Lane
By KADY LANE, guest columnist
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a watershed is land that water traverses either over or under on its way to a stream, river or lake.
Our landscape is made up of interconnected basins that are called watersheds. Within each watershed, water flows to the lowest point. As the water flows, it covers farm fields, forest floors, treated and untreated lawns, city and town streets covered in contaminants, or it seeps into local soils and finishes its journey as groundwater. Water supplies, animal habitat and outdoor recreation all depend on healthy watersheds.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than $450 billion in foods, fiber, manufactured goods and tourism depend on clean, healthy watersheds.
Everyone lives in a watershed area therefore we are all part of a watershed community. You influence what happens in your watershed — both positive and negative — by how you utilize local natural resources. If you care for the soil, water, air, plants and animals that are in, and around, your property, then you help to maintain a healthy watershed. Remember that what happens in your watershed affects the larger watershed located downstream from you.
Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes and have a number of different features. Some watersheds are hill-covered while others are flat lands. Farmlands, small towns, range lands and large cities all lie within watershed boundaries. Even the highest mountain peaks are within watersheds.
Brown County lies within the Lake Monroe watershed with both the North Fork and Middle Fork of Salt Creek flowing directly into Lake Monroe. Feeding into these two main forks of Salt Creek are smaller creeks such as Owl Creek, Greasy Creek, Sweetwater Creek, Lick Creek, David Branch, Gnaw Bone Creek, Little Blue Creek, Hamilton Creek and Strahl Creek — among others.
Since everything that we do in and around our property affects the watershed, here are a few tips you can use to help protect our community watershed. At home you can create landscapes that require a minimum of water and fertilizer. Do not overuse fertilizer and pesticides. On the farm, you can maintain ground cover on slopes to prevent runoff of fertilizers and pesticides from entering streams and ponds.
Within the larger community, simply be aware that wetlands offer natural protection against flooding and soil erosion.
Kady Lane has worked as an educator for many years, teaching science in grades seven to 12 as well as adult education for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Her master’s degree is in environmental studies and her undergraduate is in human services and psychology. Lane is currently the Brown County Soil and Water Conservation District educator and can be contacted at [email protected].
