect it by building and farming nearby navigating boats and changing the look of the shoreline A Watery World Beginning with Basics Beginning with Basics What are the two most basic things people need to survive Water to drink and food to eat Where do water and food come from I mean before they get to your kitchen tap and refrigerator Water comes from lakes rivers and streams and from precipitation rain snow and fog Food also comes from lakes rivers and streams as well as from the ocean and the land Together water and land make up watersheds The water part of the word watershed is obvious The shed part comes from an Old English word meaning to divide or separate It refers to a high point of land where a river starts its headwaters or source At this point the hills and mountains form a ridge that guides precipitation in a certain direction as it begins to tumble downhill All the water falling on one side of the ridge goes one way and all the water falling on the other side goes the other way The watershed is all the land on one side of the ridge plus all the water in and on that land Think of the land as a bowl or basin catching the falling or melting precipitation so another term for a watershed is catchment basin