Conscious Choice: Thinking Like a Watershed

July 1995

Thinking Like a Watershed

by Beatrice B. Briggs

Watersheds are the planet’s zip codes. They set our location within the great hydrological cycle, the movement of water from earth and oceans into the atmosphere and back again. Each of us lives in a watershed, whether we know it or not, because the Earth is covered end to end with watersheds. This is, we must remember, the water planet — the only place in the known universe with liquid water. To know your watershed is to know the exact route by which the earth blesses you with water. To know your watershed is to know, in bioregional terms, where you are.

A simple definition of watershed is "the area drained by a river system or body of water." Sometimes they are inelegantly called "drainage basins" or "catchment areas." Watersheds comprise ridges, side slopes and bottoms, where the water collects. A bathtub is an example of a human-made drainage basin. To speak of watersheds in natural systems, however, requires consideration not just of water, but of the intricate linkages between, rock, air, vegetation, fish, wildlife, soil, sediment, dissolved material, floodplain, wetland, aquifer, and weather. Today, after 150 years of unremitting "progress," thinking about watersheds also means contemplating sewage, agricultural run-off, siltation and erosion caused by logging and mining. It means thinking about PCBs, dioxins, chlorine, nuclear waste, zebra mussels, landfill leachate, and the poisons flowing from our streets, parking lots, and lawns in the form of "non- point source pollution" (which is bureaucratese for "we do not know exactly where the contamination comes from, or where it enters the watercourse, we just know it is dangerous.")

While the fact of watersheds is a gift from the planet itself, the term "watershed" comes to us from modern science. It gained currency during the nineteenth century, when European intellectuals began to study the natural world and decode the story of creation embedded in the landscape. Today, ordinary citizens who can speak knowledgeably about their watersheds are better able to engage in the public debate about what happens where they live.

Part of the confusion that people experience when trying to incorporate the word "watershed" into their working vocabulary is that it has also come to mean a high point or dividing line in human affairs, as in "the signing of the Camp David agreement was a watershed in Israeli- Palestinian relations." This usage seldom takes into account the fact that from the high point of actual watersheds, everything goes downhill. Watersheds have real boundaries which seldom correspond with, and frequently conflict with, political boundaries. To say "we live in the watershed of the Great Lakes," for example, lifts residents out of the political artifice of city, county, state, province, or nation and sets them down in an ancient truth carved by glaciers from bedrock over the last two million years. Learning the name and features of one’s watershed can become the basis of a new cultural identity, rooted in ecological reality rather than historical accident or political whim.

Smaller watersheds are nested, like Chinese boxes or Russian dolls, inside larger ones, causing one to ponder where, mentally, to draw the line between "here" and "not here," between "home" and "away," between "self" and "other." Sooner or later, in the face of the ineluctable bonds that connect one watershed to the next, one must concede the arbitrariness of our human line-drawing. Nevertheless, distinctions can be made. A person standing at Chicago’s City Hall, for example, is simultaneously in the watersheds of the Great Lakes, the Chicago River, the Upper Illinois River Valley, and the Mississippi. Since the Great Lakes drain into the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi drains into the Gulf of Mexico, this location puts one squarely on a sub-continental divide. This geological fact contributed both to Chicago’s original appeal to the European explorers seeking a transportation link to the west and to its subsequent development as a center of commerce and industry. Those of us who want to renew allegiance to this particular watershed must divide our loyalties between the great lakes and the great prairie. Such powerful monarchs are indeed worthy of fealty.

In an area as flat as much of the midwestern United States, seeing which way the raindrops flow after hitting the ground takes discernment. The difficulty of recognizing our watershed is compounded by the fact that, in cities and suburbs, rivers are treated as little more than storm sewers, while the lakes are valued only as commercial resource, scenic backdrop to the urban skyline, or vacation venue. We act as if we do not know or care that the Great Lakes contain 20 percent of the fresh water on the planet and supply drinking water to almost 40 million people. We seem to have forgotten that water is sacred, part of the great mystery of life, to be honored and celebrated, not exploited and profaned.

To identify your watershed, find the nearest creek, river or lake and then trace where the water originates and where it goes. Learn about the plants and animals that constituted the local community before the arrival of European settlers. Join those who are trying to restore those ecosystems. Find out the indigenous peoples’ names for the rivers or lakes. Support the efforts of American Indians still living in the area to preserve their land and culture. Study the seasonal cycles. Find out what toxins are being discharged into the waters and what is being done to stop the insanity.

Connect with folks living upstream and downstream to discuss your common concerns and, even more importantly, to celebrate the seasonal wonders of the watershed: the breaking up of the ice at winter’s end, the flowing of sap, sky dancing of woodcocks, flowering of dogwood, spawning of salmon, maturing of grasses, dropping of acorns, or whatever the special moments of beauty and danger where you live. Create songs, stories, and dances about the nearby waters. Walk the watershed boundaries and expect your elected officials to do the same. Develop an economy that can support the local human community, now and in the future, without destroying everything else. Before you know it, you will be thinking like a watershed, and life will never be the same.

Beatrice Briggs is a contributing editor of Conscious Choice and a bioregional activist. She divides her time between the watershed of the Chicago River (the only major river in the United States to flow away from its mouth) and Cress Creek, tributary to Ryan Creek, tributary to Elver’s Creek, tributary to the mighty Wisconsin. She thanks Daniel Cohen, David Jones and Harriet Irwin for their help in preparing this article.

Chicago Watershed Resources and Organizations

Lakes
• Lake Michigan Federation, 59 E. Van Buren, Suite 2215, Chicago, IL 60605 (312-939-0838) and 647 W. Virginia St, Milwaukee, WI 53204 (414-271-5059)
• Great Lakes National Program Office-Research Library, USEPA, 77 W. Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60604. Publications and information. Contact Susan Dykes (312-886-6049)

Rivers
• Local chapters of Trout Unlimited and the Isaak Walton League are usually good sources of information about local rivers and streams.
• Conservation Foundation of DuPage County, 703 Warrenville Road, Wheaton, IL 60187. Contact Brook McDonald (708-682-3505) Monitoring, storm drain stenciling, community outreach.
• Friends of the Chicago River, 407 S. Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60605. (312-922-0490) Walking tours, canoe trips, river cruises, clean-up efforts, and other educational programs.
• Friends of the Fox River. River monitoring programs. Contact Ders Anderson (312-427-4256)
• Friends of the Kishwaukee River. Contact Cindy Skrukrud, McHenry County Defenders, 132 Cass, Woodstock, IL 60098 (815-338-0393)
• Friends of Tyler Creek (tributary of Fox River in Kane County). Contact Robert Lonsdorf, 312-427-4256.
• Friends of the Critters and Salt Creek, 114 Essex Road, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007. Contact Nick Nickola (708-593-5410)
• Grand Cal Task Force, 2400 New York Ave, #303, Whiting, IN, 46394 Contact Dorren Carey (219-473-4246).
• Wisconsin: River Alliance of Wisconsin, 122 State Street, #200, Madison, WI 53703. (608-257-2424). Publication, free to members, available at a nominal cost to others: Working for the Rivers: A Directory of Local and Community-Based Citizens Groups in Wisconsin. Also Citizen’s Guide to Government River Management and Protection Programs and Agencies, published by UW Extension, available free from the River Alliance.

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: