WATERSHED COMMUNITIES

We all live in a watershed. Watersheds are the geological cradles that catch and hold the water as it drains from the surrounding landscape and enters streams, rivers, lakes, and eventually the ocean. Watersheds are home to living communities of people, fish, and wildlife. They provide us with drinking water, food, minerals, forest products, flood protection, and transportation corridors. They are a vital foundation to our economy and a way of life. Residents and tourists alike enjoy the natural areas in our watersheds for rest, reflection, and recreation. Along the Pacific coast of North America many watersheds support a diversity of salmon, including chinook, coho, chum, and steelhead. These salmon runs have uniquely evolved to their own particular watershed home. Though each watershed community is unique, all salmon require essential habitat elements to survive. These include sufficient clean, cold, well-oxygenated water; river and side channel access; and riparian and nearshore habitat that provides food and shelter.

Many of our watersheds are seriously compromised. From the headwaters to the marine shoreline, they are impacted by water pollution, diking, dredging and channelization, sprawling growth, water diversions, impassable dams and culverts, as well as sedimentation from agricultural, construction, forestry, and mining operations. Cumulatively these problems have contributed to a serious decline in the region's salmon, other fish and shellfish. These impacts not only effect fish and wildlife but, also adversely impact our communities, our economies, and our present and future quality of life. In this context protecting salmon and water quality protects everyone who shares the watershed. Our efforts to respond to the decline of salmon are making our communities better places to live by providing more open green space, improved water quality, and improved recreation opportunities. The cooperation and hard work required throughout the watershed to meet these challenges is strengthening the ties in our communities and bringing hope to future generations.

These tours offer unique aerial and on-river perspectives of the whole watersheds. The maps, images, and text, vividly illustrate the interconnected and cumulative nature of impacts that lead to habitat degradation and the work being done in key places to protect and restore. They point out ways that cooperative efforts in our communities can assist in restoring our watersheds. Come join us to see these watershed in ways you may have never seen before!