Know your place!

What is a watershed?

No, it's not a building!

Think of a valley with mountains on either side and a river flowing down the middle.  The mountains form the watershed of the river--when it rains or snows, the runoff goes downhill and collects in the river.  A watershed is an area of land that drains rain and snowmelt into a body of water, like a wetland, lake, stream, or river.

Look at a map of the Puget Sound Watershed-- you'll see that Puget Sound is a little bit like a valley.  On the west side of the sound are the Olympic Mountains, and on the east side are the Cascade Mountains.  Hundreds of streams and rivers flow downhill from the mountains into Puget Sound, so we call this area the Puget Sound watershed.

Everyone lives in a watershed!  Even in the city, the water still sheds off of the land and goes somewhere.  You might live where the water goes into a storm drain and through a pipe into the nearest stream, river, or Puget Sound, or you might live near a free-flowing creek that flows directly into another river or Puget Sound.

Right this very minute, you're in at least two watersheds:  the large Puget Sound watershed, and the smaller watershed of your nearest river or stream.  If you live inside the watershed of a small stream that feeds into a larger river, you live inside three watersheds at once!

Which Washington river's watershed do you live in?
Find your local stream or creek watershed within the Puget Sound watershed.

Scroll down to Individual Watershed Basin Maps, open the PDF for your basin (the river nearest you), and use the magnifying tool to zoom in and find your own watershed.

Now play the watershed game from the Bell Museum of Natural History.