LET’S GO SURFING – On Your Watershed
Raccoon Creek Watershed Source: http://camdenscd.org
Certainly not the wild, dramatic and challenging ocean surfing that inspires an entire music genre and legions of adoring females, but definitely an enlightening and rewarding adventure. Wait, wait, please don’t run off. Getting to know what a watershed is and how it affects your daily life could very well enhance and extend your other surfing interests.
Watersheds are worldwide, and no, they are not shacks filled with water buckets. A watershed is the natural gathering together of water flows that feed into large rivers, lakes, bays, and oceans. Water, of course, is “essential for life and plays a vital role in the proper functioning of Earth’s ecosystems.” We tend to take water for granted both as a life resource and as a recreational playmate. When we go beyond assumption and take time to get to know water and its sources and behaviors we actually acquire a life companion. That’s right it’s not just a thing on the planet we use and enjoy, it becomes literally part of us and our entire attitude and respect for this new-found partner broadens. Believe me, it is an unforgettable experience.
I, personally, am still in the early stages of acquiring a Certificate in Watershed Management from our Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is a most arduous and demanding effort that is provided as free online training by the EPA. I have, however, reached a point where I feel compelled to share my experience, to date, and the new and exciting watershed companion I have acquired.
Perhaps the most descriptive term about the relationship between myself and my watershed is intimacy. As I work through the program on watershed management and relate it to my watershed, which helps form the larger Chesapeake Bay, I acquire both the knowledge and appreciation for the anatomy and dynamics of both. Believe me when I point out that it becomes quite personal. Terms such as still waters (lentic), scarp, thalweg, transcend technical terminology and become descriptive anatomy of my new partner. Suddenly that river I look out over daily has both structure and character that simple observations do not disclose. Now I see within it, along it, and deeply across it. I feel its power and it stresses when climate and humans impact it. I am learning its moods and delight in its playful moments with an array of wildlife. Yes, many times I too sit by still waters. I am soothed and I swear, the river chortles in delight.
My eager objective in this article is to stimulate every reader’s personal quest for their watershed and to begin the process of becoming life-long partners. Even though the certificate program I am working on is oriented to the continental United States, the technical concepts are common to global watersheds. Taking all or part of this free course enables anyone to become dedicated friends and partners of their respective water resources. This is vital today. As we move forward on this planet, water, for a variety reasons will become an even more important resource. In fact, in many areas, its absence or diminishing status already seriously threatens entire cultures. We must not, we cannot, ignore this and by gaining a deeper understanding of watershed dynamics we can help conserve, preserve and protect this life sustaining resource. Here is the link to the EPA Watershed Academy. I urge you to at least peruse it in depth, and ideally complete the certificate program. You will then become a vital asset to all humans and especially to your watershed and your neighbors.
I end this essentially personal exposition on water and watersheds with this video on the Chesapeake Bay. Please keep in mind that the messages from it are essentially universal over this planet. We need to get to know, to learn about, to love and to protect our watersheds as an act of a universal and vital kinship.
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