What Is a Watershed?

A watershed is an area where all the water falling within it is captured and drained to a single exit point in a stream, lake, or river. As you can imagine, anything that happens on the land will eventually end up in the water. In the context of this plan update, the water draining is the source of the drinking water supply.

Forests are key to clean water. Forested land absorbs rain, refills underground aquifers, cools, and cleanses water, slows storm runoff, reduces flooding, and sustains watershed stability and resilience.

The update to this plan is to assess new threats to the areas where your drinking water comes from as shows in the blue areas on the map.